Kendrick Lamar is making history, but maybe not in the way he wants to.
Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers has been analyzed and dissected on social media at a level I have never seen since Lamar released Damn in 2017. So many people have a wide array of opinions on the cover art, songs, content and Lamar’s choice of words.
One of the most memorable songs on the album is “We Cry Together” featuring Taylour Paige. If you haven’t heard the song, it’s basically Malcolm & Marie in song version. It is one long, big, toxic argument between a boyfriend and a girlfriend. I wouldn’t be shocked if it’s broken a record for f-bombs on one song.
On Tuesday, Billboard updated its weekly Hot 100 Chart, which reveals the most listened to songs in the country. One song, in particular, had a very long drop. Last week, “We Cry Together” landed at 16 on the Hot 100. This week, the song moved down 81 spots going to 97, breaking the record for the biggest single-week drop in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
All 18 songs from Mr. Morale charted on the Hot 100 in its first week, with four of them charting inside the top 10.
Not the kind of history Lamar, TDE and pgLang were hoping to make with this album.
While none of the other songs saw as deep a decline as “We Cry Together,” some of the biggest singles from Mr. Morale also dropped significantly.
The first two singles, “N95” and “Silent Hill,” dropped from three to 17 and seven to 49 respectively.
I’m not even sure Lamar even cares about all this talk about how he’s performing on the charts. He has done essentially zero promo for this album, excluding the release of “The Heart Part 5” a week before Mr. Morale was released.
In the meantime, Lamar is in the process of shooting a documentary in Ghana and ramping for his worldwide “The Big Steppers Tour” which is set to start on July 19 in Oklahoma City.