After announcing an album titled DROGAS Wave earlier this year, Lupe Fiasco has revealed to fans that the project will not be released in 2017 as planned. When a fan asked the rapper about his plans to release new music on Twitter Friday night, the rapper responded with some bad news: "Promise broken. No more albums this year. Spread the word."
Lupe's release schedule has been changing fairly regularly since he announced a trilogy of projects in 2015. In December 2016, he cancelled the release of DROGAS, SKULLS, and ROY, suggesting he was retiring from music. In February 2017, he released an album called DROGAS Light, and later revealed that a follow-up titled DROGAS Wave would arrive "soon."
While the Chicago rapper will not be releasing another album this year, he will be performing live. "I'll be doing a few concerts through the end of the year," he wrote on Twitter. "So I'll see some of y'all on the road."
At a show in May, Lupe shared some info on DROGAS Wave, which he suggested would be different from Light in that he would be entirely free of his former contract. "DROGAS Wave, which is the next album after DROGAS Light, you'll get like -- I ain't even gonna talk about this shit," he said. "Just trust me. I'm not even saying this to sell records and get you all hyped up. I've heard shit. Shit is amazing. Shit is gonna be fucking crazy. From DROGAS Wave on, you'll be getting the fully complex, fully involved Lupe Fiasco. And the best thing about it is it's already done." He described Light as "almost like a compilation of old-ass songs we had kinda just laying around." He promised that the next project would be the first released without Atlantic's involvement.
Lupe has released a few tracks in advance of Wave, including "Kneelin' On Needles," "Coulda Been," and a freestyle over a Michael Christmas track titled "ANKH:HER." As far as we know, Wave will still be released, just not within the calendar year.
For now, you can stream Lupe's sixth studio album Drogas Light on all major platforms.