Last year, many of the biggest artists in the industry blessed the Hip-Hop community with amazing projects. From J.I.D.’s The Forever Story to Pusha T’s It’s Almost Dry, fans were eating all throughout 2022. However, one album has been in every single “album of the year” debate: Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.
Obviously, K. Dot’s latest full-length topped HNHH’s ranking of the top 40 Hip-Hop albums of 2022. In addition to HNHH, Complex highlighted Mr. Morale as the album of the year. Furthermore, Billboard, Guardian, and NME also featured the record in the top five spots of their year-end rankings. Needless to say, Kendrick’s most recent project has received a lot of love from critics. Now, new data shows that fans liked it just as much as music journalists did.
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Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers performed exceptionally on Spotify
As Jay-Z rapped on The Blueprint 3’s “Reminder,” “Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t.”
Thus, although fans can debate critics’ reviews of Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, they cannot refute the album’s streaming performance. According to a recent update from Chart Data, Kendrick Lamar’s latest record has performed exceptionally well on Spotify. In fact, the source for music industry statistics has confirmed that Mr. Morale garnered more streams than any other rap album last year.
“.@kendricklamar’s ‘Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers’ was the #1 most streamed rap album of 2022 on Spotify,” Chart Data tweeted on January 1, 2023.
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Alas, this will likely not be the last accolade that Kendrick’s latest body of work receives. Next month, K. Dot will be competing in eight categories at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. Naturally, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is up for Album of the Year and Best Rap Album. More surprisingly, “The Heart Part 5” nabbed five nominations all on its own, including Song and Record of the Year, Best Music Video, and Best Rap Song and Performance. Lastly, the Blxst and Amanda Reifer-assisted Mr. Morale album cut “Die Hard” will compete for Best Melodic Rap Performance.