Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers has been awarded the distinction of having the most-streamed rap album of 2022. Per data from Chart Data, the Compton-born rapper’s newest full-length studio release saw him take the crown with 1.4 billion streams on Spotify.
Shortly behind Kendrick’s album was NAV’s Demons Protected by Angels, Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss, Future’s I NEVER LIKES YOU and Jack Harlow’s Come Home The Kids Miss You. However, Chart data admit that the streams are not necessarily guaranteed to be streams from 2022.
The albums are ranked according to lifetime streams for each album that was released in 2022. For example, NAV’s Demons Protected by Angels featured his 2020 single ‘Lemonade’ with Internet Money, Gunna and Don Toliver, so the streams from before 2022 also counted towards the streams of the year.
The news must be making King Kenny proud. He recently opened up on his artistic connection to Compton. “It’s nature versus nurture,” he said. “I was nurtured in an environment where there’s, like, a lot of gang mentality. That certain language, certain lingo. How we walk. How we talk.”
He added, “All the little nuances and in-speaks that I have in Compton. I have that. That’s not going nowhere. That’s why I can go into any environment, any type of street environment, and be able to still connect even at this high of a level, as the son that never leaves. That’s nurture.”
Kendrick then went on to explain why he tends not to use social media too much: “My social media, most of the time, is completely off. Because I know, I can easily smell my own [shit]. Like, I’m not one of those dudes that be like, Oh, yeah, I know how good I am. […] The moment that you start getting lost in your ego, that’s when you start going down.”