Kendrick Lamar releases new song “The Heart Part 5,” new album out this week

Kendrick Lamar's long-awaited album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers comes out this Friday (5/13), and he's just released his first new song since 2018, "The Heart Part 5." Over a stellar flip of Marvin Gaye's "I Want You," (produced by Beach Noise), Kendrick delivers sprawling, stream-of-consciousness verses that remind you there's still nobody else who does it like him. The song comes with a video directed by Kendrick and Dave Free, in which Kendrick raps the song in front of a red backdrop, and as the song goes on, his face morphs into O.J. Simpson, Kanye West, Kobe Bryant, Jussie Smollett, Will Smith, and Nipsey Hussle. The video opens with the quote "I am. All of us," attributed to Kendrick's new Oklama alter-ego. Kendrick also appears to reference hearing the news of Nipsey's murder while he was at Lollapalooza Argentina ("I'm in Argentina wiping my tears full of confusion"), and he appears to rap from Nipsey's perspective on the last verse. Check it out below.

Kendrick has said Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers will be his last album for TDE. He and former TDE co-president Dave Free recently launched the new company pgLang, and this song is a co-release between TDE, pgLang, Aftermath, and Interscope. Kendrick also recently posted a new teaser for the album featuring a photo of two CDs, one titled "Morale" and one titled "Steppers." No word yet if this song will be on the album, but the previous four "The Heart" songs have been non-album tracks.

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