For those of you who’ve been following Don Toliver since his breakout feature on mentor and label-boss Travis Scott’s Astroworld, for the track “Can’t Say,” the Texas rapper is back on the scene today with a brand new video. Following up his own debut album Heaven Or Hell, released in 2020, a year that very well fits that description, Toliver’s “What You Need” video is a Nabil-directed clip that finds him riding in green limos and encountering mystical, glowing plumes of smoke out in the forest. It’s trippy in all the right ways, and the song itself is going to be the lead single off Toliver’s sophomore album, slated for release sometime this summer.
Aside from releasing his debut last year, Don also raised some eyebrows over his kerfuffle with the XXL Freshman cover, an extremely coveted and highly-visible co-sign for rising rappers, which he reportedly turned down in a sense. The magazine’s longtime editor-in-chief told Hot 97’s The Breakfast Club that the young Houston MC basically insisted he’d only pose for the cover photo, and was going to skip all the cyphers, concerts, and freestyles associated with the project. Obviously that didn’t go over well with XXL, but considering Travis Scott took the same route, eschewing the Freshman cover, it seems like Toliver will do just fine anyway. Plus his appearance on Cactus Jack’s Jackboys EP was another boost for his profile, proving Scott’s co-sign might be just as important at this point.
Watch the new video above and look for more info on Toliver’s second album coming soon.