Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers by Kendrick Lamar is still a divisive album over two years after it was released. Some would rather run back DAMN. or good child, m.A.A.d city, while others consider it to be one of his best. The Creator Tyler is clearly in the former group.
“I think it’s great to be honest. I hope we can move over the fact that N-ggas are incapable of hugging one another. But we will. The younger children ask, “Hey, how are you?” Are you okay? At a 2022 Converse event in Paris, he declared, “We need to stop the nonsense and just start being really transparent and honest.”
“And that’s what Kendrick just did with his new album. I love that album. I feel like he touches on shit that’s so open and honest that some people can’t listen to it because they probably feel like he’s looking at them in their eyes and they’re like, ‘Uhhh, I can’t listen to this. Put on something else so I can hit my dougie and keep forgetting and numbing the shit that he’s talking about.’”
He added: “Not saying the people that’s doing that went through what he’s saying, but it’s making them think about the shit that they’re covering up with that fucking I’m hard, I shoot people shit. I see through it.”
Some of these similar ideas are reflected in Tyler’s most recent album, Chromakopia, which was released last week. It is a deeply personal, musically rich, and thought-provoking work that reveals the guy behind the mic and encourages listeners to do the same.
Kendrick and Tyler have so far mostly been on opposite ends of the West Coast hip-hop spectrum. One is a rapper’s rapper, from one of the most influential cities in the culture, who has gained the near-unanimous respect of his predecessors and peers (not to mention the Pulitzer Prize committee). He is a seasoned MC who defeated the biggest rapper of all time with a rap anthem that sounds very much like L.A.
Hip Hop traditionalists have long seen the other as an outsider, a strange, or an oddity despite his fame, impact, and intense passion for the genre. The We The Best mogul, who has landed several Kendrick collaborations over the years, made fun of Tyler when IGOR debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in 2019 ahead of DJ Khaled’s Father of Asahd. He implied that Tyler’s music was too “mysterious” to be played on the radio, in barbershops, or through car speakers.
However, it seems as though Kendrick and Tyler’s paths are finally coming together following Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers and Chromakopia. Both of these vocal hip-hop artists are in their 30s, deeply examining themselves and delivering remarkably similar messages.
These are some intriguing parallels between the two albums.
On Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, Kendrick Lamar revealed more of his soul than most rappers in history. The CD offers a glimpse into his diary and therapy sessions, revealing his interactions with two transsexual relatives (“Auntie Diaries”) and analyzing his “daddy issues” resulting from his father’s strict love style (“Father Time”).
However, the most vulnerable and heartbreaking confessions are found on “Mother I Sober,” where Kendrick remembers seeing his mother beaten “black and blue” as a young child, reflects on the death of his beloved grandmother, and examines how the trauma of sexual abuse—which he links to slavery—has afflicted Black families for generations, including his own.
As he faces these challenging realities, Kendrick confesses his greatest regret: cheating on his childhood girlfriend Whitney because of his sex addiction, which he acknowledges was a coping method for his fears.
Chromakopia has some of Mr. Morale’s most personal disclosures, suggesting that the candidness Tyler admires in him has permeated the album. “Hey Jane” describes Tyler’s pregnancy scare with an older lady and his flurry of emotions at the idea of fathering a kid with a casual lover, despite Tyler’s mostly private love life (apart from his Flower Boy admission that he is bisexual).
The male-female back-and-forth in “We Cry Together,” in which Kendrick and actress Taylour Paige portray a furious dispute between a toxic marriage that culminates in make-up sex, may also serve as inspiration for the song. Tyler plays two parts in “Hey Jane”: the mid-30s lady eager to keep the kid and prevent a life of regret, and the “shocked” and “terrified” man who isn’t yet ready to become a father. (The fans are left wondering what choice they make.)
In contrast, Tyler’s own father troubles are revisited in “Like Him,” although this time from a more mature standpoint than in his previous work. Tyler, now 33, sings from the heart about the weird, painful sensation of looking like a man he has never met after earlier cursing out his absent father on the songs “Inglorious” and “Answer.”
Tyler’s mother, Bonita Smith, reveals at the end of the piano ballad that his father did want to be in his life but she kept him at distance. This is a heartbreaking discovery that would have stopped even Bastard-era Tyler cold.
At a recent Chromakopia show in Atlanta, he informed listeners, “This is the first album where everything I said is true.” “I think I had to put on a mask of my own face to get some of that shit out because it’s so honest.”
Inspiring Listeners To Be Themselves
Tyler and Kendrick’s extreme vulnerability on Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers and Chromakopia isn’t just to vent; it’s also meant to encourage the listener to let go of the mask and accept who they really are.
Kendrick attacks the pointless materialistic awards that society uses to feel significant in “N95,” before posing the direct question, “Take all that designer bullshit off and what do you have?”
Additionally, on “Count Me Out,” he transforms COVID facemasks into a significant (although rather clichéd) remark about hiding behind a metaphorical mask, and on “Mother I Sober,” he expresses empathy for rappers who “bury their grief in chains and tattoos.”
On Chromakopia’s cheerful, lovely standout, “Take Your Mask Off,” Tyler blends these latter two ideas, demolishing the gang slang, gun talk, and face tattoos that a “good kid” from a “fine home” has adopted to gain the favor of the “dumb and confused.” The honey-voiced Daniel Caesar is then used to urge listeners to “discover who you are” and “take off your mask”—a message he earlier advocated on IGOR’s “Running Out of Time.”
