In a world where privacy can feel like a luxury, vulnerability takes a lot of courage. This is especially the case for one of the biggest artists in the world, Kendrick Lamar. All eyes are constantly on him, every word analyzed to death, every action potentially scrutinized. Moreover, it’s pretty much impossible to exist in public without enduring harassment.
Consequently, the decision to bare himself completely on the 2022 album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers was a radical one. Especially in the age of social media, the raw honesty is a decidedly bold choice. There’s no fear of misinterpretation or worry about audience reception. Instead, Kendrick Lamar puts himself out there in a way we hardly expect from an artist today, let alone a mainstream one.
That’s not to say this choice was easy, though. When speaking to Briana Younger for W Magazine in 2022, Lamar candidly opens up about his unflinching honesty on Mr. Morale, even if it meant rapping about things he hadn’t even discussed with his family.
Ultimately, he avoided talking to them about these topics to maintain the most sincere expression.
Kendrick Lamar on Why The Emotionally Raw ‘Mr. Morale’ Might Have Never Come Out
“I’m a private person. It was tough for me,” Lamar admits. “The reason why I had to make that decision, whether they was for or against it, I just didn’t want the influence. I could have cut corners and got flashy with it and worded my words a certain way—nah, I had to be in the rawest, truest form I could possibly be in order for it to be freeing for me, in order for me to have a different outlook and the perspective on people I’m talking to. I had to reap whatever consequences came behind that, and also be compassionate and show empathy if they were hurt by it.”
Then, Kendrick Lamar admits to the journalist that had he not been so diligent and spoken with his family ahead of time, Mr. Morale might’ve been lying dormant on a hard drive somewhere. “Them s***s would’ve never came out,” Kendrick says.
In the end, the risk paid off for him. Was it the stadium scale follow-up to his highly successful DAMN. in 2017? No, but that’s not what he made it for, either. It didn’t set the world on fire the same way his other albums have. Regardless, he’s proud that the album can help others be open and honest, too. “That’s the beauty; that’s the best feeling I’ve been getting,” Kendrick Lamar says.
“It’s like when I be talking to some of my partners that never was able to express themself and communicate—they only knew how to communicate with violence—and for them to call up they moms, call they pops and say, ‘You hurt me, and this pushed me to go stay with my grandma, which my grandma pushed me to stay with my homies, which the homies pushed me to…’ ” Kendrick continues. “For them to be able to express that and have that communication is rewarding for me.”
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