"The Heart Part 5" is intended to be the fifth in a series of tracks that Kendrick Lamar, known as the only Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper, began releasing in 2010.
On a sample of the song "I Want You" by Marvin Gaye, the child from Compton, a disadvantaged suburb of Los Angeles, evokes social themes that are dear to him such as racism and poverty.
He does this by taking on several faces, using the technique of morphing, as the clip kicks off with the words "I am. All of us", obviously intended to take on the controversial stories of these characters. .
He first turns into OJ Simpson, former glory of American football accused and then acquitted of double murder in the 1990s, after a trial that had stirred up racial tensions in the country.
Then he takes on the figure of rapper turned businessman Kanye West, but also actor Will Smith, in turmoil since he slapped comedian Chris Rock on the Oscars stage, or basketball legend Kobe Bryant, tragically missing in a helicopter crash in early 2020.
Also appearing is actor Jussie Smollett, sentenced in March to prison for having staged a racist and homophobic attack of which he claimed to be the victim, as well as Californian rapper Nipsey Hussle, shot dead in 2019.
The track landed on streaming platforms on Sunday evening, as his new album "Mr Morale & The Big Steppers" is due out on Friday, five years after his last opus, "DAMN", which earned him the consecration by a Pulitzer Prize in the music category.
A first for a hip-hop artist and more broadly for modern popular music.
Kendrick Lamar, 34, has already won 14 Grammy Awards, the awards of the American music industry.
He is considered one of the greatest rappers of all time.
© 2022 AFP