In this week’s newsletter: Just when it seemed there was nothing shocking about an unexpected album drop, Lamar made a truly transgressive move

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Friday afternoons are better known as a time to quietly bury bad news, not loudly drop one of the biggest albums of the year – but Kendrick Lamar doesn’t really operate by the usual rules of media engagement.

The rapper’s recent career path has felt wildly counterintuitive: right as he seemed to be settling into a position of critical adoration but commercial mid-tierness, releasing head-scratchingly ruminative 18-track double albums like Mr Morale and the Big Steppers, he roared back with the biggest hit of his career. The fact that said hit was a diss track – the sort of slightly grubby, inside baseball affair usually tucked away on mix tapes or the back halves of albums – made it stranger still, not to mention that it made some pretty wild allegations about one of the biggest musicians on the planet.