#whitney alford | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sinceileftyoublog · 2 years

Text

Kendrick Lamar Album Review: Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

(pgLang / Top Dawg Entertainment / Aftermath / Interscope)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

“I choose me, I’m sorry,” Kendrick Lamar repeats on “Mirror”, the final track on his final album for Top Dawg Entertainment. By then, he doesn’t even need to say it. The Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper, who on his previous records advocated on behalf of his community, from his immediate family and friends to Black lives at-large, has spent the past five years feeling the weight bearing down on him. As much as he’s raised a family with his partner Whitney Alford, he’s suffered from sex addiction and subsequent infidelity, described throughout his songs as “lust.” He’s used both therapy and religion, describing his vices in Biblical terms, to help reign in and ultimately overcome his own trauma. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is a document of Lamar working on himself in real time. Each track is like a therapy session. As such, it’s the most difficult listen of his career, songs stunningly revealing the worst parts of himself before it gets better.

As Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers starts, Lamar immediately reminds you why he’s at the top of the game, unveiling spitfire rhymes over pulsating piano, garage-like drums, synth arpeggios, and generally minimal arrangements. His words, per usual, demand attention, which is why your eyebrows raise when he speaks bluntly about his troubles. “Next time I fucked a white bitch was out in Copenhagen / good kid, m.A.A.d city tour, I flourished on them stages / Whitney asked did I have a problem, I said, ‘I might be racist’ / Ancestors watchin’ me fuck was like retaliation,” he raps on “Worldwide Steppers”. It only gets more uncomfortable. On the Sampha-featuring “Father Time”, he unpacks his own toxic masculinity as a result of generational trauma and his father’s desire for him to reject emotions in favor of hardness. “When Kanye got back with Drake, I was slightly confused / Guess I’m not mature as I think, got some healin’ to do,” Lamar admits.

But just because untwisting his own mind is personally necessary, it’s not essential for Lamar to present it, unfiltered, as art. The deeply unsettling “We Cry Together” is a screaming match where actress Taylour Paige performatively plays the part of Lamar’s partner. As technically impressive as it is to hear her cry out her rhymes, the song comes closer to matching the pure anger of Eminem’s “Kim” than it does make deep points about hypocrisy in feminism. (He chides his partner for still listening to R. Kelly’s music.) He includes lazy thoughts about cancel culture and conspiracy theories on “N95″, and misguidedly wonders on “Mr. Morale” whether R. Kelly would still have committed his crimes if he hadn’t been sexually abused himself. He gives problematic figures like Kodak Black, who has faced charges of sexual assault, and Summer Walker, who has spread xenophobic information about COVID-19, large platforms. Most egregious is “Auntie Diaries”, where Lamar repeatedly misgenders a transgender relative and drops homophobic “f” bombs as a way to demonstrate his perception of ignorance in the Black community and how it must be overcome. These may be honest thoughts, and that’s okay, but for Lamar to present them as the endpoint on a high profile album is borderline irresponsible.

What’s most frustrating about Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers are its moments of brilliance where you wish Lamar had left it at recognizing the work he needed to do on himself rather than revealing it all. He sets up his journey well, declaring “I grieve different” repeatedly on opener “United In Grief” and cleverly revealing the stakes on “Count Me Out”: “Got six magazines that's aimed at me / Done every magazine, what's fame to me?” On “Crown”, one of many tracks to prominently feature South London artist Duval Timothy, he riffs on Shakespeare and the Bible: “Heavy is the head that chose to wear the crown / To whom is given much is required now.” Lamar’s texts, too, are viewed as sacred, studied in schools just as much as in music publications. But unlike William Shakespeare, Lamar is both popular and globally viewed as genius during his life, something someone imperfect, like all of us, is constantly wrestling. “I can’t please everybody,” he declares. But on Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, that’s a mission statement more than it is a caveat.

