Five Burning Questions: Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers’ Scores Best First Week of 2022

For the third straight week, a new release bows with the biggest debut week of the year so far. This time, it’s with arguably the most-anticipated album we’ve gotten so far in 2022: Kendrick Lamar‘s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.

The set, Lamar’s first since his unanimously acclaimed and commercially dominant 2017 LP DAMN., enters the Billboard 200 albums chart at No. 1, with 295,000 equivalent albums units moved — passing the 274,000 posted by Bad Bunny a week earlier with his Un Verano Sin Ti (though well short of the 603,000 posted by DAMN. in its first week). In addition, Mr. Morale lands all 18 of its tracks on the Billboard Hot 100, led by a pair of top five debuts in “N95” (No. 3) and “Die Hard” (No. 5), the latter also featuring Blxst and Amanda Reifer.

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How should Kendrick Lamar feel about his album’s first-week performance? And who’s up next now that he’s finally returned? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.

1. Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers moves 295,000 equivalent album units in its first week — good for the year’s best single-week performance, but down by over half from his 603,000 first-week total for 2017’s DAMN. (albeit with no physical release yet for the set). If you’re Kendrick Lamar, how is your morale after that first-week performance, on a scale from 1-10? 

Josh Glicksman: I’ll go with an 8 here. The comparison to 2017’s DAMN. feels less apt to me than to other releases from superstars in 2022, given how much the standard for first-week numbers has changed over the course of five years. Any time you can lay claim to the best single-week performance of the year — though that may not hold for long with Harry’s House set to debut next week — that’s a cause for celebration, even if the numbers have dipped. Plus, given Kendrick’s stellar vinyl sales track record, there’s a big chunk of the pie missing here.

Carl Lamarre: A 7.5. Kendrick securing his fourth Billboard 200 No. 1 album is an incredible feat to celebrate. He intentionally didn’t pack any mainstream-friendly records a la “Humble,” “Loyalty,” and “Love,” considering he was on an entirely different mission with Mr. Morale. Kendrick’s impact never hinged on numbers: On paper, he’s already a top name in the rap pantheon next to Drake and J. Cole; he’s a Pulitzer winner and has a whopping 14 Grammy wins tucked under his belt. If I’m K. Dot, my pride is intact because I’m still that dude.

Cydney Lee: Still 10. It’s definitely interesting that this time around his first week sales are down by over half from when DAMN. dropped, but I highly doubt that man has batted an eye or even cares about the numbers. I feel like Kendrick is one of those generational talents that’s always going to have a core fanbase who will rock with him no matter what — so the album’s commercial reception, good or bad, might not mean much to him. Mr. Morale’s physical releases will probably bump the sales up some more regardless, but Kendrick seems like the type to just create for the sake of creating, regardless of critical acclaim and whatnot. I’m honestly just grateful to have gotten new music from him so soon.

Jason Lipshutz: An 8. Kendrick Lamar should focus on the fact that he just scored the year’s biggest album debut a half-decade after his last proper album, and less on the numbers, since major equivalent album unit debuts have fallen across the board since the time DAMN. was released. Mr. Morale’s total sales will balloon whenever physical copies of the album are released as well — I could definitely foresee a return to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 whenever the vinyl drops. But regardless of how the numbers shake out, five years is an eternity in mainstream hip-hop, but Lamar is important enough to command attention even after that waiting game.

Andrew Unterberger: Torn between a 6 and a 7. Obviously it’s tough-bordering-on-impossible to match DAMN.’s 600k-plus first-week number without a physical release, but expectations were pretty high for a follow-up to arguably the most universally celebrated album of the late ’10s, and even initial projections for Mr. Morale still had it comfortably over 300k — so to see it come in south of that number is probably a little disappointing. Only a little, though: It’s still a figure that ably demonstrates Kendrick’s clout, especially given what a challenging listen Mr. Morale is, and how the rap superstar continues to insist on fans meeting him on his own terms. Over 343 million streams indicates that plenty of listeners were still more than happy to do so.

2. Where DAMN. was led by a popular advance single in the Hot 100-topping “Humble,” Mr. Morale followed the example of other recent Billboard 200-toppers by Future and Bad Bunny with no advance tracks. Do you think this ultimately helped or hurt the new album’s first-week performance, if either?

