Kendrick Lamar Surprised Everyone With A New Album, And It's Gold

Last night, Kendrick Lamar mysteriously and (sort of) surprisingly released a new album. The follow up to his most recent, Grammy-Award-winning To Pimp A Butterfly, the eight-track wonderment is called untitled unmastered — and so it is. Lamar had hinted at this upcoming project, through his “untitled” performances on The Colbert Report, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and the recent Grammy Awards ceremony. With zero information from the king himself, the internet began to dissect his work, and who might be involved this time around.

Each track reads as it does on his hard drive: numbers, untitled, numbers, and a date of record. The catalogue goes back to 2013 and spans all the way to finishing “07 untitled 07” sometime in 2016. We’ve unknowingly experienced some of this album beyond the untitled performances on late night television shows, as the “untitled 08” track also features a verse used in Funkadelic‘s recent release of “Ain’t That Funkin Kinda Hard On You,” though the track had apparently been recorded back in 2014.

We’ve also learned through Swizz Beatz‘s Instagram that his and Alicia Keys‘ 5-year-old son, Egypt, produced “untitled 07.” This was confirmed on Twitter by TDE producer Sounwave that the young boy produced the second half of the track, which can be seen below:

A video posted by therealswizzz (@therealswizzz) on Mar 3, 2016 at 9:20pm PST

Additionally, a representative for Adrian Younge confirmed that Younge appears on “untitled 06” alongside A Tribe Called Quests‘ Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Cee-Lo, according to Pitchfork.

Kendrick Lamar continues to stun us all with his ruthless talent. Not only does he defy his role in one specific genre, but he takes the stage to challenge political grievances and express his deep roots in hip-hop. With fragrances of jazz and soul mixed in, this record sounds pretty incredible – despite not being touched beyond the raw recordings. As if it wasn’t obvious before, Kendrick Lamar’s unstoppable genius is fully transparent in this release, and should only be honored by purchasing and listening – loudly.

The album is currently available across all platforms, including iTunes, Apple Music, Tidal, and Spotify, via Aftermath, Interscope, and Top Dawg Entertainment.

As of this morning, you can stream the album in full:

Kendrick Lamar – Untitled – Live @ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert

Kendrick Lamar – Untitled 2 – Live w/ Jimmy Fallon

Kendrick Lamar – Grammy Performance

[H/T Pitchfork]