The time has finally come for Lil Yachty‘s fans to ask themselves, “What the fuck? When they do this?” At least that’s what the rapper predicted his fans would think in February when he first started teasing his new collaborative album, Bad Cameo, with James Blake. Now, Yachty and Blake have set June 28 as the release date for the album, though they haven’t yet released a track list or single.
The duo recently discussed the collaboration with Complex, with Yachty revealing that he DM’d Blake in 2020 about how much he loved Blake’s Assume Form but never heard back since Blake wasn’t checking Instagram at the moment. Fortuitously, though, the admiration was mutual. “I’ve been a fan of Yachty for years,” Blake said. “And when I heard his last record [Let’s Start Here], I was like, this is really a turn. Not many artists are brave enough to do something that’s kind of opposite of the last thing they did.” A mutual friend eventually introduced them.
Yachty and Blake described the album as ambient, experimental, and unlike anything either of them had done previously. Blake said he also appreciated Yachty’s vulnerability in the sessions.
In the interview, Yachty talked about an as-yet-unreleased song he wrote about his daughter, which Blake called “so beautiful.” “When you vocalize something, it makes things feel a lot more real,” Yachty said. “So for me I think it was writing those words down, saying them, it just made me feel the way. It was just like, damn.”
“I can tell why you chose that beat because it just feels wistful and sort of, I don’t know, endless,” Blake told Yachty in the Complex interview. “It just keeps going round and creates this perfect bed for you to just tell the story or say how you feel about her.”
In February, Yachty spoke about how unusual the project is for both artists in an Instagram video. “I think James has worked with a quite substantial amount of hip-hop artists, but this project is just like … It’s so left … for both of us,” he said.