My Review of "Kendrick Lamar's: Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers"

Kendrick Lamar's: Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers is one of the most personal and honest rap albums I've ever heard. You'll have to be prepared before you listen tot his album but it's not totally off brand for a Kendrick Lamar album. We've kind of seen this in his previous albums but this one is a whole different animal.

When you think of rap albums you usually listen to artists talking about material or status ascension or maybe some relationship topics. This album feels like a diary. It's like Kendrick was able to write out his thoughts throughout some period of time and place them into a beautiful story.

We go through either his life or the life of a character that he's created. We have those relationship issues but he gets deeper in telling us the people that had influenced his decisions. He talks about realness unlike the way we usually understand realness.

To most, some would assume that realness is confronting someone when they've been wronged however Kendrick gets deeper into this thought. He lets us understand the context of his understanding of the world. Obviously being a big rap artist he's going to experience a lot more scenarios that we do.

He criticizes a lot of the rap topics that I mentioned in the introduction. He thinks we should get back to basics instead of putting on personas. We shouldn't hide behind personas we create for ourselves. Kendrick is asking us to really look deep into ourselves to see who we really are. I guess he's gone through those reflections himself on the regular.

You'll hear his perspective on a ton of hot topics that we have today. Depending on how you are this may trigger some people but to me I'm always ears to hear a different perspective. He does a good job in explaining why he thinks the way he does as well.

At times the methods of the songs in this album are very unorthodox. They lend themselves better to a Broadway play. Dozens of emotions are emitting out of each of his songs. Most of them being frustrations. He even tries to look through the eyes of the person who he's arguing with.

It's probably the first time I've ever listened to a rap album and though wow this should be a musical on stage. At times I literally felt like I was sitting in and watching a show. Weirdly enough its almost as if I can visualize what's happening as they're acting up on each track.

This is art and you can tell he's studying tons of different methods of portraying his art. He's watching and experiencing a lot of things that he's translating into this album. Thankfully he's translated it in a very immersive way and it's almost as if he's had a ton of experience doing it this way.

I love the fact that this album is different from his older albums. It's not totally different that you wouldn't expect this coming from him. In some ways it does feel like its a natural progression for his album to fall into this territory.

No you don't need to listen to the other albums to understand this one but I feel you will have a better appreciation for this album if you do. You'll see the natural progression of his sound and his style throughout the years. It's very impressive and quite frightening at the same time.

Overall, I really loved this album. It's one of those albums you have to listen from start to finish and not on random. The story progresses and you are put on a journey. This is why I have to give this album an 8 out of 10. I'm really curious what we will see in his next album. He seems to be elevating and evolving so much after each succeeding album. I can't think of what's going to be coming from him next.