As one of the most influential musicians of the contemporary era, the demand for new Kendrick Lamar music is always at a fever pitch. His last studio album, 2022’s Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, was yet another critically acclaimed release that saw him push further into conscious hip-hop and continue to make the realm his own. It featured many compelling performances from guest artists, including Sampha and Portishead vocalist Beth Gibbons.
The record is a concept effort that examines Lamar’s life experiences during a therapy journey and explores a wide variety of themes personal to him, including childhood, celebrity, and generational trauma. Fusing such elements with minimalist production and Lamar’s astute blend of jazz, trap, soul and R&B, it was yet another artistic triumph.
Since the celebrated 2022 record, it has been mostly quiet on the Kendrick Lamar front, save from his appearance on Future’s March 2024 single ‘Like That’, which also featured Metro Boomin. The Compton rapper’s performance was particularly praised. His verse is seemingly a diss aimed at Drake and J. Cole, with some even claiming it was a response to their 2023 effort ‘First Person Shooter’.
This year, Drake addressed Lamar on the diss track ‘Push Ups (Drop & Give Me Fifty)’, although he didn’t respond. In reaction to the radio silence, the Toronto rapper has decided to goad his American counterpart once more this month by dropping the AI diss track ‘Taylor Made Freestyle’, which hears 2Pac and Snoop Dogg spitting lyrics aimed at him.
Some fans feel there might be rumbles in the Lamar camp with new music on the way in a non-diss form. Over the weekend, 15 unreleased tracks apparently by Lamar appeared on the [untitled] streaming app under the pgLang name. PgLang is an independent multidisciplinary creative communications company founded by Lamar and Dave Free in 2020, headquartered in Los Angeles.
For those who haven’t heard of [untitled] before, it describes itself as “a sacred place for your work-in-progress music”. However, it is unclear whether the tracks were officially posted by pgLang, or were uploaded by a fan.
After he songs gained traction on social media, some fans jumped to clarify that the collection aren’t new tracks by Lamar. Pouring cold water on the hope for fresh music, it has been asserted that much of this material has previously been leaked over the past two years, so doesn’t represent anything truly new. The world continues to wait for Lamar’s next move, and whether it will be a response to Drake’s disses or purely original music.
