Kendrick Lamar Brandishes A Shotgun With His Family In New “Mr Morale” Cover Shoot Outtakes
Kendrick Lamar allegedly left a lot of Easter eggs in his 2022 album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers that fans still haven’t discovered, or at least, that’s what one of its mixers Manny Marroquin thinks. But there are also plenty of details that didn’t end up manifesting, and many different ideas that were swapped out for others. For example, we now have a look at some more outtake pictures from Mr. Morale‘s cover shoot from photographer Renell Medrano, the same session that gave us the official artwork. In them, K.Dot holds his son Enoch (in a weirdly warped and pic-combining edit), stands over his partner Whitney and the little one, and also holds a shotgun while standing behind Whitney and their two kids on the couch.
Maybe this last one was too heavy or tonally clashed for the final cut. Nevertheless, it’s still interesting to see what other creative ideas were floating around the “Not Like Us” MC’s head, and what his team was bringing to the table. Medrano showed off these newly unearthed pictures from the Kendrick Lamar Mr. Morale shoot at a New York City exhibition.
Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale Cover Outtakes
Elsewhere, though, Kendrick Lamar is focused on the future rather than his past work, and wants to cement his recent releases into the history books… Well, more than they already are, anyway. He recently submitted both “Not Like Us” and his Future and Metro Boomin collab “Like That” for consideration at the 2025 Grammys in various categories. These are Record/Song of the Year and Best Rap Song/Performance, with the former also up for consideration as a Best Music Video nominee. However, just because he submitted these picks doesn’t mean that the Grammys will actually give him the nominations.
Meanwhile, Kendrick Lamar will probably spend a lot of time preparing for his Super Bowl halftime show performance next year. Maybe this comes along with an album or new release at some point, but at press time, that’s only for fans to speculate. We don’t actually have any concrete information on what will happen next. But these old snapshots of the Mr. Morale days made us wonder as to what other curious diversions, alternate takes, and scrapped ideas are within this discography.
About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a music and pop culture news writer for HotNewHipHop. He started in 2022 as a weekend writer and, since joining the team full-time, has developed a strong knowledge in hip-hop news and releases. Whether it’s regular coverage or occasional interviews and album reviews, he continues to search for the most relevant news for his audience and find the best new releases in the genre. What excites him the most is finding pop culture stories of interest, as well as a deeper passion for the art form of hip-hop and its contemporary output.
Specifically, Gabriel enjoys the fringes of rap music: the experimental, boundary-pushing, and raw alternatives to the mainstream sound. As a proud native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, he also stays up-to-date with the archipelago’s local scene and its biggest musical exponents in reggaetón, salsa, indie, and beyond.
Before working at HotNewHipHop, Gabriel produced multiple short documentaries, artist interviews, venue spotlights, and audio podcasts on a variety of genres and musical figures. Hardcore punk and Go-go music defined much of his coverage during his time at the George Washington University in D.C.
His favorite hip-hop artists working today are Tyler, The Creator, Boldy James, JPEGMAFIA, and Earl Sweatshirt.
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