Anticipation building for new Kendrick Lamar album

Esai Melendez

For about two weeks now, Lamar has been hinting to his fans that a new album is on the way thanks to a promotional track he released on March 23 titled, “The Heart Part 4.” In the last line of the track, Lamar raps, “Y’all got till April the 7th to get y’all s— together,” which stirred up a lot of talk about April 7 being the album’s release date.

Exactly a week after revealing the promotional track, Lamar released “Humble,” a single for his upcoming album, which built up more excitement and anticipation for the date that Lamar hinted at in his promotional track.

The song and the video accompanying it was the No. 1 trending video on Youtube for about a day. However, instead of a dropping an album on April 7, Lamar gave the public a release date for the album: April 14.

The release of this upcoming album comes just a little over two years after Lamar’s critically acclaimed project, “To Pimp a Butterfly.” Currently, the name of the new album and its artwork haven’t been released by Lamar or his music label, Top Dawg Entertainment.

Many fans and critics have been wondering where Lamar will go musically with his next full-length project, especially considering the high bar Lamar set for himself two years ago with “To Pimp a Butterfly.” In an interview with “T Magazine” Lamar discussed the direction of his new album saying, “‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ was addressing the problem. We’re in a time where we exclude one major component: God.”

Since the release of “To Pimp a Butterfly,” Lamar hasn’t been hiding and has actually been pretty active in the music industry. He has been featured in songs and albums with pop band Maroon 5, fellow rapper Travis Scott, and jazz-rap legends, A Tribe Called Quest, just to name a few.

Lamar also released a surprise compilation album without any promotion last year titled, “Untitled Unmastered,” which featured eight demos and unreleased tracks intended for, “To Pimp a Butterfly.” “Untitled Unmastered” received praise very similar to that of “To Pimp a Butterfly,” despite being a compilation album, leaving fans and critics eager to listen to Lamar’s next project.

One thing is for sure: Kendrick Lamar must somehow top his already legendary album, “To Pimp a Butterfly,” without trying to recreate it. And with the songs that have been released so far, he looks like he’s headed in that direction.