Let's Do This!
Alright, y’all. It’s just about go time. Super Dope drops tomorrow (May 5). You’ll be able to get it digitally right away on Bandcamp. You can put in your orders for physical copies on the Handsmade website. I’m hearing that it might take up to six weeks for cassettes and CDs to ship out and we expect to have the vinyl by October. That’s a long wait but it shouldn’t take nearly as long as the King Of Drums vinyl. Get those orders in!
Now, what do you say we cause a little havoc on Bandcamp? King Of Drums made some nice noise last year. It was one of the top hip hop sellers for a few days, which was cool to see. There are a few big indie/underground hip hop records coming out tomorrow (Atmosphere, billy woods, Conway The Machine). Let’s see if we can hang with the big boys! I loved seeing your notes, comments and picks for favorite songs, etc. on King Of Drums. I look forward to seeing your impressions of Super Dope.
Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to dig on myself a little bit here for a sec… In recent weeks, there’s been lots of chatter on hip hop Twitter about great three-album runs. How about Billy, King Of Drums and The Last Dig? Not too friggin’ bad, right? Usually when people talk about these three-album runs, it’s the first three albums in an artist’s career - when they’re young and hungry. I’m an old-ass man doing this thirty years into my career! I feel like I’m doing my best work now and it seems that a lot of people agree. I’m not trying to send a message but I hope other hip hop artists of my generation are paying attention. There’s no reason to think you’re done when you hit 30 or 40 years old. I say this because I want you to know that I’m working with a lot of confidence right now. I don’t hope you will like Super Dope. I know you will. It’s like King Of Drums but more muscular. It’s more refined. My goal was to raise the bar from King Of Drums and I did it. And that took hard work because I EMPTIED THE TANK on King Of Drums. As I said before, I made it as if it would be the last album I ever made. Super Dope is the business.
Sometime in the next few days, I’ll throw up another post here with the lyrics for all of the songs on the album. Be on the lookout for that.
Before I bounce and get to work on last-minute prep for tomorrow, a quick word on the King Of Drums vinyl. If you pre-ordered a copy, you should have it soon, if you don’t already. I’ve been seeing people post photos of their copies online. I say this as a hardcore record collector-nerd: take good care of your copy. Its value is almost certainly going to go up. It could become quite valuable. I’ve seen it happen with my stuff before. KoD sold out completely before it came back from the pressing plant, so it’s already a scarcity. And we did a very small run. It all adds up to high-value potential. With vinyl, it’s like baseball cards - minimal damage can have a big effect on value. So keep your copy in a plastic sleeve if you have one. Handle the vinyl itself with care. Copies of the 2013 press of Vertex go for a few hundred bucks already (see above). I can foresee the KoD vinyl going there and beyond. And isn’t it a beautiful thing? The quality of it is so nice. I gotta thank Handsmade for the millionth time for doing such a great job.
Okay. That’s it. Super Dope. Let’s go fuckin’ crazy.