After flashing star potential on debut album True 2 Myself last year and building on his buzz with a steady stream of solid singles including Pop Smoke homage “Forever Pop,” the melodic love letter “Sex Sounds,” and the harder-hitting “Ice Cold,” Tjay has shared the release date of his new full-length effort: A mixtape titled State Of Emergency. Playing off current events, the title was revealed in teaser trailer on Instagram featuring Tjay wearing a mask intercut with file footage taken from news broadcasts.
Tjay previously teased the mixtape in another video captioning the post with a declaration that he is the new “King Of New York.” The caption also seemingly popped off at fellow New York standard bearers A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Tekashi 69, both of whom had been tabbed as the successors to the city’s weighty hip-hop legacy, but ran into some speed bumps on the road to greatness that either slowed them up (A Boogie) or took them out of the picture (Tekashi).
Tjay apologized for taking the shots and “losing compsore” on his Instagram Stories, but not before he’d made himself a trending topic by posing several videos with fellow rapper Rubi Rose claiming that had flown her to New York for a romantic encounter and then refused to pay her way back.
State Of Emergency is due May 8 on Columbia Records.