After the release of Drake’s record breaking More Life 'playlist' last weekend, you would have been pressed to think that the biggest music weekend of March 2017 had yet to come.
The music community was abuzz Thursday morning when Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar posted a cryptic Instagram post, a picture of the roman numerals “IV”. While it’s possible he was alluding to a fourth commercial album release, it appears he was also hyping his latest single.
At midnight Friday “The Heart Part 4” dropped and the internet promptly exploded. Not only did the “King”, as Kendrick dons himself in the new song, treat us to a taste of his new music but to our amusement called out his peers as well. The song seems to call out Drake and Big Sean, two rappers that have previously had beef with Kendrick.
Kendrick takes exception to his peers “tiptoein’ around [his] name”, possibly referencing Big Sean dissing him on this Breakfast Club interview.
While both Drake and Big Sean have proclaimed themselves in the top five in the rap game in recent songs (Drake in “Gyalchester” and Big Sean in “Bounce Back”), Kendrick is more direct: “One, two, three, four, five. I am the greatest rapper alive!”
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While the rap single contains voluminous amounts of fiery bars (check the lyrics out here), the most important bit came at the last line of the song where ‘K-Dot’ proclaims, “Y’all got till April the seventh to get y’all shit together.”
Whether this means a new album or new single, we don’t know for sure. It is exciting however that Kendrick Lamar will be rolling into Florida this summer with new music, when he headlines Rolling Loud at Miami’s Bayfront Park May 5-7. Just this morning (March 25), a purportedly leaked track list has surfaced on the internet that has Kendrick sampling Jimi Hendrix and sharing the mic with Kanye West, Anderson .Paak and others on 14 songs.
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The wave of new music however, was not limited to rap. Gorillaz, the virtual band comprised of two actual members in Damon Albarn and James Hewlett, have been teasing a new album since 2015.
On Friday, we were surprised with three new singles off their new album Humanz. Fans were delighted to hear new material from their first album since 2011, singles that featured Popcorn, D.R.A.M, and Long Beach rapper Vince Staples, who we recently covered at Buku Music + Art Project. Gorillaz's new album is due April 28.
Other new music included releases from Mike WiLL Made-It and Louis the Child. Mike WiLL Made-It’s album featured a who’s who of rap artists, with Future, Gucci Mane, Migos, Young Thug, Kendrick and more all lending a hand. The collaboration album received mixed reviews, with most falling short of the hype credited to them by each feature. Louis the Child, who’s set we saw at Okeechobee Music Festival, released a shorter EP comprised mostly of songs they’ve released as singles or on Soundcloud.
As Kendrick has people turning their heads at potential Hip-Hop beefs, the music community in general is booming. The influx of new music March has brought us only reminds us that summer is around the corner, and with it even more anticipated releases. Let's hope every weekend of 2017 is just as exciting.
This article appears in Mar 23-30, 2017.