Kendrick Lamar has announced that his final album for Top Dawg Entertainment is on the way.
The rapper and artist shared a statement from his social media accounts along with a photo that appeared to show him in the recording booth.
See the letter in full below:
“I spend most of my days with fleeting thoughts. Writing. Listening. And collecting old Beach cruisers. The morning rides keep me on a hill of silence.
“I go months without a phone.
“Love, loss, and grief have disturbed my comfort zone, but the glimmers of God speak through my music and family.
“While the world around me evolves, I reflect on what matters the most. The life in which my words will land next.
“As I produce my final TDE album, I feel joy to have been a part of such a cultural imprint after 17 years. The Struggles. The Success. And most importantly, the Brotherhood. May the Most High continue to use Top Dawg as a vessel for candid creators. As I continue to pursue my life’s calling.
“There’s beauty in completion. And always faith in the unknown.
“Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts. I’ve prayed for you all.
“See you soon enough.
“-oklama.”
Lamar, 34, has been one of TDE’s flagship artists for over a decade, and has released a number of critically adored projects through it along with major label Interscope, including Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, To Pimp a Butterfly and his most recent album, 2017’s Damn.
The latter won him the Pulitzer Prize for Music, along with a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album in 2018.
His departure from TDE comes two years after its former president and Lamar’s longtime collaborator, Dave Free, also stepped away from the label.
“I would say [it took] about eight years ’til we figured out what not to do,” Free said in 2018. “The earlier stages we were just really grinding through.”
“None of the tactics we used back in the day to break Kendrick, Ab-Soul, Jay Rock or Schoolboy would work now,” he added. “It’s a whole new game. Blogs were very influential back then and I’d have to build a lot of relationships with blogs and now it’s just more about streaming. You have to have the relationships with the streaming sites and it can’t just be a fake relationship.”
In 2020, Lamar and Free launched a new company called pgLang, and released an accompanying short film and merchandise. They announced themselves as founders of the “service company” and said they were “focused on using our experiences, and nurturing our many collaborators, to build stories that are equally accessible and engaging then fitting them within the best media”.
