Back in 2011, Bryson Tiller marked his official introduction with the debut mixtape Killer Instinct, setting the stage for the Louisville crooner as one of R&B’s next big artists. Yesterday (Oct. 31), Tiller marked the ten-year anniversary of that release with its sequel, Killer Instinct 2: The Nightmare Before, which comes with 13 songs and additional features from Julius Keith and Marzz.
As was revealed in a past interview with VIBE, Killer Instinct was first created when Tiller was still a kid, when he was working for businesses like UPS and Papa John’s:
“I was 17 years old when I made that mixtape and I’m 22 now. Lyrically, vocally, and just as a young man in general I’ve grown, and I’m still growing. I’m learning.
Last fall, Tiller returned to the fold with his third studio LP A N N I V E R S A R Y, a 10-track body of work led by well-received singles like “Inhale,” “Always Forever,” and “Outta Time” — the last of which saw an assist from Drake. The album was both a critical and commercial success, landing Tiller within the top five of the Billboard 200 thanks to an impressive 57,000 first-week album equivalent units sold. Back in February, fans would also get a deluxe edition of A N N I V E R S A R Y with five extra songs and a collaboration alongside Big Sean.
Currently, Tiller is said to be gearing up for the release of his long-awaited album Serenity, which — as previously reported by REVOLT — would consist of three volumes:
“I realized how much fucking music that I had for Serenity, all this different shit … So Serenity is now not one album, but it’s three albums. It’s three volumes. One is a rap album, one is an R&B album, and then one is a pop album.”
Until that arrives, you can press play on Tiller’s Killer Instinct 2: The Nightmare Before (hosted by DJ Edub) below.