Earlier today (March 27), Top Dawg Entertainment founder and CEO Anthony Tiffith decided to hold an impromptu Q&A session on Twitter, where he answered several questions in regard to forthcoming releases from the label and more. The biggest moment from that forum came when a fan inquired about whether or not something new would be coming from Black Hippy, the four-man collective that consists of Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, ScHoolboy Q, and Jay Rock. “I think they will… They owe y’all an album or EP,” Tiffith replied, resulting in an outpour of hopeful comments.
While we’ve never received a full-length effort from Black Hippy, the group made regular appearances on each other’s solo efforts, which spawned classics like “Black Lip Bastard (Remix),” “Say Wassup,” “Swimming Pools (Remix),” and “Vice City.” Alongside TDE member Isaiah Rashad, the group delivered a groundbreaking cypher during the 2013 BET Hip Hop Awards, complete with a Kendrick verse that crowds still pick apart and analyze to this day.
In a past interview with MIC, TDE President Terrence “Punch” Henderson attempted to explain why a Black Hippy LP never came to fruition.
“We definitely wanted to do a Black Hippy album. But it was such a learning experience for us, everything was new,” he admitted. “The timing never really panned out. When one guy would be recording his album, another guy would be on tour. Everybody was never in the same timeframe.”
He continued, “So we didn’t want to hold back; we wanted to keep going and just push further into their individual careers. In hindsight, I wish I would’ve pushed the Black Hippy album more. That was always my goal, personally. You would have to ask everybody individually to see if that’s what their goal was.”
Check out Tiffith‘s surprising tweet — along with more promises for the year — below.