For every Watch the Throne or What a Time to Be Alive, there are scores of joint hip hop projects borne of one epic late night in the studio that never crystallize into a fully formed release. As fans, we should know better than to let these glimmers of collaborative greatness get our hopes up. But the possibilities are too great to ignore.
This list is not comprehensive; we didn't include the rumored Big Sean and Mike Posner (lol) collaboration, for example. Click through the gallery to see 10 of the most potent unreleased projects in hip hop.
Chance the Rapper & Childish Gambino
In June 2014, Childish Gambino revealed that he had a joint EP in the works with Chance the Rapper, only to announce that they had indefinitely shelved the project four months later. "We're both really busy," he explained. "Chance is kinda doing his own thing with the college tour, and right now it just doesn't feel like the time. We're in two different spaces."
Chance confirmed the existence of the project during a Reddit AMA over the weekend.
Childish characterized his relationship with Chance during a 2014 interview with XXL. “We’re like big brother little brother," he said. "I love Chance. I fucking hate Chance sometimes. Sometimes he’s a dick. Sometimes he’s an asshole, but I love him too. Like, I get it…He’s smart. He understands. He listens.”
Kendrick Lamar & J Cole
Kendrick and Cole have been recording together since the Section.80 days, and since then both have been open about the fact the collab album is a distinct possibility. Millions of fans jumped for joy when Cole rapped the following at the end of his Black Friday "Alright" remix:
"When you and K. Dot shit dropping? / Bitch never, they can’t handle two black niggas this clever / But this February, bet shit get scary when I fuck around and drop..."
Kendrick's little sister seemed to confirm that a full collaborative LP was dropping in February the next day. But February came and went with still no project.
Future & Zaytoven [Beast Mode 2]
January 2015: Beast Mode is released.
August 2015: Zaytoven teases Beast Mode 2.
April 2016: Future posts a fiery Snapchat of him in the studio vibing out two his latest creation involving a Zaytoven beat. Check out the Snapchat clip below. Like we said: fiery.
Kanye West & Drake
During an interview with the Breakfast Club in early 2015, Kanye explained how the concept of his song "Wolves" came into being. He and Drake had a conversation about the possibility of doing a joint album together called Wolves.
"The 'Wolves' song came from a conversation that me and Drake had, when was gonna do an album together, and the album was called Wolves," he said. "I asked [Drake], and we talked about it, and he said yeah we was gonna do it. And actually, he was sending beats back and forth."
Juicy J & A$AP Rocky
Juicy J and Rocky hit the studio together multiple times last December. As if that weren't enough, Juicy straight up teased a joint album on Instagram. "Everything we dropping gone be [Fire emoji] #trustme," he wrote. "Who wanna see @asaprocky & @juicyj album?"
Cam'Ron & A-Trak
Reports of a Camron X A-Trak EP surfaced in early 2014. Social media corroborated these reports; Just Blaze tweeted that he contributed to the project and A-Trak tweeted, "wait til they see the production team we got on this killa project." Cam'Ron also contributed a voiceover to one of A-Trak's Instagram videos: "My man A-Trak! I feel something epic.. no homo."
They put out two songs together -- "Dipshits" feat. Juelz Santana and "Humphrey" -- but haven't been able to cobble together a complete project. As A-Trak explained in a 2015 interview with HNHH, "Our schedules don't always coincide. We made a bunch of music at once."
Migos & Young Thug [Migos Thuggin]
Migos Thuggin was originally slated to arrive on Christmas Day 2015. Christmas came and went and the tape was nowhere to be found. In an interview with DJ Vlad a month later, Offset suggested that 300 Entertainment CEO Lyor Cohen prevented the release of the project.
"Lyor froze it. We can't do it right now," Offset said. "That was going to be a big project but Lyon blocked the play. He ain't with it, he ain't stamp it. So we couldn't go through with it."
Metro Boomin & Young Thug [Metro Thuggin]
We've been waiting on this one damn near forever. In December, Thug's go-to videographer Be El be referred to the tape as "MetroThuggin old and new," which would suggest that multiple iterations of the tape exist.
"Definitely taking a lot of time on [Metro Thuggin], and just want everybody to enjoy this...just to have an organized body of work from Thug," Metro told HNHH in 2014. "I know a lot of people really ain't getting that right now. As far as all these mixtapes and all these random songs popping up...It's really just to get something official."
They're definitely still takin a lot of time. Young Thug has confirmed that he is also sitting on tapes with Fetty Wap (ThuggaWap) and Post Malone (Malone Thuggin?).
Lil Wayne, Juvenile, & Mannie Fresh
In January, Juvenile and Mannie Fresh confirmed that they were working on an album with Lil Wayne during an interview with AllHipHop.
Though all three artists have experience their own share of Cash Money drama, largely due to Birdman's miserly ways, Mannie Fresh said that they are willing to put aside their differences aside to please their fans.
"We already got some features," Juvenile said.
Beyonce & Jay Z
Back in 2014, DJ Skee reported that Beyonce and Jay Z were "working on an album together.
"I have confirmed and talked with a couple sources," he said... "This secret would top [Jay and Bey's previous surprise releases]."
No evidence currently suggests that a Bey X Jay album is on the horizon. Beyonce just dropped Lemonade and Jay Z is reportedly working on his rebuttal album. He says that the will be his last. Given his history of "last" albums, the possibility of a collaborative album with Beyonce cannot be removed from play.