Thundercat and Kendrick Lamar‘s longtime partnership in music is still going strong, as the bassist confirmed that he has worked on Kendrick’s next album. Considering Kendrick’s last studio album was DAMN. in 2017 (unless you count the Black Panther soundtrack), it’s only right that he’d be cooking up his next masterpiece. While it may come as no surprise to fans that Kendrick is, in fact, working on new music, very little is known about such a project. K-Dot himself has given us little-to-no intel, but his frequent collaborator, Thundercat—who has worked on all three of Kendrick’s studio albums—can at least tell us this: he has, indeed, made some contributions to the mysterious album, just maybe not as much as he did on the rest of the rapper’s discography.

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“I think I worked on the new one a little bit, too” he said in an interview with Japanese fashion company Neet Tokyo. “But not as much.” Despite contributing less to Kendrick’s latest body of work, Thundercat still speaks incredibly high of the artist, even citing him as one of his own personal sources of inspiration. “Kendrick is and I feel like will be a beacon of what it means to be one of the more creative artists of our generation,” he said. “Through the way the albums have twisted and turned, it speaks beyond its years.”

“He’s inspired me a lot—a lot,” he continued. “I say it every now and again, but I wish I could spend more time around him creating just because he gives off such energy and he knows what he wants a lot of time. Some of my favorite moments of recording was with Kendrick.” Although the video was posted on Youtube this Friday, as XXL points out, it is not stated when the actual interview took place. According to the publication, a subreddit user reached out to the Youtube channel, and the company revealed that the interview was conducted in January. We’ll be sure to keep you updated with any more news about Kendrick’s upcoming album.

There were mixed reactions when Drake dropped his double album, Scorpion, in 2018. While some fans embraced "the more the merrier" philosophy, others felt inundated by its 25 tracks. There have been some iconic double albums throughout music history, but it's no easy feat to pull off. When not executed properly, they can attract criticism for lacking careful curation and dumping a bunch of material in hope that something sticks. In the streaming era, projects that hover in the 20-song range are also often viewed as ploys to boost numbers and revenue. I'm not saying that Scorpion is guilty of any of these things, but I am saying there are people out there who will be pleased to learn that Drake's next album will be significantly shorter. 

While chilling courtside at the Toronto Raptors-Phoenix Suns game on Friday (Feb. 22), Drake spoke to TSN announcers about what has been going on in his life recently. As we could have suspected, The 6 God has been busy cooking up his sixth studio album, which he hopes to keep compact. "I've been doing this for like 10+ years as well... Sometimes you need to set a target goal for yourself just to keep it interesting," the rapper said. "Last album, I went high volume. I did two sides. It was like 20-something songs, which is a lot of songs. This album I'll probably make it more of a realistic offering. Something more concise. It could be 10, 11 songs - 16." 

Kendrick Lamar's next album must be around the corner. You could feel it in the air, or you could just guess based on the amount of time that Kenny has spent away from the spotlight. Sources have confirmed that he has been hard at work in the studio, but other than that, the TDE team does an impressive job of keeping details under wraps. We haven't really received information about who Kendrick is working with, which musical direction he's going in or around when we could expect his new project to drop. However, we may have just gotten a tip about #K5. 

On Saturday (Jan. 11), former Billboard editorial director and current columnist for the publication, Bill Werde, tweeted some stuff he heard from a little birdie: "Did anyone not named Beyonce release better, more meaningful back-to-back albums last decade than Kendrick Lamar? Are you interested to know that I hear from several friends that recording on the new album may finally be done? And that he’s pulling in more rock sounds this time?"