Text: B SABURO

The internets are ablaze with the release of Kendrick Lamar’s long anticipated album “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers”. Think pieces breaking down every bar, word and syllable are impossible to avoid at this point. We’re going to take a step back and examine something else that Kendrick brought to the table: The double album and its place in hip hop.

“He’s the DJ I’m the Rapper” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, 1988

Long thought to be the home for self indulgent rock records, the double album made it’s debut in hip with 1988’s “He’s the DJ I’m the Rapper” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. More of a conceptual record, the idea was the showcase both members of the group. At that time DJ’s were equally, if not more, important as MC’s (hence Jeff’s name first.) One record was more song and story driven, while the second featured mostly uptempo tracks with Jeff scratching. The album was a resounding success and even landed the duo the honor of the first hip hop grammy award.

“All eyes on me” by Tupac, 1996 / “Life after death” by Biggie, 1997

The double album did not appear in hip hop again until the mid 90’s with Tupac’s “All eyes on me” and Biggie’s “Life after death.” Since both artists unfortunately passed around the time of these releases most fans were happy to have as much material as possible from their fallen heroes. Knowing that this would be the last time they heard Big and Pac in real time, they cherished every track and interlude without judgement. Even to this day, it’s hard to listen without a hint of sentimentality towards every song. These two records would become the high water mark for which all following double albums would be judged.

“Wu-Tang Forever” by Wu-Tang Clan, 1997

By 1997 the nine member Wu-Tang clan had pulled off an incredible feat. After the successful debut of their record “Enter the 36 chambers” in 1993, they released gold and platinum solo records from Method Man, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah and GZA . The long awaited follow up for the group was due and anticipation was at a fever pitch. When it was announced that ‘Wu-Tang Forever” would be a double album, fans thought they hit the jackpot. GZA even captured the feeling on the first bars of the album. “Reunited, double LP, world excited.” The album was a huge success and went multi-platinum out of the gate.

However, after taking in the entire record many thought some of the songs didn’t stand up to others and a lively debate started about if this would have been better as one record. With nine members in the group, it’s a challenge for everyone to get a chance to shine but overall the record stands up to the test of time. The extraordinarily long and meandering intro and outro are definite skips though.

“Art of War” by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, 1997 / “My Homies” by Scarface, 1998

There were others that dipped their toes into the double album territory during the 90’s with varying degrees of success. Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony, Scarface and Master P all released an overload of content to their fans. But the real blossom of excess would come in the early 2000’s.

“The Blueprint 2” by Jay-Z, 2002

The biggest rapper on the planet in 2003 was undeniably Brooklyn’s own Jay-Z. After the hugely successful Blueprint album in 2001, Jay decided to give the fans twice the pleasure with his follow up, The Blueprint 2. The results were mixed. While definitely generating a few hits, including the Beyonce driven single “Me and My Girlfriend,” the album suffered from monotonous filler tracks. Jay even tacitly acknowledged this by releasing a single version of the album called The Blueprint 2.1 the following year.

“Speakerboxx/The Love Below” by Outkast, 2003

The next big hip hop double album, became one of the biggest selling albums of all-time. Outkast’s “Speakerboxx/The Love Below”. In hindsight, what should have been a victory lap was actually a swan song, as this was the last Outkast album. Technically it was barely an Outkast album. Conceptually Andre and Big Boi decided to each create a solo album and package them together as one record. While this was marketing genius, fans missed the chemistry of the group. Singles like “Hey Ya” and The Way You Move” showcased the best of each MC, most of the other album tracks highlighted the eccentricities of each rapper, but without the yin/yang balance to keep them in check. Regardless, this become the high-water mark of the 2000’s era double records.

“Street’s Disciple” by Nas, 2004 / “Sweat/Suit” by Nelly, 2005

Two other successful artists followed suit. Nas and Nelly both emptied their cache on their albums “Street’s Disciple” and “Sweat/Suit” respectively. Again both generated hits, but left fans with ear fatigue and dismay at tracks that should have been left on the cutting room floor. The Diplomats served their rabid fan base better with 2003’s “Diplomatic Immunity.” Nate Dogg, Kurupt and E-40 also served up double XL sized records to varying degrees of success.

 “Underground Kingz” by UGK, 2007

The 2007 UGK album “Underground Kingz” hit the target a bit better. Pimp C had been locked up and it had been five years since the group’s previous album “Side Hustles.” Due to this delay an album of 25+ UGK songs was a welcome surprise. Pimp C untimely passing shortly after the albums was released further cemented this album as a classic in minds of fans and critics.

“SR3MM” by Rae Sremmurd, 2018 / “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers” by Kendrick Lamar, 2022

With the advent of streaming, the album format has gone through many different changes. The formats of an EP, album and double or triple album have all morphed into more playlist style offerings that can be cherrypicked or listened to on shuffle. We’ve had a triple length project from Rae Sremmurd “SR3MM” and now Kendrick has released his double album “Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers.”. The conversation about which songs should have been left on or off provides the internet and barbershops with endless debate. Maybe that‘s the intention?