Kendrick Lamar spotted at beach in Laboma, Ghana after dropping new project

Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that US rapper, Kendrick Lamar is currently in Laboma, Ghana. (Read More Here).

Taking to social media, Ghanaian social media journalist, Kalyjay, shared pictures of Kendrick Lamar chilling with friends on a bar beach in Laboma, Ghana 

Kalyjay reports: “Kendrick Lamar at Laboma.”

I’ve learned not to expect too much from hip-hop. Since its inception in the early ’70s, the Black male-centric genre has been fraught with issues around queerphobia, transphobia, and sexism. Rick Ross’ use of the f-word in a 2018 song with Meek Mill and JAY-Z was barely news; Kodak Black — a feature on Lamar’s album — has said horrendous things about queer women. As a Black, queer, trans-masculine person that grew up in hip-hop, I’ve had to learn to take what I can. That is, until recently. 

In recent years, hip-hop has seen a slow but continual rise in Black queer and trans representation. There’s Lil Nas X, Frank Ocean, Saucy Santana, and countless other Black queer (mostly cisgender) folks doing work in the genre, despite many of them still facing issues based on their identities (see here, here, and here) while trying to advance their careers. On “Auntie Diaries,” Lamar attempts to present himself as an ally as he details his experience with using a queerphobic slur, acknowledges his trans family members, and calls out bigotry and religious-based queerphobia in the Black community. This seems like a good gesture on the surface, but beneath that the rapper — and his predominantly cisgender and straight fans — still has a lot of work to do before he can fully consider himself an ally.

Mr Morale & the Big Steppers is absolutely crammed with lyrical and musical ideas. Its opening tracks don’t so much play as teem, cutting frantically from one style to another – staccato piano chords and backwards drums; a frantic, jazzy loop with a bass drum that recalls a racing heartbeat; a mass of sampled voices; thick 80s-film-soundtrack synth and trap beats. On Worldwide Steppers, Lamar’s words rattle out at such a pace that they threaten to race ahead of the backing track, a muffled, dense, relentless loop of Nigerian afro-rock band the Funkees that suddenly switches to a burst of laidback 70s soul and back again.

On N95, the tone of his delivery changes so dramatically and so often that it sounds less like the work of one man than a series of guest appearances. When it comes to actual guest appearances, it casts its net wide – Ghostface Killah, Sampha, Summer Walker, the singer from Barbadian pop band Cover Drive – and occasionally delights in some unlikely juxtapositions. One interlude features a string quartet and 74-year-old German self-help author Eckhart Tolle discussing the perils of a victim mentality alongside Lamar’s cousin, rapper Baby Keem, whose concerns are more earthy: “White panties and minimal condoms”.