What to make of M.I's announcement

M.I / amped illustration

Last night on the 25th of July 2018, M.I made an announcement. This announcement was made through a screenshot of his iPhone notes app, cause this is 2018 and this is how press releases are done these days. 

M.I announced 3 albums that he’s executive produced and in his words “the Convo for hip hop this year is closed. If you wanted to drop this year wait till 2019” 

The three announced albums were:

- Crown a joint album from Loose Kaynon and A-Q. 

AQ is one of the most talented rappers in the game currently. His 2017 album “Blessed Forever” was a very good album and showed us how good he can be. Loose Kaynon is a seasoned vet in the Nigerian rap game, he has been silent since his debut album the Gemini project in 2016. This unlikely pairing of the Old (Loose Kaynon) and the new (A-Q) is something i’d give a listen. Hopefully I’d be able to give it more than one listen. 

I expect a solid album with a lot of clever rapping. 

 - Young Denzl, M.I’s long awaited album.  

MI has been teasing Young Denzl for what has seemed like forever now. Fans have gone from excitement to anticipation to waiting. I personally thought the album wasn’t coming out again. In that time he dropped Rendezvous, and I for one was not impressed by that body of work. The songs didn’t resonate and the album kind of lost steam after the first week of release.

I’m hoping it was a prelude to the album in the way that mixtapes were made of songs that didn’t make the album back in the day. Hopefully Young Denzl is a return to form for M.I as the best rapper to ever do it in Nigeria. 

- BadBoyBlaq, an Album from Blaqbonez.

Blaq Bones is a gifted young rapper that has been doing his thing for while now but on a small level. He’s kind of a new wave rapper that knows how to blend different styles of music I’m a fan of his. He showed the world what he’s capable of with his covers of song like “icon” and an excellent verse on the song “Slow” off M.I’s  last project rendezvous. He’s consistently putting out good music So a full length project from him that’s being executive produced by MI is just what the doctor ordered.

It’s also weird that this album announcement came out of left field because it’s only M.I out of all the artists involved in this drop that doesn’t need “promo”  and he’s the only one that has some kind of promotion going with the video he just released albeit for a song that’s 4 years old. This whole surprise strategy is strange but interesting.