Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers’ Is Biggest Debut Of 2022

Kendrick Lamar’s latest album Mr. Morale was released five years after its predecessor DAMN. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for DAMN and became the first hip-hop artist to do so. Lamar has now earned the biggest debut on Billboard 200 with “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.”

According to Billboard, Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers has had the highest No. 1 Billboard launch of 2022 so far. With 295,500 album-equivalent sales, Mr. Morale surpassed Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti top of 274,000. On the Billboard 200 chart, this is Lamar’s fourth No. 1 album.

Last summer, the Pulitzer Prize–winning rapper announced that he was working on new material on a new website called Okloma. He stated that this would be his last project with Top Dawg Entertainment. In February, he performed at the Super Bowl halftime show alongside Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, and Eminem, and in April, he revealed Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.

A few weeks later, he issued another cryptic clue about the album. Lamar extended his “The Heart” singles series with “The Heart Part 5” ahead of Mr. Morale’s release. Along with South Park founders Matt Parker and Trey Stone, he created the deep-fake video for the track, in which he wore the masks of O.J. Simpson, Kanye West, Nipsey Hussle, and others, but the track was not included on the album, as is customary for the series.

Shortly after the release of Mr. Morale’s “N95,” Lamar created a video. Beginning in July, he’ll tour the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand with Baby Keem and Tanna Leone. His tour includes appearances at Glastonbury and Rolling Loud Miami. Check out N95 from his latest album below.

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