Josh Glicksman: I don’t think it moved the needle much in either direction. Kendrick is among the select few artists that will always have an eager fan base awaiting new music, regardless of his rollout strategy. Particularly given the tremendous anticipation after a five-year wait, it feels unlikely to me that an advance track on the record — since he did release “The Heart Part 5” as a standalone single less than a week before the arrival of Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers — would’ve stoked more hype than what already existed.

Carl Lamarre: Please see my answer to Question One. Again, Kendrick’s intention wasn’t to dole out poppy anthems. His latest hip-hop missive leaned on vulnerability, real-life issues, and more.

Cydney Lee: I don’t think it hurt but it might have helped? For albums, in general, not having an advance single seems like it would allow listeners to identify their own standout track. But when it comes to the question of numbers and performance, for a return as highly-anticipated as Kendrick Lamar’s, I think not having a glimpse of what the album may sound like only creates more allure and excitement for what’s to come. That may be what happened here — but also, let’s not forget that Kendrick surprise dropped “The Heart Part 5” with an equally incredible video, so I think that helped too, even though the song wasn’t on the album.

Jason Lipshutz: If Mr. Morale included a single as potent as “Humble,” then that single should have been released ahead of the album to heighten anticipation even further — but Lamar’s latest opus does not have one of those. Instead, Mr. Morale sprawls into fascinating, complex directions, with some tracks that are more accessible than others but nothing as radio-friendly as Lamar’s No. 1 smash from DAMN. With that in mind, the decision to release the whole album at once was probably the right call, and encouraged listeners to soak in Mr. Morale as a full body of work.

Andrew Unterberger: I think it probably didn’t ultimately mean a ton for Mr. Morale, but I guess it gave me a new appreciation for how well-timed “Humble” was as part of the DAMN. rollout. You forget now that Kendrick hadn’t really scored a proper pop smash as a lead artist before that song — and had been particularly lacking in capital-H Hits off second album To Pimp a Butterfly — but “Humble” not only immediately confirmed that Kendrick unquestionably could compete on a pop star level, it also raised excitement over DAMN to a fever pitch. There probably isn’t quite an equivalent song on the Mr. Morale tracklist, so the rapper was probably smart to just let the standalone “The Heart Part 5” serve as his re-introduction for this era, and give fans the whole album to ingest at once.

3. While “N95” and “Die Hard” are the two best-performing songs from the album so far, both debuting in the Hot 100’s top five, it’s not necessarily obvious if there’s a breakout hit from Mr. Morale yet. Do you see one in the album’s tracklist, or is this the sort of album that resists any of its tracks catching on outside of LP context? 

Josh Glicksman: As is the case with the rest of Kendrick’s discography, Mr. Morale will best be remembered in the context of its entirety, rather than by any individual track. That being said, I think “Die Hard” ultimately hangs around the longest, even if it’s not the album’s biggest standout. It’s perfectly suited for ambient listening on warm summer nights, and it doesn’t have the kind of monologues or sonic lulls that some other tracks do that would hinder it from getting plenty of radio spins.

Carl Lamarre: Out of all 18 tracks, “Die Hard” has the highest ceiling in becoming a breakout hit. Kendrick’s lush lyricism takes a backseat as he allows Blxst and Amanda Reifer to lighten the album’s texture with their dulcet vocals. Kendrick’s message remains poignant despite lowering the dial lyrically, and the production is more sonically pleasing to a mainstream audience.

Cydney Lee: Definitely don’t think this album resists any of its songs existing on their own. In addition to the two already mentioned in the question, I would say “Rich Spirit” and “Silent Hill” with Kodak Black are also standout tracks not only for their production but for their quotable lyrics as well. There’s a couple more I can name too, but I think those two would catch on next.

Jason Lipshutz: Mark my words: “Silent Hill,” featuring Kodak Black, is going to be the one that takes off from this album. What the song lacks in pop appeal, it makes up for with chewy trap hooks, Kodak’s car metaphors and a chorus that’s going to be bellowed out in a lot of arenas when Lamar goes on tour later this year. “N95” and “Die Hard” were the standouts to my ears upon first listen, but “Silent Hill” will be the Mr. Morale fan favorite.

Andrew Unterberger: It’s hard to go against “Die Hard,” just because it seems like the kind of song that works in nearly any situation — though I wouldn’t rule out the Drakeo flows of “Rich Spirit” or the squelchy grooves of “Silent Hill” as contenders either. But this isn’t an album that will be defined by its hits; consider how “Alright” from Butterfly ended the 2010s as one of the decade’s most defining songs despite never peaking higher than No. 81 on the Hot 100.

