Top Dawg Entertainment is well-known for esoteric rollouts which include blacked-out profile pics and surprise single releases, but it’s been a while since we’ve heard from the West Coast-based label home of Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, and SZA. Today, the Top Dawg himself, TDE CEO Anthony Tiffith, broke the silence, tweeting out a mysterious release date reveal with a triumphant caption. “THE WAIT IS OVAH!!!!” he wrote, while a video displayed a simulated loading screen with a progress bar that rapidly reaches the 99% mark before resolving into a simple “5/7/21.”
THE WAIT IS OVAH!!!! #TDE pic.twitter.com/MVjWIO7o7L
— TOP DAWG #TDE (@dangerookipawaa) April 28, 2021
In typical TDE fashion, though, this leaves us with more questions than answers. What is the label planning? Which member of the roster warrants such excitement from the head honcho? It’s been a while since most of the marquee stars of TDE last released full-length projects; fans have been anxiously awaiting updates from Ab-Soul (who last released Do What Thou Wilt. in 2016), Isaiah Rashad (The Sun’s Tirade, 2016), Kendrick Lamar (DAMN., 2017) and SZA (CTRL, 2017). That’s not counting Jay Rock, whose last album dropped in 2018, Schoolboy Q, who last released in 2019, or group efforts like Black Hippy or the collaborative project Reason and Jay Rock hinted at in 2019.
For now, it looks like we’ll just have to wait to see if the label plans to release more information before next Friday or stay glued to their social channels to find out who it is. Check out Top Dawg’s tweet above.