Kendrick. Is. BACK.
March 23, 2017, was a banner day for me as a burgeoning hip-hop fan. Kendrick Lamar released The Heart Part IV just two weeks before he would release DAMN. I remember the rollout and Late Show performance for To Pimp a Butterfly but I was nowhere near ready to accept and digest that level of artistry. That album was the first time in my young life I had ever truly anticipated an album with my soul, with my very being. And no, I do not listen to DAMN. too often. It did not stick with me the way his previous two albums had. That does not change the fact that Kendrick Lamar is my third favorite music artist of all time.
On May 8, 2022, Kendrick Lamar released The Heart Part V, just five days before his upcoming fifth studio album Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers. More than five years between major releases. I cannot contain my excitement because nothing about this pre-album loosie disappoints. I both needed to write something and have no idea what it is that I want to say. Lamar dropped this song with an accompanying video. The song is incredible, but the included visuals take it to a completely different level, much in the same way This Is America is a great song, but really needs the video to go with it to understand the true meaning.
Before I get too deep, I am not dissecting this video and song. That is not what I have any desire to do with this article. Watch the video, and read the lyrics. The only interesting thought I have that you cannot find in 15 other think pieces is that I love the placement of the Will Smith portion. It is at the tail end of these characters that are generally deemed negative towards black culture. However, Smith’s face is carried over into the hook prior to the verse where these pillars of the black community are being celebrated. It’s as though Smith was this force of good but with his recent actions is suddenly transitioning to the force of negativity. “Hurt people hurt more people.” Smith is a hurt person, hurting other people. He is not fully gone but, at least in my interpretation of what Lamar is doing, he is becoming a detriment to the Black community.
That’s all I have to say about the video. I loved that little nugget and have yet to see someone mention it. What I want to do is talk about Kendrick Lamar and why this little loosie track before his album is so awe-inspiring. Kendrick puts his soul into everything he makes. That is not a unique trait, but when paired with his level of talent for writing, storytelling, and overall passion, what you get is one of the greatest rappers to ever live. Someday I will fully flesh out my list of the 100 greatest hip-hop acts of all time. Lamar will have a place inside the top 15, if not the top ten.
Kendrick Lamar is the type of artist who released five minutes of audio five days before his fifth album drops after a five-year hiatus (sort of). The entire hip-hop community was set ablaze by it. I doubt there is any meaning behind all the fives. If I had to guess, Kendrick and Dave Free (Kendrick’s childhood friend and manager) probably just thought it would be funny to release it five days before the album cause there happened to be a lot of fives in this whole rollout. That said, there will be people who will try to find some deep significance within all of the fives and figure out what it could all mean. Who else in Hip-hop has that kind of power? Eminem lost it with the release of Revival. Kanye has pissed away all public goodwill with his antics. Jay-Z maybe still has a semblance of it but not like he did prior to the release of American Gangster and the abysmal Magna Carta Holy Grail. The Black Star album could have had some similar effect but the rollout was awful, the album is almost as bad, and the duo doesn’t have the mainstream crossover Kendrick does. Drake releases too many subpar and frankly lazy projects. Travis Scott also tossed a lot of his likeability out the window with that concert. And no one else in hip-hop has both the creative talent and popularity to compare. The only exception is if Outkast got back together to release an album and every true hip-hop fan knows that that will never happen.
Kendrick Lamar has the world of hip-hop by the balls. He does what he wants when he wants, and we all scream and cheer for it because 99.9% of the time it is genuinely brilliant. Kendrick will have the number one album in the country for multiple weeks. The album will likely be the highest-selling album of the year barring a release from Adele or Taylor Swift. And to top it all off, Kendrick has the track record to nearly guarantee that this album will be a potential future classic.
Kendrick Lamar is back. And if this is the last time I ever get to say this then so be it. But I will be damned if I am not going to soak in every single second of this process. We missed you Kendrick, and it's great to have you back.