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Kendrick Lamar has debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200 with his latest album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. The album, Lamar's fourth chart-topper, secured the biggest debut of 2022 so far with 295,500 album-equivalent units. Bad Bunny previously held the position with his recent release Un Verano Sin Ti earning 274,000 album-equivalent units.
Mr. Morale was announced in April when Lamar tweeted a link to his new blog-format website, oklama.com. He followed that post with a pre-album song, "The Heart Part 5." According to The FADER's Son Raw, the song is a "masterclass in non-preachy urgency," arriving alongside a video that finds Lamar face-morphing into O.J. Simpson, Kanye West, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant, Jussie Smullett, and Nipsey Hussle.
Later this year Lamar will head out on The Big Steppers Tour, a run of international dates that runs from July through December and features support from Baby Keem and Tanna Leone.
