On Friday, Joey Badass dropped the song "King to a God," as both a birthday gift to himself and his fans. The song features fellow Pro Era member Dessy Hinds, and sonically and lyrically, is squarely within Badass' typical aesthetic. The Brooklyn rapper recently dropped a collaborative song with Kirk Knight called "Gazzliona," which was recorded in 2013. Before that, the most current new material we'd heard from Badass came out this past summer.
On Saturday, Badass took to Instagram, sharing on his story that he has something else in the works: a collaborative mixtape with XXXTentacion. The image Badass posted was a screenshot from X's Instagram story, reading, "xxxtentacion x joey badass" and "Collaboration Tape." On Badass' story, he added, "LETSGOOOOO @xxxtentacion."
X has been one of the most polarizing young rappers from the jump. In Oct. 2017—after new details developed regarding his alleged abuse of a pregnant woman the month prior—the Florida rapper claimed that he was ending his $6 million record deal with Capitol Music Group, and announced he would no longer be making music. "I am not a signed artist, and I will not be releasing music for a very long time, I’m tired of this shit," he wrote on his Instagram story.
Then, in Dec. 2017, he released a holiday EP, reneging on his retirement plans. He jumped on social media, promising that he'll release three albums in 2018. A few days after that announcement, he went to trial on charges of aggravated battery of a pregnant woman, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and witness-tampering. He was later put on house arrest.