youtube

5 notes · View notes

keanuestrada · 2 years

Video

"Session 10, breakthrough." - Whitney Alford

#Whitney Alford #Mac Miller #Swimming

2 notes · View notes

boredomdlux · 10 days

Text

youtube

⏸️

#mental health #💖#u got dis #i luv when u count me out #count me out #whitney alford #kendrick lamar #anxiety #megan thee stallion #red moon #lil uzi vert

1 note · View note

90363462 · 2 years

Text

The History of Kendrick Lamar and Whitney Alford, As Told By His Lyrics

By Matthew RitchieMay 17, 2022

Getty Images

Kendrick Lamar has never been shy about revealing details about his life: DAMN’s“Duckworth” and good kid, M.A.A.D. City’s“m.A.A.d. city” are just two of many moments where he’s gone deep into his personal history on record. And on new album Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, the Compton superstar gets more vulnerable than ever before, revealing his personal journeys through therapy (“United in Grief”), fatherhood, daddy issues (“Father Time”) and his battles with generational trauma and sexual violence (“Mother I Sober.”)

But he speaks most candidly about his relationship with his longtime partner Whitney Alford. They’re childhood sweethearts who got engaged in 2015 and now have two children together—she’s been a constant in his life throughout his whole career. (She even sang background vocals on To Pimp a Butterfly, lending her voice to both “King Kunta” and “Wesley’s Theory.”) She’s everywhere and everything on this album, including the cover image, narrating on four tracks including “Mother I Sober” and “Father Time,” and telling Kendrick that he needs therapy on the latter. According to Lamar himself, she’s more than just his lover: she’s a grounding figure for him in times of stress and crisis. Kendrick raps more about Whitney on Mr. Morale & The Big Steppersthan ever before, but it’s by no means the first time he’s alluded to her in his music. What follows is a breakdown of her previous appearances in his lyrics.

“She Needs Me” from the 2009 mixtapeKendrick Lamar EP. The first love song Kendrick ever wrote is a parable about a flawless woman who is comparable to nobody else in the world. It’s classic and simple, mentioning his parents’ unabashed approval and her unyielding confidence in the way she carries herself. At the beginning, he insists that she needs him to be happy. By the end of the two minutes, he comes to the realization he, in fact, cannot live without her. Armed with a mountain of evidence of how she completes him, he can’t even imagine wanting to.

The timeline of Kendrick and Whitney’s relationship matches up with the track: Kendrick and Whitney were high school sweethearts who graduated in 2005. “Five years later, an accounting major, work at a firm/Abundance of paper, she got a career,” he raps at the beginning of the second verse–after high school, Alford attended California State University, Long Beach, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. While the rest of the track looks more to the future, it’s apparent that Kendrick had Whitney in mind from the outset.

“Determined,” a bonus track from the 2009 mixtape Kendrick Lamar EP. While Kendrick had striven to keep his and Whitney’s relationship shielded from the public eye, that has not stopped him from citing her as an influential figure in his rap career. In a 2014 interview with the New York Times, he called her the one person with the power to call him out on anything, whether in life or his career. “One particular young lady. She’s been here since Day 1,” Lamar explained.

On the bonus track, he gives a first-hand account of how “his girl” helped him stay the course during moments where his confidence failed him. As he shares his insecurities with her over a bucket of KFC, she shuts his doubts down immediately: “You know you the best boy, you gotta keep doing it/But don't forget when you do, just keep you in it/And never listen to what the industry say/Don't be a typical artist, be more like Jay.” By Kendrick’s own confession here, without her he wouldn’t be the man or rapper he is today.

“Growing Apart (To Get Closer)” from the 2010 mixtape Overly Dedicated. Kendrick gets surprisingly personal on Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, even going as far as to call out his “lust addiction” on the track “Worldwide Steppers” and talking about how his infidelity put pressure on his relationship. He alluded to similar transgressions in the opener from Overly Dedicated, rapping with melancholic honesty about the strain he’s putting on his girlfriend: “Meanwhile I’m in these streets with everybody, I’m trying to get it/And she know they got me, I watch her feelings watch me/As they staring with the saddest eyes of loneliness,” he raps.

