Kendrick Lamar drops new solo album

Kendrick Lamar (in a 2016 photo), the rapper whose poignant lyricism has soundtracked the Black Lives Matter movement and compelled many to call him the voice of a generation, dropped his first solo album in five years last Friday.

NEW YORK 

Lamar's long-anticipated fifth studio album, Mr Morale And The Big Steppers, was released to streaming services overnight, and sees him deliver raw self-reflection set against cutting social criticism.

The record is expected to dominate the charts and place the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lamar, 34, once again at the centre of the American cultural conversation.

The first track, United In Grief, opens with a choir singing, “I hope you find some peace of mind in this lifetime", before Lamar comes in: "I've been goin' through somethin'." Throughout the album, he meditates on inner demons, repressed emotions, the struggles of family life and the trappings of fame.