Kendrick Lamar pulled one of the biggest fake outs in recent memory in the music industry last week. After releasing his “The Heart Part IV” a follow up to his 2012 track, “The Heart Part III,” many fans expected an April 7 release of his newest album, of which no other information was known. This speculation wasn’t without evidence though. On “Part IV” Kendrick taunts, “Y’all got till April the 7 to get ya’ll shit together.”
It is obvious why many fans believed that this was the advent of Kendrick Lamar Duckworth’s newest album. The subsequent release of the album’s first (official) single, “Humble,” accompanied by a masterfully done music video on March 30 pointed further towards an April 7 release.
“Humble” tells a story of how Kendrick believes that those in the industry need to sit down (lil’ bitch) and be humble. Among other things he criticizes the rap game’s rampant use of pharmaceuticals such as “purple drank,” Percocets and other prescription drugs that are all too prevalent in today’s rappers’ verses.
What is striking about the video is Kendrick’s blatant contradiction of his advice to stay humble. Imagery in the video includes him in priest’s robes, him sitting at a table with a group of friends reminiscent of the Last Supper and him riding a bicycle down a street utilizing a camera angle that makes it seem as if he is on top of the world.
No information had been released prior to April 7 but this was not abnormal as his previous album, To Pimp a Butterfly, was released in a similar manner with little to no coverage or news preceding its release.
Fans still remained hopeful but were disappointed when, on April 7, iTunes released only a cryptic, coverless, nameless album pre-order with nothing listed other than Track 1, Track 2, Track 3 etc. (“Humble” was listed as track 8). While there was no album last week, if “Humble” is any indication of what is to come King Kenny is going to change the game all over again this Friday.