Tyler may have easily given in to such conduct because he was raised by a single mother. “My n-ggas ain’t got no daddy, grow up overcompensatin’ / Learn shit ’bout bein’ a man and disguise it as being gangsta,” Kendrick concedes as much in his rap song “Father Time.”
However, Tyler continues to demonstrate on Chromakopia that he is a unique exception to this terrible cycle — just by refusing to hide behind a mask — just like K. Dot breaks a generational curse on “Mother I Sober.”
On both albums, women are prominent. Kendrick’s fiancée Whitney Alford narrates Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers at sporadic intervals, urging him to “tell the truth” and seek treatment for his harmful habits and childhood trauma.
Whitney, who also features on the album cover with the couple’s two young children, congratulates K. Dot on his cathartic victory after he finally overcomes his demons on “Mother I Sober” by telling him, “You did it.” You have my admiration. A hereditary curse was broken by you.
Whereas Chromakopia is led by a mother’s unwavering love, Mr. Morale is rooted by the love of a decent lady (despite her man’s possibly fatal defects). The record is replete with Tyler’s mother’s words of wisdom and support from the very first moments. Her tearful onstage embrace with her son at the 2020 Grammys, when IGOR won Best Rap record, seemed like a victory for single mothers everywhere.
“You are the light. It’s not on you, it’s in you. Don’t you ever in your muthafucking life dim your light for nobody,” she urges on the intro track “St. Chroma.”
Mama Bonita also warns her son against trusting hangers-on and accountants (a first world problem Kendrick coincidentally touched on himself on his DAMN. track “FEAR.”) on “Noid,” offers relationship advice on “Darling, I” and not-so-subtly pressures him to bless her with a grandchild on “Tomorrow.”
Tyler revealed that he was inspired to create Chromakopia by “taking a bunch of shit my mom told me as a kid” at his listening event held at Inglewood’s Intuit Dome the night before the album’s release. All of that stuff makes me think, “Oh, that’s what the fuck she was talking about! Now that I’m 33.”
Sequencing & Supporting Cast
Beyond the serious subject matter, there are similarities between Chromakopia and Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers in terms of their star-studded supporting casts, aural elements, and sequencing.
With Kendrick delving deeply into songs like “Crown,” “Auntie Diaries,” and “Mother I Sober,” the second half of Mr. Morale essentially unfolds like a therapy session. The album then builds towards a cathartic climax on “Mirror,” which literally feels like a weight has been lifted off the Compton native’s shoulders.
Similar to this, Chromakopia’s last moments include the poignant “Tomorrow,” which reflects on life’s constant change and the unpredictability of the future, and “Like Him,” before the exuberant “Balloon” and “I Hope You Find Your Way” round out the film.
Both albums also provide a feeling of completion and finality. Whitney tells Kendrick to “tell the truth” in the beginning of Mr. Morale, and on the song’s penultimate track, she expresses her pride in him for lifting a generational curse. Tyler’s mother tells him to “never dim his light” in the beginning of Chromakopia and to “keep shining” at the end, expressing her pride in him.
The featured artists on the albums can also be compared to the following: the veteran MC cameos (Ghostface Killah, Lil Wayne); the unexpected appearance of more street-oriented rappers (Kodak Black, GloRilla, and Sexyy Red); the promising protégés (Baby Keem, Teezo Touchdown); the up-and-coming stars from the pgLang/TDE universe (Tanna Leone, Doechii); and the frequently uncredited R&B singers who act as the constant secret weapon (Sam Dew, Daniel Caesar).
There are also a number of more overt nods to Kendrick Lamar throughout Chromakopia. On “Rah Tah Tah,” Tyler declares he’s the “biggest out the city after Kenny.” He uses the phrase “pop out” — a nod to Kendrick’s historic Juneteenth concert in Inglewood — on multiple tracks. And his mother says on “Take Your Mask Off,” “You don’t ever have to lie to kick it,” echoing Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly cut (which itself pays homage to 2Pac).
On “Balloons,” Tyler even appears to borrow Kendrick’s cartoonish, pursed-lips cadence from “Silent Hill” when he spits: “I’ll send his bitch ass to the moon / I’m at the top, ain’t no room.”
Of course, there are differences between Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers and Chromakopia. The Creator decides that he isn’t yet ready to become a father and questions whether monogamy is even for him, while Kendrick Lamar plays the “protective father,” as he calls himself on “Worldwide Steppers,” who is trying to overcome his shortcomings for the benefit of his family (“Darling, I”).
Kendrick raps on “Mother I Sober,” saying, “Talked to my lawyer, told me not to be so hard on myself / He has an aura, I hope to achieve, if I find some help.” Mr. Morale is also burdened more by trauma, grief, regret, religion, ego, and the battle for self-love. Tyler’s unwavering self-confidence, however, is further highlighted in Chromakopia (“I ain’t never had a doubt inside me / And if I ever told you that I did, I’m fuckin’ lyin,” he boasts on “St. Chroma”).
Chromakopia might almost be seen as the opposite of Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers when you take into account their divergent views on relationships and fatherhood.
Tyler’s claimed admiration for Mr. Morale and the glaring resemblance between the two tracks make it reasonable to believe that he was influenced by Kendrick’s album when creating his own. When Tyler posted a screenshot of a fan’s Instagram remark contrasting their emotional responses to “Like Him” and “Mother I Sober,” it seemed as though he was endorsing this hypothesis.
Hearing your favorite artist open up about their emotions and familial pain has helped me in many ways to heal and be open to [my] own family about the things I’ve been quiet [about] over the years, they stated. “It kind of impacted me like ‘Mother I [Sober]’ from Kendrick,” they wrote. “I appreciate that.”
