Kendrick Lamar has unveiled his new merch line in support of his fifth studio album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. K. Dot announced its arrival with a Twitter post on Monday (September 25), sharing his signature brown manila folder icon with very little detail.
“stepper pieces,” the caption read along with a link to the merch, which includes t-shirts, hoodies and a five-panel hat. Curiously, no branded N95 masks were available.
Kendrick Lamar released Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers — his highly anticipated follow-up to 2017’s Pulitzer Prize-winning album DAMN. — in May. It served as his final album for Top Dawg Entertainment, his longtime label.
Since then, he’s been on an extensive tour in support of the project and will make his Saturday Night Live debut in October. Unsurprisingly, Lamar has found great commercial success with Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.
stepper pieces https://t.co/cCuvh6XQiD pic.twitter.com/rVFxOcmcLz
— Kendrick Lamar (@kendricklamar) September 26, 2022
Last month, Chart Data announced it was the first rap album released in 2022 to reach one billion streams on Spotify. The only project that matched his streaming output was The Weeknd’s Dawn FM, which hit a billion streams in March and then surpassed two billion streams shortly after.
Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers soared to streaming royalty thanks to songs such as “N95” (128,570,543 global streams), “Die Hard” (99,497,158 global streams) and “Rich Spirit” (47,780,629 global streams).
Kendrick is poised to win big at the 2022 BET Hip Hop Awards later this week. Lamar earned nine nominations in the Best Live Performer, Lyricist of the Year, Hip Hop Album of the Year (Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers), Hip Hop Artist of the Year, Impact Track (two), Video Director of the Year, Best Hip Hop Video and Best Collaboration categories.
The Compton MC added an Emmy to his trophy case in September for his participation in the Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show.
Meanwhile, Kendrick Lamar and Megan Thee Stallion are among the artists that have been announced as musical guests for the upcoming season of Saturday Night Live.
The acclaimed comedy sketch show is set to return for Season 48 on October 1 and has revealed that K.Dot will kick the season off while Top Gun: Maverick star Miles Teller will play host for the night.
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