Kendrick Lamar

The Best Albums of 2022 (So Far)

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    Jack Harlow, ‘Come Home the Kids Miss You’

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    Defcee & Boathouse, ‘For All Debts Public and Private’

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    Leikeli47, ‘Shape Up’

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    Curren$y & The Alchemist, ‘Continuance’

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    Dreamville, ‘D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape’

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    YoungBoy Never Broke Again, ‘Colors’

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    Toro Y Moi, ‘MAHAL’

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    NIGO, ‘I Know NIGO!’

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    Babyface Ray, ‘Face’

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    Fly Anakin, ‘Frank’

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    Ella Mai, ‘Heart on My Sleeve’

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    IDK, ‘Simple.’

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    WiFiGawd, ‘Chain of Command’

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    Ravyn Lenae, ‘HYPNOS’

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    Lucky Daye, ‘Candydrip’

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    Black Star, ‘No Fear of Time’

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    Syd, ‘Broken Hearts Club’

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    Omar Apollo, ‘Ivory’

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    Rex Orange County, ‘Who Cares’

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    Bad Bunny, ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’

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    Latto, ‘777’

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    42 Dugg & EST Gee, ‘Last Ones Left’

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    Future, ‘I Never Liked You’

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    Buddy, ‘Superghetto’

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    Lil Durk, ‘7220’

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    Yeat, ‘2 Alivë’

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    Saba, ‘Few Good Things’

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    Harry Styles, ‘Harry’s House’

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    FKA Twigs, ‘Caprisongs’

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    YL & Zoomo, ‘In Memory Of’

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    EarthGang, ‘Ghetto Gods’

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    Mike Dimes, ‘In Dimes We Trust’

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    $NOT, ‘Ethereal’

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    Redveil, ‘Learn 2 Swim’

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    Jay Worthy & Larry June, ‘2 P’z in a Pod’

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    Benny the Butcher, ‘Tana Talk 4’

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    Action Bronson, ‘Cocodrillo Turbo’

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    Koffee, ‘Gifted’

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    Che Noir, ‘Food For Thought’

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    Blxst, ‘Before You Go’

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    billy woods, ‘Aethiopes’

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    Conway the Machine, ‘God Don’t Make Mistakes’

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    Denzel Curry, ‘Melt My Eyez See Your Future’

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    Rosalía, ‘Motomami’

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    Earl Sweatshirt, ‘Sick!’

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    Gunna, ‘DS4EVER’

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    The Weeknd, ‘Dawn FM’

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    Vince Staples, ‘Ramona Park Broke My Heart’

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    Pusha-T, ‘It’s Almost Dry’

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    Kendrick Lamar, ‘Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers’

Kendrick Lamar Now Has The Only Hip-Hop Studio Album To Spend 500 Weeks On The ‘Billboard’ 200 Chart

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Kendrick Lamar 60th Annual Grammy Awards 2018
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Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, Kendrick Lamar’s second album, is one of the biggest LPs ever. By at least one metric, it’s actually the biggest hip-hop album of all time: As of this week, it’s the first hip-hop studio album to spend 500 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart. It’s the second hip-hop release overall to do so, following Eminem’s 2005 compilation Curtain Call: The Hits.

As far as all non-compilation albums, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City is eighth on the all-time list (as of last week, via Wikipedia). It comes after Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon (962 weeks), Metallica’s Metallica (660), Nirvana’s Nevermind (576), Bruno Mars’ Doo-Wops & Hooligans (572), Adele’s 21 (541), Michael Jackson’s Thriller (522), and AC/DC’s Back In Black (516).

Of those, only the albums from Mars, Adele, and Lamar were released this millennium. When counting compilations, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City is 14th all-time. Meanwhile, Drake’s Take Care is closing in on the 500-week mark, as it’s currently at 481 weeks and is still on the chart.

In less good Lamar chart news from this week, Harry Styles’ Harry’s House had 521,500 album units sold in its first week. That figure easily tops this year’s previous best for a single week: Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, which had 295,000 album units sold in its debut frame.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Jay-Z Highlights Babyface Ray, Kodak Black, And More In His New Memorial Day Playlist For Tidal

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Another holiday, another chance for Jay-Z to re-up his rap nerd credibility. This time around, Jay’s new Tidal playlist is called “Montecito” and landed on the streaming app on Memorial Day with the description “(Mostly) ’22 vibes.” The one exception that prompts the qualifier is Kodak Black’s 2021 hit “Super Gremlin,” which extended its run far beyond its October 2021 release date as one of the more popular recent singles in rap.

