Kendrick Lamar scored his fourth #1 album when Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers landed atop the Billboard 200 chart in May. According to Lamar’s longtime production partner, Sounwave, the pgLang co-founder is already creating a new project.
Complex‘s Jessica McKinney recently interviewed Mark “Sounwave” Spears for the outlet. The lengthy conversation includes the Californian talking about what is next for Kendrick Lamar as far as musical releases.
“Oh, we always start, immediately after. Like, we’re starting on the next one now. That’s never going to change, all the way from the Kendrick Lamar EP. The next day, we started on Section.80. It’s just the ideas never stopped,” said Sounwave.
He also added, “That’s one of the main reasons I go on tour with him, is to create the next album. We can’t skip a beat. We have to just keep it going. There’s no breaks. There’s no such thing as a vacation when you’re doing what you love. Everything you do is what you love to do, so you’re excited.”
Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers is Kendrick Lamar’s first studio LP since 2017’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Damn. His discography also contains the critically-acclaimed albums Section.80 (2011), Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012), and To Pimp a Butterfly (2015).
While Kendrick Lamar took a five-year break between dropping Damn and Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, the 14-time Grammy winner and Soundwave apparently continue to make new songs for another body of work. Sounwave explained why this method of recording works best for him.
“We’re like kids in a candy shop. Personally, once I release an album like this, I don’t go back to it for a while, because I lived it so much. It’s like, it’s not for me anymore. It’s time for me to clear my head, so the best thing to do is to think about the next project,” said Soundwave.