“Buried Alive Interlude” from Drake’s 2011 album Take Care. This appearance could be considered the moment when Kendrick began the shift from underground darling to star. Money and success can do crazy things to your perspective, and here, Kendrick doubts his relationship. “The reason why my best friend say she loves me more than life/But I live a double life and need to let her go,” he raps, believing that he must cut her loose as the pressures of fame and wealth begin to materialize.

Billboard and The Breakfast Club in 2015 In a 2015 cover story with Billboard, Kendrick said his connection with Whitney transcends the need for a label. “I wouldn’t even call her my girl,” he says. “That’s my best friend. I don’t even like the term that society has put in the world as far as being a companion — she’s somebody I can tell my fears to.” Months later, following their engagement announcement, he doubled down on the devotion in an interview with The Breakfast Club, echoing the need to be loyal to the woman that’s held him down from the beginning.

“LOVE.” from the 2017 album DAMN.Kendrick and Whitney confirmed their engagement in April 2015, following the release of To Pimp a Butterfly, and this track sounds like the result of years of maturing and working on a relationship. “Keep it a hundred, I’d rather you trust me than to love me/Keep it a whole one hund', don't got you, I got nothin',” he croons on the ballad, realizing the sentiment that he expressed back in 2009 remains true eight years later.

Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. This is Whitney’s coming out party, as suggested by the album cover, which features her sitting on the bed opposite him, holding the couple’s second child. The family that they’ve built is at the center of the album. Her presence looms large on the four tracks she features on (and even elsewhere), narrating as a guiding force towards the self-actualization Kendrick hopes to achieve. On the opening track “United in Grief,” she urges him to be honest as he embarks on his most personal project to date. “Tell them, tell 'em, tell them the truth,” she demands. The last time we hear her voice is on “Mother I Sober,” the emotional climax for Kendrick, closing out the trauma-laden opus. “You did it, I'm proud of you/You broke a generational curse,” she says calmly.

51 notes · View notes

blackfemmecharacterdependency · 8 months

Text

AUGUST Celebrity Birthdays & Events

August Birthdays

Leo Stars (July 23-Aug 22) 1: Tempestt Bledsoe, Oluchi Onweagba 2: Alvina August 3: Chandler Kinney, Jo Marie Payton 4: Eris Baker, Yolonda Ross 5: Chip Fields, Janet DuBois, Thishiwe Ziqubu 6: Merrin Dungey, Regina Van Helvert 7: Kheris Rogers 8: Meagan Good, Kimberly Brooks, Tawny Cypress, Sherri Marina 9: Whitney Houston, Angely Gaviria, Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson, Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut 10: Yaani King

11: Viola Davis, Sophie Okonedo 12: Imani Hakim, Yvette Nicole Brown 13: Dawnn Lewis, Deborah Ayorinde 14: Jackée Harry, Halle Berry, Marsai Martin, Aliyah Moulden, Kabrina Adams 15: Christine Adams, Andrea Lewis, Tanedra Howard 16: Angela Bassett, Simone Leigh, Karen Obilom 19: Sara Martins, Tracie Thoms, Paula Jai Parker 20: Ashley Nicole Williams 21: Loretta Devine, Kelis, Kaliegh Garris, Kiami Davael 22: Rachel Adedeji

Virgo Stars (Aug 23-Sept 22) 23: Angelique Noire, Clarissa Thibeaux 24: Ava Duvernay, Harriett D Foy 25: Ashley Winfrey, China Anne McClain 26: Ola Ray, Keke Palmer 27: Chandra Wilson, Demetria McKinney, Tiffany Boone 28: Samantha Liana Cole, Jessieca Alford, Quvenzhane Wallis 29: Kelly McCreary 30: Angel Coulby, Xernona Clayton 31: Phina Oruche, Jaylen Barron

August Events:

#August #BFCD Calendar #AUGUST Celebrity Birthdays & Events #August Calendar #August Masterlist #August 1-31 #Celebrity Birthdays & Events

1 note · View note

lovejustforaday · 1 year

Text

2022 Year End List - #11

Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers - Kendrick Lamar

Main Genres: Conscious Rap

A decent sampling of: Pop Rap, Jazz Rap, Trap, Political Rap, Neo-Soul

WARNING: This album discusses (in a very frank and realistic manner) a multitude of issues related to racism and inter-generational trauma, including sexual violence and domestic abuse.

