St. Louis rapper Smino is two years removed from his last full-length album, 2018’s slinky, soulful Noir. In the interim, he’s kept his fans sated with a slow but steady trickle of releases, including “Reverend,” “Rice & Gravy,” and “I Deserve,” as well as the 2020 lockdown mixtape She Already Decided and a string of features with the likes of JID (“Baguetti“), Thundercat (“Dragonball Durag” remix with Guapdad 4000), Denzel Curry (“So.Incredible.Pkg” remix), Yebba (“Louie Bag“), Syd (“Right Track“), and Khalid (“Scenic Drive“).
However, fans have still looked forward to his third full-length album with increasing anticipation, and today, he shared just enough information to pique their interest and turn up the anticipation from “eager” to “rabid.” Appearing on the latest episode of YouTube Originals’ Bear Witness, Take Action conversation series, Smino joined comedian Teddy Ray for “What Say What?!”, a discussion about the new album and each artist’s respective influences and creative process. During the discussion (at about the 8-minute mark), Smino reveals the title of his upcoming album: Love For Rent. He also explains the meaning behind the title:
“It’s based on different types of love,” he says. “It could be bad love, petty love, obsessive love, real good love, family love. But it’s just about the different ways I lent out my heart to the point where I didn’t have enough left for myself. I just put a pause on a bunch of sh*t. Letting everybody come eat and then you go get the plate last and you like, ‘Damn, I’m hungrier than a b*tch.’”
Later in the episode (at the 10-minute mark), Smino hits a makeshift stage on the set (made up to resemble a kitchen) to perform his new singles “I Deserve” and “Black Luv Ain’t Dead.” You can watch the full episode above and stay tuned for more information about the long-awaited comeback album, Love For Rent.