Kodak also appears multiple times on the playlist, with Jay including “Purple Stamp” and “I Wish” from the Floridian’s 2022 project Back For Everything. Other artists Jay included multiple times are Detroit upstart Babyface Ray, whose Face track “A1 Since Day 1” leads off the playlist, and 42 Dugg & EST Gee, the dynamic duo whose joint mixtape Last Ones Left was the brainchild of their CMG team captain, Yo Gotti. Speaking of Yo Gotti, the Memphis mainstay also gets multiple selections from his own new project CM10: Free Game.

Of course, Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers gets a few entries, as do Future and Lil Durk, while Boldy James, Pusha T, and Vince Staples are all represented with a track apiece. And because having one problematic entity in Kodak Black apparently wasn’t enough, Jay gave some “True Love” to his musical younger brother Kanye West’s new track with XXXTentacion. If anything is missing, it’s some female representation; you’d think Jay would love the throwback vibe of Megan Thee Stallion’s new track “Plan B.”

As always, though, the new playlist proves that Hov keeps his ears to the street, even if he’s not actively recording any new music himself. And for the newer or more underground artists receiving some spotlight, it’s a chance to tap in with new fans who recognize Jay’s nearly impeccable taste. You can listen to the playlist on Tidal below.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Warriors Seem To Win An NBA Title Every Year Kendrick Lamar Drops An Album… Is Another One On Deck?

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Kendrick Lamar Warriors
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The Golden State Warriors just handled business in the Western Conference Finals and sent the Dallas Mavericks packing with a 4-1 series win. Now the Warriors are heading back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2019 and will be a likely favorite against either the Boston Celtics or The Miami Heat — especially if the hip-hop gods work their magic with the Dubs again, because, are you ready for this? In the “Woah… that’s crazy!” department, every Kendrick Lamar album drop since 2015 has also been accompanied by a Golden State Warriors NBA Championship.

That’s right: When Kendrick dropped To Pimp A Butterfly in 2015, the Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers for the team’s first title since 1975. Then when DAMN. dropped in 2017, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and company beat the Cavs again in the Finals. Finally, when Kendrick was at the helm of the excellent Black Panther Soundtrack in 2018, the Warriors cemented their dynasty with a third title, against the Cavs again, leaving LeBron James in the dust. Maybe if Kendrick hadn’t started taking a very long break from putting out albums, the Warriors wouldn’t have dropped the 2019 Finals to the Toronto Raptors?

(The exception to this rule is Untitled Unmastered, which was released in 2016, when the Warriors lost to the Cavs in seven games. However, Untitled Unmastered isn’t usually considered a proper studio album, since it’s made up of demos from the To Pimp A Butterfly era. So, objection overruled.)

So does this year’s release of Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers signify that another Warriors title is on the horizon? We’ll find out just how powerful this Kendrick/Warriors synergy is within the next two weeks. And somehow, even with the Raptors not making it anywhere close to the Finals this season, Drake still finds himself as a big winner here no matter what.

Lorde Praises Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers’ In A Letter To Her Fans

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Lorde Variety Power of Women Variety 2021
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Perhaps Kendrick Lamar’s music may soon be in rotation on Lorde’s Solarsystym station on Sonos: Today, in an email sent to fans, the “Solar Power” singer shared an update with her fans, just over two weeks after her US tour for Solar Power came to an end.

She shared some of the books she’s been reading, including Fleur Jaeggy’s Sweet Days Of Discipline and Danyel Smith’s Shine Bright: A Very Personal History Of Black Women In Pop. Additionally, she let us know the music she’s been listening to lately, which includes Kendrick Lamar’s new album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.

“I’m loving Kendrick,” she said. “I cannot get over the most popular and influential artist in modern music displaying a working nervous system, admitting mistakes, trying to process intergenerational trauma and prejudice. I love the way the album opens, the pace and heat of the first few songs, and later ‘Count Me Out,’ the build and strings in ‘Auntie Diaries’ … special.”

