Maps of Music

Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2022)

Where the lyrics of Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers take you, and where it was really made.

Recording began during a week-long session in London in early 2019, but the studio list that follows spans Miami, Atlanta and several rooms in Los Angeles County.

Key places

Circle House, Miami (2022)

Recording site The Hit Factory Criteria — Listed as a recording location for the album. The pin sits at the city centre, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

EastWest Studios, Los Angeles (2022)

Recording site EastWest Studios — Listed as a recording location for the album at the studio's own address. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

IGA, Santa Monica (2022)

Recording site Ruby Red — Listed as a recording location for the album. The pin sits at the Santa Monica city centre. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Larrabee Sound Studios, North Hollywood (2022)

Recording site Larrabee Sound Studios — Listed as a recording location for the album at the studio's own address. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

LVRN, Atlanta (2022)

Recording site DARP Studios (Atlanta) — Listed as a recording location for the album. The pin sits at the Atlanta city centre. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

No Name, Tarzana (2022)

Recording site Can-Am Studios — Listed as a recording location for the album. The pin sits at the Tarzana city centre. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Other Islands, Miami Beach (2022)

Recording site South Beat Studios — Listed as a recording location for the album. The pin sits at the Miami Beach city centre. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Shangri-La, Malibu (2022)

Recording site Shangri-La — Listed as a recording location for the album at the studio's own address. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers: fifth studio album by American rapper Kendrick Lamar
• Released May 13, 2022 by PGLang, Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE), Aftermath Entertainment, and Interscope Records
• First release under his creative company PGLang and his final project with both TDE and Aftermath
• Lamar executive produced the album under the pseudonym Oklama
• Double album: standard edition of 18 songs in two sections, Big Steppers and Mr. Morale, nine tracks each
• Concept album that reflects on his life experiences during his therapy journey
• Themes include childhood and generational trauma, infidelity, and celebrity worship
• Primarily conscious hip-hop with minimalist production, with elements of jazz, R&B, trap, and soul
• Narration by Whitney Alford and Eckhart Tolle

Background

• Followed Damn (2017), after which Lamar took a five-year musical hiatus
• During the hiatus he executive produced the Black Panther (2018) soundtrack, became a father of two with Whitney Alford, and founded PGLang with Dave Free
• Lamar cited a two-year stretch of writer's block as one reason for the long absence
• Roskilde Festival's 2021 headline slot was cancelled in May 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions
• In an August blog post, Lamar announced he was producing his final TDE album

Recording

• Recording began in early 2019 with producer Sounwave during a week-long brainstorming session in London
• The only song from that session that made the album is Father Time
• Lamar and Sounwave both called the process one of the toughest creative processes imaginable, citing Lamar's privacy, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the deaths of Nipsey Hussle and Kobe Bryant
• Lamar kept the album hidden from most family members during sessions
• Sounwave took an A&R role on this album and on Baby Keem's The Melodic Blue (2021)
• In May 2021, near completion, Lamar considered scrapping the project because it was so personal; he released it for the benefit of his children

Cover

• Photographed by Renell Medrano
• Lamar wears a crown of thorns and holds his and Alford's daughter, while Alford cradles an infant in the background

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, born June 17, 1987, in Compton, California.
• Began releasing music as K.Dot in high school; signed with Top Dawg Entertainment in 2005 and co-founded Black Hippy.
• Debut album Section.80 (2011) led to a joint contract with Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records.

Career

• Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012), To Pimp a Butterfly (2015), and Damn (2017) were ranked among Rolling Stone's greatest albums.
• Damn won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first award of this kind for a non-classical or non-jazz work.
• Curated the Black Panther soundtrack (2018); "All the Stars" earned an Academy Award nomination.
• Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2022) and GNX (2024) each debuted atop the US Billboard 200.
• Holds six US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, including "Humble", "Not Like Us", and "Luther".
• Headlined the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in 2025, the most-watched Super Bowl performance of all time.
• The Grand National Tour with SZA became the highest-grossing co-headlining tour of all time.
• Holds 27 Grammy Awards, the most won by a rapper.
• Co-founded the creative company PGLang with Dave Free in 2020.

Reception

At release

• Met with widespread critical acclaim; Metacritic average score of 85 from 26 reviews, indicating universal acclaim
• AnyDecentMusic? gave it 8.7 out of 10 based on critical consensus
• The Independent's Ben Bryant called it a tender opus from the defining poet of his generation, a haunting and surprising meditation on fatherhood and family
• The Guardian's Alexis Petridis gave a five-star review praising the themes, lyricism, and style
• Clash's Robin Murray called it one of Lamar's most profound, complex, and revelatory statements yet
• The Line of Best Fit's Steve Loftin called the album bold and beautiful, a reminder that an artist like Lamar comes once in a generation
• NME's Kyann-Sian Williams set it against Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, describing vignettes about being a Black adult whose trauma still haunts them
• AllMusic's Fred Thomas said the album makes sense as the next logical step in Lamar's artistic evolution
• Pitchfork's Stephen Kearse called it ambitious, impressive, and a bit unwieldy
• Rolling Stone's Jeff Ihaza found it brilliant at moments but on the whole frustratingly uneven
• The Daily Telegraph's Will Pritchard gave four stars, praising the concept and the big swings on songs such as Father Time and Worldwide Steppers
• Sputnikmusic's Miloslaw Archibald Rugallini praised the writing and performance but criticized the production and perceived lack of cohesion
• The New York Times' Jon Caramanica wrote that Mr. Morale is probably Lamar's least tonally consistent work

Reappraisal

• Kodak Black's inclusion drew controversy because of a 2016 rape accusation and his guilty plea to first-degree assault and battery
• Auntie Diaries was praised by some critics and transgender listeners but criticized for Lamar's repeated use of a slur and for accusations of deadnaming and misgendering his trans relatives and Caitlyn Jenner

Records

• Debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 dated May 28, 2022, with 295,000 album-equivalent units
• Lamar's fourth number-one album in the United States; largest opening week for an album in 2022 at the time
• Largest first-day streams of 2022 on Apple Music, over 60 million
• First hip-hop album of 2022 to reach one billion streams on Spotify
• Most nominated album by a male artist at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, with eight nominations
• Won Best Rap Album at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards
• Ranked 13th best-selling album of 2022 as of November 30, according to Hits
• Total of 1,063,000 album-equivalent units by the end of 2022
• Lead single N95 debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 100
• The Heart Part 5 peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The Heart Part 5 was released as a surprise promotional single on May 8, 2022, with a music video, before the album came out.
• Lamar headlined Glastonbury Festival on June 26, 2022, becoming the first hip-hop artist to close out the festival.
• On October 1, 2022, Lamar was the musical guest on the season 48 premiere of Saturday Night Live.
• The October 22 Big Steppers Tour show at Accor Arena in Paris was livestreamed on Amazon Music's Twitch channel to mark ten years since Good Kid, M.A.A.D City.
• Sounwave has said there were times during the album's creation when he was almost ready to give up music.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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