Kendrick Lamar Announces New Album Title & Release Date

Kendrick Lamar plans to kick off the summer by dropping his fifth studio album.

In an announcement posted to his website on Monday, April 18, the Compton rapper confirmed that he will release his new album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers on May 13. Kendrick revealed the details about his long-awaited follow-up to his 2017 album DAMN. in a press release. The pgLang founder then included the link to the anouncement in a tweet that he posted in response to another tweet that claimed he had officially retired. Clearly, Kung Fu Kenny wanted his fans to know that he’s not going anywhere.

Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers will be K Dot’s first solo album in five years. Following DAMN.’s release in 2017, Kendrick and Top Dawg Entertainment took over as executive producers for the Black Panther soundtrack. They cooked up bangers like “Pray For Me” featuring The Weeknd, “King’s Dead” featuring Future, Jay Rock and James Blake plus “All The Stars” featuring SZA. The album was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2019 Grammy Awards, but ended up winning the awards for Best Rap Performance for “King’s Dead” and Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media.

Since then, Kendrick Lamar has shifted his focus on to other projects like establishing his acting resume and building up his pgLang imprint. Last year, he joind forces with his cousin and pgLang artist Baby Keem on his track “Family Ties.” The song, which appeared on Keem’s breakthrough project The Melodic Blue, recently won the Grammy for Best Rap Performance.

The announcement also comes a few months ahead of his headlining performance at Rolling Loud this summer. Look out for Kendrick Lamar’s new album coming May 13.