Kamaiyah's phone froze late Tuesday night. The Bay Area artist first teased that a new project was imminent with the unveiling of new cover art, followed shortly after by the drop of her new 10-track project Before I Wake. Understandably, word of new music from Kamaiyah was enough to send her notifications into a full-on frenzy.
The arrival of new Kamaiyah music was also celebrated by the King of the Youth himself, Lil Yachty. Yachty and Kamaiyah, of course, collaborated on the Teenage Emotions cut "All Around Me. "
"This past year has been extremely hard for me," Kamaiyah wrote on Instagram when announcing the new tape, her first since last year's A Good Night in the Ghetto. "I lost my brother to cancer and went through a extreme depression and creatively I felt trapped with my project being held up due to samples. I lost my way and decided to take initiative by recording and putting together music for my fans all on my own because I felt it was time. Thank you for everyone who has been patient. This is only the beginning."
Stream Before I Wake in full via Soundcloud below. The new mixtape is also available on Apple Music.
In a recent interview with GQ, Kamaiyah revealed she was working on putting out two featureless projects soon. The second one is entitled Woke and, like Before I Wake, is described as "conceptualized." Kamaiyah's decision to hit fans with back-to-back new projects is due to the delay of her debut studio album. "It was supposed to come out in March, I believe," Kamaiyah said. "Now it's November. So to make up for that deficit, I'm gonna put out more work."
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