Anderson .Paak is back with a new album, Oxnard, and is finding all sorts of creative ways to celebrate, including making his Saturday Night Live debut to perform songs from the stellar follow-up to his 2016 album, Malibu. SNL announced that .Paak would be the musical guest on the show’s upcoming December 1 episode hosted by Claire Foy.
*marks calendar* #SNL pic.twitter.com/XXyi192sYs
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) November 18, 2018
While .Paak has been making the rounds at radio with his Kendrick Lamar-assisted lead single, “Tints,” he also went all-out for Oxnard‘s debut, throwing a free carnival for the hometown city he named the album after, along with a screening of a mini-doc of its making and a live performance/listening session.
SNL is a high-profile look for the Californian artist, who quietly returned to music after a name change 2014 with the independently-released Venice. After working on Dr. Dre’s 2015 album Compton, on which he contributed six features, .Paak released the lauded Malibu, receiving critical acclaim and generating a significant level of buzz for his burgeoning talent. On Oxnard, he finally cashes in after signing to Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment, giving him resources and a co-sign worthy of the talent he’s flashed on a decade’s worth of underground releases, including 2016’s Yes Lawd!, a collaborative mixtape between .Paak and producer Knxwledge as the duo NxWorries.
Oxnard is out now through Aftermath/Universal. Get it here.