Could this mean a collab between the two is in order? Perhaps. But given the fact that both artists love to take long hiatuses in between projects, it’s best not to get our hopes up that we’ll hear a collaboration in the near future.

Every Song From Kendrick Lamar’s New Album Has Entered The ‘Billboard’ Hot 100

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Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers was one of the year’s most anticipated albums. Now that it’s out, it has unsurprisingly dominated the charts, landing at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with the biggest streaming week of 2022. It’s Kendrick’s fourth No. 1 album — even more impressive when you consider that it was his first album in nearly five years, with DAMN. releasing in 2017. Perhaps just as impressive is the fact that every song on the 18-track album has entered the Billboard Hot 100, a feat last accomplished by Drake with Certified Lover Boy at 21 tracks and J. Cole’s The Off-Season — which only had 12 tracks.

Of those, four landed in the top 10, making him one of seven artists to accomplish this feat (including Bad Bunny, Drake, Future, J. Cole, Juice WRLD, and Lil Wayne). While Jack Harlow held down the No. 1 spot for the third week with the frothy “First Class,” Kendrick took No. 3 with “N95,” No. 5 with “Die Hard,” No. 7 with “Silent Hill,” and No. 8 with “United In Grief.”

Meanwhile, the only other artists to have charted more than 13 songs are Drake, with the aforementioned 2021 release and with 2018’s Scorpion; Post Malone, who landed 14 tracks with 2019’s Hollywood’s Bleeding and 2018’s Beerbongs & Bentleys; and Lil Uzi Vert, who got 13 Eternal Atake tracks on the list in 2020. For a full list of Kendrick’s Mr. Morale Hot 100 rankings, see below courtesy of Billboard.com.

Hot 100 Rank, Title:
No. 3, “N95”
No. 5, “Die Hard,” with Blxst & Amanda Reifer
No. 7, “Silent Hill,” with Kodak Black
No. 8, “United in Grief”
No. 11, “Father Time,” feat. Sampha
No. 13, “Rich Spirit”
No. 16, “We Cry Together,” with Taylour Paige
No. 19, “Worldwide Steppers”
No. 20, “Count Me Out”
No. 22, “Purple Hearts,” with Summer Walker & Ghostface Killah
No. 23, “Savior,” with Baby Keem & Sam Dew
No. 33, “Rich (Interlude)”
No. 40, “Mr. Morale,” with Tanna Leone
No. 41, “Crown”
No. 47, “Auntie Diaries”
No. 51, “Savior (Interlude)”
No. 55, “Mirror”
No. 59, “Mother I Sober,” feat. Beth Gibbons
No. 77, “The Heart Part 5” (down from its No. 15 debut)

Jack Harlow Rides In ‘First Class’ To A Third Week At No. 1 On The ‘Billboard’ Hot 100 Chart

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Jack Harlow BBMAs 2022
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Jack Harlow calls himself a “G” in the hook to “First Class,” and though that may be debatable to some, one thing that cannot be refuted is he is now a multi-week chart-topper. The record, interpolating Fergie’s 2000s bop “Glamorous,” is No. 1 once again on the new Billboard Hot 100 chart dated May 28. “First Class” is the rapper’s first solo No. 1, debuting atop the chart upon its April release and boasted the biggest streaming week of 2022.

The track arrived as the second single from the Louisville rapper’s sophomore album Come Home The Kids Miss You, following the 2020 debut That’s What They All Say anchored by the Grammy-nominated “Whats Poppin.” Come Home includes lead single “Nail Tech” and features from Justin Timberlake, Pharrell, Lil Wayne, and Drake, the last of which leaked a few weeks early under the title “Have A Turn” before the official version was released as “Churchill Downs.” The “First Class” video also came out on the album’s release day.

Elsewhere on this week’s chart, Kendrick Lamar debuted four songs from his new album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers (which debuted on top of the Billboard 200 this week) in the top 10: “N95” at No. 4, “Die Hard” featuring Blxst and Amanda Reifer at No. 5, “Silent Hill” Feat. Kodak Black at No. 7, and “United In Grief” at No. 8.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.