A couple weeks back, Kendrick Lamar surprised everyone when he dropped “The Heart Part 4” totally out of nowhere. While it was great to hear something new from the self-proclaimed “greatest rapper alive,” what really got people’s blood flowing was the line, “You know what time it is, ante up, this is in forever / Y’all got ’til April the 7th to get ya’ll sh*t together.” Many took it as a warning shot to the entire rap community, as well as a subtle way of announcing the date for his next project.
But, what if that isn’t the case? I mean, it’s still entirely possible that K Dot drops his next masterpiece this Friday, but that doesn’t mean it’s a guarantee. We have solid evidence that the album exists, and that its really, really good, at least according to his TDE label mate ScHoolboy Q.
https://twitter.com/M0rtalman/status/847657840575520770?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fuproxx.com%2Frealtalk%2Fkendrick-lamar-new-album-tde-label-hype-social-media%2F
What we still don’t have however, is official confirmation from TDE about the date. A few months back, when talking about SZA’s latest release, a rep from TDE told DJ Booth, “If it doesn’t come directly from TDE then it isn’t official.” The label has yet to say a single thing about Kendrick’s next album, except for Top himself who is already projecting it to be the album of the year.
everytiime he drops its the aoty…… https://t.co/vTzWWRfykw
— TOP DAWG #TDE (@dangerookipawaa) April 2, 2017
Even more troubling, the ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) website has nothing in its database listing new music from Kendrick. His entries end at his most recent single “Humble.” This is troubling because after an artist gives their album over to their label, the label then files it with the ISRC who gives it an official number. In theory, if K Dot has an album coming out soon, the tracks should be labeled in the ISRC. On the other, it’s still possible that he hasn’t “officially” given it to TDE which is why it hasn’t made it in yet.
So, once again, Kendrick very well could drop his next album this Friday — or even late Thursday night if he’s feeling generous — but it’s not a given. We’ll just have to stay tuned to see.
