After some hinting on Instagram yesterday, Kendrick Lamar has shared the first single, “The Heart Part 4,” from his 2017 release. The upcoming album, which he has called “very urgent,” follows his 2015 To Pimp A Butterfly. The outtakes of that record were dropped in the Untitled Unmastered compilation in 2016, to the surprise of all. The lyrics of “The Heart Part 4” suggest that fans have until “April the 7th to get y’all shit together,” when the full album will be released.
It’s been nearly half a decade since Kendrick and Black Hippy cohorts Ab-Soul and Jay Rock recorded “The Heart Part 3” in Las Vegas three days before the release of his groundbreaking second album and major label debut good kid M.A.A.D. city. The new installation in the “Heart” series continues in political aggravation toward America’s 45th president.
According to Lamar, his new album is about ““going back to my community.” He continues, in an interview with The New York Times from early March, “To Pimp a Butterfly was addressing the problem… I’m in a space now where I’m not addressing the problem anymore. We’re in a time where we exclude one major component out of this whole thing called life: God. Nobody speaks on it because it’s almost in conflict with what’s going on in the world when you talk about politics and government and the system.”
Stream the new track, “The Heart Part 4” below: