Kendrick Lamar's plans to drop a new album have been revealed and the release came sooner than expected. Between hints from Spotify and Top Dawg Entertainment's CEO Anthony Tiffith, fans quickly put together the pieces and discovered the new project could drop as early as Friday at midnight.
Fans could barely contain their excitement when Tiffith announced on Tuesday that he was releasing something brand new at some unknown time this week. With so many incredible artists on his label, it was enough knowing one of them could have new music coming out, but nobody expected it to be Lamar.
That is until now.
untitled unmastered. https://t.co/YlAszcK4e4
— Kendrick Lamar (@kendricklamar) March 4, 2016
Earlier in the week, TDE's CEO made the exciting announcement writing: "Just 2 show n--gas I'm not playing. I've decided 2 drop a project 1 day this week. I won't say wut day or who. It cud be 2nite So don't ask me jus stay close to the net. Is this Kool with y'all?" Then, to everyone's surprise, Spotify released new music with a project called "Untitled Unmastered" listed under Kendrick's name.
While the album was not yet available for streaming, the album cover art was there, along with eight "Untitled" songs. Since Kendrick has been performing songs from his "Untitled" series during his last several television appearances, including his highly talked about Grammys performance, it looks like this album is the full collection.
NBA star LeBron James even helped give out some clues to this upcoming album without even knowing it as he really wants the rapper to release the songs he's been performing lately. After the Grammys, he tweeted at Tiffith and Lamar saying, "Yo @dangerookipawaa after that @kendricklamar Grammys performance, you have to release those untitled tracks asap!!! What's up? Talk to me."
The project was most likely already in the works at this point, but the CEO still responded saying: "Dam my n-ga u on my head 2...The fans been killing me. Y'all just backed me in a corner...Give me a few days 2 think."
When Lamar's last album "To Pimp A Butterfly" was released, it became available for streaming at midnight, so many expected that "Untitled Unmastered" would also become available within hours of Spotify releasing the information. It ended up being officially released a little after 11 p.m. on Thursday. The new album is made up of tracks that didn't make it on to his previous award-winning album.
Producer Cardo also confirmed that the album was real as he posted a photo of the project to Instagram shortly after Spotify put up the tracks writing, "you've been warned." He also tagged fellow producers Yung Exclusive and Frank Dukes, hinting that all three would be featured on the project.
"You see all these performances on these late night shows," Lamar said of his recent "Untitled" performances. "I got a chamber of material from the album that I was in love where sample clearances or something as simple as a deadline kept it off the album. But I think probably close to ten songs that I'm in love with that I'll still play and still perform that didn't make the cut."
