American rapper Kendrick Lamar had a few surprises up his sleeve on Thursday, as news broke out that he was secretly releasing a new album on Spotify. In addition, the rapper has been featured in a short film that was leaked on Reddit.
The new album, untitled unmastered , was accidentally confirmed by Spotify on Thursday, with an expected release date on Friday, March 4.
BREAKING: All hail King @kendricklamar . #UntitledUnmastered https://t.co/wqkgahQ597
— Spotify (@Spotify) March 4, 2016
Interestingly, most of the tracks in Lamar’s new album have filenames dating back to 2014, while one showed its creation date as being in 2013. There is also at least one track ranging from 2014-2016.
According to the Spotify listing, the album is already visible for viewing, although the streams are still unplayable. The mobile app stated that the new album will be released via Aftermath, Interscope, and Top Dawg Entertainment.
Producer Cardo also put some skepticism to rest after he tweeted the cover art of the upcoming album. He even tagged fellow producers Yung Exclusive and Frank Dukes.
Only a few days ago, TDE’s CEO Anthony Tiffith already hinted that the company will release new albums for this year.
“Ive decided 2 drop a project 1 day this week. I won’t say…,” he said. A follow-up Twitter post from TDE also said Lamar’s fans should thank NBA superstar LeBron James for the album release.
You can thank LeBron James for the release of Kendrick Lamar’s new album: https://t.co/ef2jIdNkV7 pic.twitter.com/1PDnE9fCpS
— Consequence of Sound (@coslive) March 4, 2016
However, this is not the first time that Lamar, 28, has dropped untitled and unreleased songs. In the past, Lamar has performed untitled tracks in some TV shows like The Colbert Report , The Tonight Show, and even his most recent performance at the Grammys.
Kendrick Lamar Performs on The Tonight Show
The only difference is that the rapper decided to compile those unreleased songs onto an album.
“You see all these performances on these late night shows — 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,” Kendrick Lamar said in an interview last month.
He also added in the interview that he has close to 10 songs that he loves, but did not make the cut. Lamar said he would still play and perform those songs, which could possibly be the tracks in untitled unmastered .
The California-raised rapper’s last album was last year’s How to Pimp a Butterfly , which won a Grammy award.
Kendrick Delivers His Speech for Winning Rap Album of the Year at the Grammys
Aside from the surprise album release on Spotify and iTunes , Lamar’s name was also dragged into the news when a short film was leaked on the content-submission website Reddit.
Kendrick Lamar appeared in the 15-minute film , which was reported to have been made for his good kid, m.A.A.d city album.
Unfortunately, as a report indicated, the short film is not actually about Kendrick Lamar. Instead, GKMC director Khalil Joseph merely reached out to Lamar and asked him to work on a short film.
Lamar initially refused, although he changed his mind when he was invited to perform at Kanye West’s Yeezus tour. Joseph filmed a short video that accompanied Lamar while he performed on stage.
Kendrick Lamar’s ‘good kid, m.A.A.d city’ short film has made its way online: https://t.co/6LCcyzlQEm pic.twitter.com/ZTINlrCOZy
— Complex (@ComplexMag) March 3, 2016
Little did everyone know that while filming the video, Joseph shot hours of footage and trimmed it into a 15-minute clip. The video was then named M.a.a.D. City, and was even showcased as an exhibit in the MOCA in Los Angeles.
To a certain degree, the short film can be considered a video on Kendrick Lamar, especially since it had the title GKMC , and even used music from the rapper’s album. However, Lamar was definitely not involved in making the short film, nor did he intend to ever release it.
[Image by Bennett Raglin, Getty Images]