4. The initial rush of immediate-reaction reviews to Mr. Morale mostly hailed it as an instant masterpiece, where the next wave of notices that came the following week tended to be a little more tempered and conflicted (though still fairly effusive) in their praise. A week and a half in, which of those two directions are you leaning towards — or do you have a different take on it altogether? 

Josh Glicksman: It’s hard to capture the sentiment better than The Ringer’s Charles Holmes: “Mr. Morale is a flawed album made by a rapper most of the world deemed infallible long ago.” Kendrick’s latest is worthy of the praise that it has received and is the most recent addition to a stretch of four albums that will rival just about any rapper’s in their heyday — which makes it even more jarring to hear some of the album’s more prickly moments. As Vulture’s Craig Jenkins writes, “The album is very considered and more balanced upon closer inspection than the wilder pull quotes may suggest” — but it almost feels strange just to have to grapple with some of the lyrics and artistic choices from a Kendrick album.

Carl Lamarre: Off the first two listens, I was on the side of it being a masterpiece. To me, Dot answered many daunting questions regarding his thoughts on superstardom and if he really wants the responsibility of being hip-hop’s savior. I think this project humanized him in ways others haven’t. He’s a father who still suffers from his own daddy issues, struggles with his own fame, and is a work in progress. Vulnerability from an artist of his stature is rare and should be commended.

Cydney Lee: Personally, I’m not looking too deep into it and have purposely avoided reading anyone else’s thoughts on the album so that I can enjoy it and soak it in in peace. May be a bit hypocritical considering my job, and the fact that I’m offering thoughts in this column, but I knew everyone and their mother would have something to say once Kendrick returned, and I’m just not here for it this time around. I just want to enjoy the art for what it is and not overly critique the person behind it or question every single lyric. Mr. Morale is certainly not trash but calling it a masterpiece might also be a stretch — so I’ll just say I’m somewhere in between that. I will definitely be attending this tour though!

Jason Lipshutz: Considering the fact that Lamar spends 73 minutes unpacking his psyche, describing the problems that have nagged at him recently and throughout his life, and questioning the widely accepted details of the world around him, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers was always going to be purposely messy, and defiant of easy categorization. To me, the album contains some of Lamar’s most brilliant moments — songs like “United in Grief” and “Mother I Sober” remind us why he is a generational voice — as well as some passages, like the extended screaming match “We Cry Together,” that don’t work at all. But even in its missteps, Mr. Morale carries a daring sort of brilliance, refusing to play it safe at a time in popular music where it feels increasingly difficult to upend the expectations of the general public.

Andrew Unterberger: I’m definitely on the Brilliant But Flawed side of the argument — but honestly, I find Kendrick’s messier masterpieces more rewarding than his seamless ones. Again, Butterfly was also like this: difficult and bumpy and ultimately well worth the double-digit listens it took to even get your arms totally around it. With albums this thought-out and ambitious, there’s no such thing as a “skip,” as even the tougher songs become inextricable parts of the set’s overall character. I love how big he swings with Mr. Morale, and even when he doesn’t totally connect it’s still spellbinding to watch him at the plate.

5. Now that Kendrick Lamar has finally released his new album, who officially becomes the long-gone rapper with the most-anticipated upcoming LP in hip-hop?

Josh Glicksman: Let’s hope that the technical difficulties she discussed last week get sorted out soon because the anticipation for a new Cardi B album continues to mount.

Carl Lamarre: Jay-Z. I mean, he and Kendrick dominated 2017 with their respective opuses. To me, 4:44 had the makings of being Hov’s swan song. I always said if he decided not to put out another album, I’d be OK with his decision, but after hearing him rap alongside Jay Electronica, Pusha T, and more, I still think Jay has one more in him.

Cydney Lee: For rap, I’d say Jay-Z. Non-rappers, I’d say Rihanna, Frank Ocean and SZA.

Jason Lipshutz: You know which other instant classic hip-hop album was released in 2017 and still hasn’t gotten a follow-up? 4:44. Guest spots on Drake and Pusha T projects are great and all, but we need a new Jay-Z studio album ASAP.

Andrew Unterberger: It’ll be well-earned victory-lapping time for Cardi B whenever she’s able to release her sophomore album — for her own sanity’s sake, you just hope it’s sooner rather than later.

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