Mr. Morale and The Big steppers

might be the first American rap album I seriously listened to. Kendric Lamar released the album for the first time in 5 years.

Actually, I’ve been listening to this genre of music for more than two decades. My listening experience is no more than personal hobby but still I feel like I’d listened to many hiphop songs both in Japanese and English.

Then, what did I mean by “serious” listening. Thinking about my favorite artists in Japanese hiphop, I have several songs which gives me a lot of energy when I’m a bit tired or mentally in trouble. These songs are more or less connected with my daily emotion, in positive way. However, I hadn’t got same level of affinity on American rap songs before. Probably because it’s not in my mother language.

After moving to U.S.A. last December, this is changing. Before the release of “Mr. Moral and The Big Steppers”, I spent 2 weeks to listen his previous album “DAMN” again. I realized that I resonated with his lyrics more than before and it was fun to think of what Lamar would say in his new album. There were a lot of events in the recent 5 years. Covid19, presidential election, BLM, and Russia-Ukraine war. However, he raps almost all about his personal story. The album was highly introspective, which was a kind of surprising to me. I enjoyed articles, podcast for reviewing the album. Going through these derivative works has been another source of joy in recent weeks.

Through listening the “Mr. Morale and The Big steppers”, I see that living environment affects user experience a lot even for entertainment. This may sounds obvious but it feels real now.