So K-Dot is back.

Hip hop has changed a lot in the last five years since the arguably reigning king of the genre put out his last (somewhat lackluster) record in 2017.

Since then, a decent number of other high profile artists like Tyler The Creator and Little Simz have put out highly ambitious, genre-spanning, neo-soul-infused, deconstructionist records like IGOR and Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, which I can’t help but think is at least partially indebted to the widespread influence and success of Lamar’s 2015 opus To Pimp A Butterfly. This being a record so successful that it even received high praise from the former American president Barack Obama himself.

So the question was: where to go after having already made To Pimp A Butterfly?

Initially, Kendrick followed it up with a competent b-sides record simply labelled untitled unmastered. in 2016. Following that, in 2017 he gave us DAMN., a poppy victory-lap record that, while certainly enjoyable and well-earned, is a project I that I ultimately found somewhat anticlimactic, and I struggle to recall more than a few of its tracks. From there, Kendrick took somewhat of a hiatus while still sitting atop the critically acclaimed throne of hip hop.

Finally, 2022 came along and Kendrick Lamar released his latest full-length album. But how does one deliver after five years of enormous anticipation as one of hip hop’s most reputable artists?

Well, quite well as it turns out. Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is a return to form for Kendrick after his last two LPs; a more ambitious and critical undertaking of many styles of hip hop, that sets out to say as many big and important things as it possibly can. On this record, Kendrick has set out to show us all that he still has plenty to offer as one of hip hop’s most articulate thinkers.

If Good kid, m.A.A.d city was a coming of age story about forming a positive identity in a traumatic world of institutional racism and gang violence, and To Pimp A Butterfly was a reflection on the trappings of success as a rapper distracting from the bigger picture of what’s wrong in America, then Mr. Morales is largely a tale about breaking inter-generational trauma and taking the necessary steps to look after one’s mental health.

“United In Grief” makes for one hell of an opener - Kendrick’s greatest yet in my opinion - with frenetic jazz rapping over unhinged drum and bass production. We are introduced to the subject of therapy, as Kendrick hastily pleads and confesses to his issues with spending money as an unhealthy coping mechanism to fill the hole left by the grief of his childhood. The track is unruly and alarming, like a deluge bursting through the walls of Kendrick’s mind and outpouring all of this pain and guilt, not unlike many peoples’ first breakthrough while going to therapy.

“Father Time” is a hip hop neo-soul reckoning with, as Kendrick himself puts it, “Daddy issues”. Like several other tracks, it features Kendrick’s own wife Whitney Alford telling him to go to therapy in a very precise and purposeful case of art imitating real life (she also appears on the album cover as herself). Also shout out to Sampha for absolutely killing it with the really stylish yet unorthodox R&B vocals.

“We Cry Together” is a brilliant skit-turned-full-song, reminiscent of To Pimp A Butterfly’s “For Free?” which similarly depicts a couple’s argument. Whereas last time the couple served as a metaphor for America’s mentally abusive relationship towards Black Americans, this time the couple in question are a literal couple, airing out all of their grievances in a cartoonishly toxic meltdown. Frankly, it’s a painful listen, but a necessarily profoundly dark look at gender difference and disparity in straight relationships, as we witness a man and woman try to psychoanalyze each other with the least charitable interpretations possible. Also, bonus points for the immaculately implemented Florence sample at the beginning of the track.

The tonal whiplash from “We Cry Together” to those opening stabs on the psyched-out, synth-heavy casino chill hop of “Purple Hearts” is actually my favourite moment on the entire album. Really not much else to say on this track; it’ a beautiful reflection on love, coping with pain, and the ongoing process of healing, and one of Kendrick’s most cultivated moments as an artist. And again, excellent featured guest vocals, this time from R&B singer Summer Walker.

