There's plenty of reasons to be excited about Kendrick Lamar's return — from the surprise release of his deepfake laden video for "The Heart Part 5" to the fact that his highly anticipated new album, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, is out tomorrow, but one of the smaller details you might have missed is the news that the rapper has a second child.
The Pulitzer Prize winner seemed to confirm the existence of the new family addition in the cover art for the forthcoming album. The cover features Lamar with a crown of thorns and a gun tucked in his waistband holding his two-year-old daughter and fiancée, Whitney Alford, nursing what we presume to be the couple's second child in the background.
High school sweethearts, Lamar and Alford confirmed their engagement in 2015, gushing to Billboard that same year that “I wouldn’t even call her my girl... That’s my best friend. I don’t even like the term that society has put in the world as far as being a companion — she’s somebody I can tell my fears to.”
A notoriously private individual, it probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Lamar wouldn't make a big public announcement about the arrival of his second kid. It still remains unclear as to whether or not the newborn pictured with Alford is the couple's newest family member but given the fact that they have yet to even confirm the name of their first born, which they welcomed back in 2019, it seems highly unlikely that they would do it differently with their newest child.
With the album art's apparent family focus, it will be interesting to see if discussions of fatherhood work its way into Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. Fortunately, since the record drops at midnight we won't have to wait too long find out.
Photo via Getty/ Paras Griffin
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