Rap royalty Kendrick Lamar dropped his latest album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, on Friday along with a slew of tour dates that will take the hip-hop icon around the U.S., Europe, Australia, and New Zealand until the end of the year.
Kendrick Lamar announced his latest release in April after a fan accused him of being “officially retired.” The enigmatic rapper has kept the project shrouded in mystery, offering cryptic updates via his website, Oklama.com. He recently released the first preview of the album with a video for “The Heart Part 5”.
Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is Kendrick Lamar’s first studio album since 2017’s Damn (not including the Black Panther soundtrack). The two-disc record features several collabs and contributions from fellow rappers Ghostface Killah, Kodak Black, and Blxst, plus guest vocalists Amanda Reifer, Summer Walker, and Portishead‘s Beth Gibbons.
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The new release comes alongside a major tour announcement, with dates featuring Tanna Leone and Baby Keem, who appears on the record. Kendrick’s sole performance of 2022 so far was at the Super Bowl Halftime Show with Dr. Dre, but the rest of 2022 will be a busy year for Oklama. Following appearances at Milano Summer Festival in Italy and Glastonbury in the U.K. in June, he will hit the road in July for shows in the southern U.S., including a stop at Rolling Loud in Miami, FL on July 24th. He will then perform in major cities on the East Coast, in the Midwest, and along the West Coast, concluding with two shows at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on September 14th and 15th.
Kendrick will then head to Europe for shows in October–November, and the tour will wrap up with five concerts in Australia and New Zealand in December.
Tickets go on sale May 19th at 10 a.m. local time. For a complete list of dates and to purchase tickets, click here.
Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is available now on all streaming platforms. Listen to the album via Soundcloud in the player below.