On the penultimate “Mother I Sober”, Kendrick is at his most vulnerable ever as he dives head first into the subject of inter-generational trauma, particularly the sexual violence in his family’s history and many other black families, tracing back to the widespread sexual abuse by white slave-owners throughout history. Very little music accompanies Kendrick in his wise and highly evocative introspections; just a minimalist piano refrain, and the trip hop legend Portishead’s own Beth Gibbons, using her signature wounded croon to interpret a small fraction of the pain that Kendrick describes with poetic mastery. It is an emotionally stirring and stunning piece of music.

Before finishing this review, I would like to take a few minutes to address a potential elephant in the room known as “Auntie Diaries”, which was easily one of the more controversial hip hop tracks this year. I have seen a lot of different takes from a lot of different people about this song, and as a gay man myself I have my own perspective that I would like to offer.

I will start off by saying that in regards to the word “F*ggot”, I am firmly not against its use by any straight man when it is for an artistic purpose that serves to advance empathy towards the gay community (See also: my review of You Forgot It In People). I believe Kendrick exercised a great deal of care with regards to how he used this word, and I deeply appreciate that.

However, I am less quick to defend his use of misgendering pronouns in “Auntie Diaries”, as I feel the way it is incorporated is a bit more unclear and questionable. As a general rule, cisgender heterosexual people are less educated on transgender issues than they are on gay issues, and while I appreciate that Kendrick is trying to use the incorrect pronouns to demonstrate how he didn’t quite understand back then (playing with past and present tense), the messaging becomes murky quickly and at times it seems as though Kendrick still (present tense) struggles to use the right language (“I mean he’s really Mary-Anne, even took things further”).

I appreciate that Kendrick’s audience is probably overwhelmingly cisgender and straight, and a good deal of them are likely to be less progressive on gender and sexuality topics than they are when it comes to topics about racism in America. I also generally believe in meeting people where they’re at, at least when it comes to trying to politically persuade someone. Likewise, I do think the existence of this track is ultimately a net positive for addressing issues of homophobia and transphobia in hip hop and the world at large.

That being said, another part of me is thinking about how much more meaningful and profound a track like this would’ve been 12 years ago, before we had high profile artists like Kevin Abstract, Frank Ocean, and Big Freedia doing (frankly) a much better job at advocating on these issues. For what its worth, a) I really like the production on this track, b) I respect Kendrick’s intentions as an artist and know he’s trying to promote a good message, and c) I’m certainly not one of those self-righteous twitter knobs who’s about to write off his entire discography because of one clumsy attempt at writing a pro-lgbt rap song. Yet still, I ultimately don’t think the song fully accomplished what it was going for, and Kendrick, while pensive and thoughtful as always, is hardly saying anything particularly new.

I will also say briefly that the second half of this record loses some of the momentum that the first half brings, at least until it gets to the finale, where things really end on a high note for those last two tracks. This is yet another record that I believe could have been edited down.

The pop trap cuts in particular add little to the record for me, which is a mild problem when it’s supposed to be a concept album and other tracks like “Father Time” and “Mother I Sober” bring far more compelling items to the table that advance the narrative much better.

Nevertheless, it’s still a real treat to have Kendrick Lamar back in 2022. Mr Morales & The Big Steppers is a very smart hip hop album with a lot of heart in it, that will reach a lot of different people from different backgrounds. Kendrick’s ability to be very authentically and artistically human is both his greatest strength, and what largely sets him apart from the other biggest names in hip hop, like Drake and Kanye (Fight me about that second one, I dare you). And with this latest album, we have been treated to possibly his most vulnerable and human project to date. So thank you, Kendrick.

8/10

Highlights: “United In Grief”, “Purple Hearts”, “Mother I Sober”, “Father Time”, “We Cry Together”, “Mirror”

#Kendrick Lamar #hip hop #conscious rap #conscious hip hop #mr. morale & the big steppers #2022 #aoty #music review #album review #list #year end list #best music

0 notes