Migos' Culture was a career-defining project for the Atlanta trio. While "Bad & Boujee" introduced them to a much wider audience, Culture was the culmination of the years of buzz they've built. They further proved their contributions to hip hop and pop culture with the album and launched themselves into pop stardom. However, the hype around an artist is only as good as their consistency.
Last night, they finally revealed the release date for Culture II which is expected to drop on Jan. 26th, a day before the one year anniversary of Culture. The hype surrounding the album was built as far as last summer when Quavo said he misplaced the hard drive with all of the Culture II recordings. It's since been found and we've still been waiting on the album which was initially expected to drop before the end of 2017.
Thusfar, they've released two singles off of the project with the Nicki Minaj & Cardi B assisted "MotorSport" and the Pharell produced "Stir Fry." Based off of those singles, it's hard to predict what they'll have up their sleeve for their upcoming project. The trio have been dabbling with every sort of genre since breaking out into the mainstream so it's difficult to predict whether they'll stick to their successful formula or experiment with other genres.
As they gear up to release Culture II on January 26th, we've created a list of the five things we want to see on their highly anticipated follow up album.
Another Lil Uzi Vert collaboration with all three Migos
Ever since their launch into the limelight, Takeoff's been overshadowed by Quavo and Offset. Much of it has a lot to do with his absence of their massive single, "Bad & Boujee." It later spawned the "Does it look like I got left off 'Bad & Boujee?'" meme which the Internet is still grateful for. However, Lil Uzi Vert delivered a lackluster performance that could've easily been replaced with a verse from Takeoff.
While Migos and Lil Uzi Vert's careers have reached new heights over the past year, it would be nice to hear them reconnect with the inclusion of each member of the Migos to drop off another infectious joint to have on repeat for the remainder of the year.
Executive Produced by Kanye West
Back in October, Quavo had the Internet in a guessing frenzy after he tweeted, "C U L T U R E I I WAIT TIL U SEE WHO EXECUTIVE PRODUCED IT." There were a number of guesses as to who would be executive producing it including Drake, Asahd Khaled and Metro Boomin. But the most prominent guess was Kanye West. After Kanye's Yeezy Season 3 fashion show, it was revealed he signed Migos penned a G.O.O.D Music Management deal so the idea of Kanye West executive producing Migos' forthcoming album isn't far fetched.
Offset may have shut down those rumors but as fans are still left in the dark, there's still the tiniest bit of hope that maybe Kanye West will end up overlooking the project.
More production from Buddah Bless, DJ Durel, among tried and true collaborators
Over the course of their career, they've continued to prove that there ear for production is unmatched. The regular bank of producers they've worked with over the course of their career helped shape their signature sound. Their most recent effort "Stir Fry" was produced by Pharrell Williams but it felt a bit underwhelming. Now, you'd think matching one of the hottest groups in the world with one of hip hop's legendary producers would result in a monstrous collaboration but it felt like a forced effort from Migos. We hope Migos recruit their typical go-to producers on Culture II (I.e. Murda Beatz, Buddah Bless, Zaytoven and DJ Durel) to handle the majority of the production on the album and continue to bring the signature Migos flare that makes their music stand-out in the hip hop spectrum.
R&B leaning record à la "Cocoon"
We're excited to here how Migos expand their sound on Culture II but one thing we definitely want to hear on the upcoming project is an R&B leaning record. They've used melodies to help blend their infectious hooks with their gritty bars but we want a track with an evident R&B influence. On "Culture," they teetered closer to the R&B sound with "Kelly Price" featuring Travis Scott but what we'd really like to see is another cut that's in the vein of "Cocoon."
Prior to announcing the release date, Quavo shared the "Culture National Anthem" on his Instagram page. The snippet had Quavo crooning over percussion-less production which definitely fits in the vein of R&B. However, a middle ground between that and their bangers would be a perfect cut for "Culture II."
Succinct tracklist
Migos have always delivered quality with everything they've released since their inception and we hope they maintain that. Just like Culture, we'd rather see them deliver a concise project of twelve to thirteen tracks of memorable bangers rather than a 20 track plus project that has handful of cuts with replay value. "Culture II" has been in the works for months and months so they definitely have a large stash of unreleased music they've recorded specifically for the upcoming project. However, for them to have another critically successful album, they need to narrow down there catalog to the best twelve to thirteen tracks.