The first new music from Kendrick Lamar since 2022 has arrived in the form of a score for a new short film titled The Button, celebrating the Chanel Spring-Summer 2024 Haute Couture show next week.
At “the invitation of” Chanel’s creative director, Virginie Viard, The Button is a collaborative project between the brand and Lamar’s media company with Dave Free, pgLang. The three-minute, black-and-white short film was written by Free, and stars Margaret Qualley, Anna Mouglalis, and supermodel Naomi Campbell.
Following the arc of The Button’s plot, Lamar’s score — itself possibly a snippet of an unreleased song — is built around a driving beat, and features a subdued verse from the rapper, as well as a brief vocal hook. Check it out below.
pgLang first hinted at a collaboration with Chanel in the summer of 2023, and Lamar was seen donning Chanel at last year’s Paris Couture Week. Now, The Button arrives ahead of the brand’s Spring-Summer 2024 Haute Couture show, with a message at the end of the three-minute video reading: “The film of the show will be revealed on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024 at 2 p.m., Paris time.”
This is the first new music we’ve heard from Lamar since 2022’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, other than a few appearances, including a feature on Baby Keem’s “The Hillbillies” and a newly-recorded verse on “Bad Blood” for Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version).
At the invitation of Virginie Viard, Kendrick Lamar and creative partner Dave Free meet the world of CHANEL Haute Couture for the first time, bringing to life a story about time and transmission.
Actress and House ambassador Margaret Qualley plunges us into the tale “The… pic.twitter.com/OnBXsd7Mx5— pgLang (@pgLang) January 20, 2024