Kendrick Lamar returns with ‘Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers’

Plus, an interview with Raven Chacon, the 2022 Pulitzer winner for music.

View this email online May 14, 2022 by Marissa Lorusso This week, we’re bringing you news about the new release from rap visionary Kendrick Lamar — plus, an interview with recent Pulitzer Prize winner Raven Chacon. Renell Medrano/Courtesy of the artist For the last five years (1855 days, to be exact) fans and the music industry have been eagerly — if not always patiently — awaiting new music from rap visionary Kendrick Lamar. In 2017, he released DAMN., a bold and introspective album that earned Lamar five Grammy awards after debuting at the top of the Billboard 200 chart. He later won the Pulitzer Prize for that album, marking the first time the award was given to an artist outside of the jazz and classical genres. In August of last year, Lamar shared that he was producing his final album for the label Top Dawg Entertainment, where he has released all of his music since his 2010 debut. Then, last month, he dropped more hints about the new record: its title – Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers –  and a May release date. But before it arrived, Lamar foreshadowed the new release with a standalone single, “The Heart Part 5.” The song, released last Sunday and built around an interpolation of Marvin Gaye's “I Want You,” “addresses relationships — between Lamar and his fans, between the cultures, between a Black person and this country,” wrote Radio Milwaukee’s Tarik Moody. The song was accompanied by a video that uses deepfake technology to morph Lamar into Black male celebrities who have faced public scrutiny — from O.J. Simpson and Kanye West to Will Smith and Jussie Smollett. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers builds on DAMN.'s exploration of Lamar's Christianity and his bold cultural criticism. It’s an album “fueled by childhood trauma, abuse, self-contempt and struggle for acceptance,” as my colleague Rodney Carmichael put it on All Things Considered this week. If Lamar’s last album was about “grappling with God’s judgment,” Rodney says, on this record, he’s more concerned with “the judgment of God’s people, aka the culture.”  Overall, Rodney says, it seems like Lamar’s ultimate intention “is to hold up a mirror, in the hope that we might see ourselves.” It’s a long, complex album that instantly generated conversation, and one that was certainly worth the wait. “I’ll definitely be listening to this for the next five years,” Rodney says. “Who knows what I might hear and what we all might hear in the meantime.” (This week also saw the release of some other great new albums, too, including new music from Leikeli47, Florence + The Machine and 2017 Tiny Desk Contest winners Tank and the Bangas. You can hear about those albums and more on this week’s episode of New Music Friday from All Songs Considered.) Newsletter continues after sponsor message New Music This week’s All Songs Considered New Mix kicks off with the “most impactful song” Bob Boilen has heard so far this year: “Up The Mountain” by Regina Spektor. Plus, hear new songs from Rachel Bobbitt, Stella Donnelly and more. Last week, Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny released a new album called Un Verano Sin Ti, or A Summer Without You. Across the record, the singer “opts for personal intimacy and cultural specificity, which the music cultivates at every turn,” writes critic Stefanie Fernández. Plus, for Pop Culture Happy Hour, NPR Music’s Stephen Thompson and Ana Sayre got together to discuss the 23-song, double-length summer blockbuster of an album.  The new album from Third Coast Percussion, Perspectives, is the Grammy-winning group’s most accessible release so far. With this release, says my colleague Tom Huizenga, the group “continues to push percussion in new directions, blurring musical boundaries and beguiling new listeners.” Featuring This week, the Pulitzer Prize in music was awarded to Raven Chacon’s Voiceless Mass. Chacon is a composer, performer and installation artist from the Navajo Nation, and is the first Native American composer to win the Pulitzer for music. Just an hour after he’d won the award, he spoke with my colleague Tom Huizenga about the commission for Voiceless Mass, the inspiration for the piece and the spiritual components of his music. This week, Indian musician and composer Shivkumar Sharma died in Mumbai at age 84. Reverentially known as Pandit ("teacher"), Sharma took the hammered dulcimer from humble folk instrument to classical concert stages around the world. NBC's American Song Contest is a singing competition show where each entrant represents their home state or territory, similar to the Eurovision competition formula. This week, our friends at Pop Culture Happy Hour discussed what works about the show — and what doesn’t.  This week, our friends at KUTX shared a video of Nilüfer Yanya performing tracks from her album PAINLESS. Tiny Desk NPR The conflicts between Russia and Ukraine reach far and wide — and even into a recent Tiny Desk (home) concert. In this performance, the ARC Ensemble — artists from Canada's Royal Conservatory in Toronto — offer music by the neglected composer Dmitri Klebanov, a Ukrainian Jew whose career was sidelined by the Stalin regime when his First Symphony was denounced in 1949. Also this week: We shared a high-spirited performance from the prolific and innovative singer Buffy Sainte-Marie and a soothing folk-pop set from songwriter Aoife O'Donovan. Incoming Early next week, we’ll have some big (or, some might say, Tiny) news — for updates, keep your eyes on the Tiny Desk Contest website or sign up for the Tiny Desk Contest newsletter. In the meantime, check out this playlist of the Jazz Night in America team’s favorite jazz entries to this year's Contest. One More Thing Metro station-turned-bomb shelter-turned-performance venue  Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WUFT 89.1 (edit station). Need a new playlist? Follow NPR Music on Spotify and Apple Music What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: nprmusic@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Books, Pop Culture, Health and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to NPR Music emails. 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