Kendrick Lamar’s fifth studio album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, is set to release on May 13.
The rapper and pgLang co-founder tweeted out the album announcement in response to a February tweet from a user that read, “Kendrick Lamar is officially retired.” Lamar quoted the tweet with a link to his Oklama website, which is a blank webpage with two folders, one of which held a scan of a statement on pgLang letterhead. “The following statement was released today by oklama, through his company, pgLang at 11:00am PT in Los Angeles, CA,” it read. Following innumerable false alarms about a K Dot album, the statement understandably went on to add, “All factual information for this release will come directly from this source only.” He also posted the announcement to Instagram.
The album will follow Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning project, DAMN., which celebrated its five-year anniversary April 14. Lately, Lamar has had his hands full with his mysterious pgLang company alongside Dave Free, which has announced two signees, Baby Keem and Tanna Leone, along with a handful of projects involving Yara Shahidi, Brent Faiyaz and Jorja Smith, with brands like Calvin Klein. In November, Lamar put on a theatrical performance at Day N Vegas, highlighting his musical journey from Section.80 to DAMN.
A version of this story first appeared on billboard.com.
