Kendrick Lamar is back! Ahead of the arrival of his Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers album, the rapper surprise-dropped the new song “The Heart Part 5” on Sunday night.
In addition to the track, an unsettling video for the song arrived as well, co-directed by PgLang’s Dave Free alongside the Compton native. For the song, Lamar raps over a stripped-down sample of Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You” while wearing a black bandana and sporting an afro, while transforming into well-known celebrities — Kanye West, Nipsey Hussle, Jussie Smollett, Kobe Bryant and O.J. Simpson — with the help of deepfake technology to make the faces look as lifelike as possible.
“The Heart Part 5” is the first taste of what fans can expect from Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, but the track itself serves as the fifth song in his “The Heart” series, which he has been releasing well before the arrival of his debut mixtape, Overly Dedicated, in April 2010. In the time since, Lamar released four other tracks in the series, with part 2 arriving in September 2010, part 3 in 2012 and part 4 in 2017.
Ahead of the arrival of Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers — set for this Friday — we want to know: Which song in Lamar’s “The Heart” song series is your favorite? Revisit all the tracks in Billboard‘s ranked order here before the album is released, and cast your vote in the poll below.