In 2020, Lil Dicky decided to put his rap career on pause to pursue his at-the-time, brand new FX and Hulu sitcom Dave. The show, which sees him as the lead actor and creator, tells a story similar to his in real life where Dave, who also uses the stage name Lil Dicky, fights through obstacles to become a white, ironic, mainstream rapper.
On May 31 of this year, Dave wrapped up a successful season 3, which contained episodes full of superstar cameos from Drake, Brad Pitt, Demi Lovato, Don Cheadle, Megan Fox, Travis Barker, Usher, Jack Harlow, and more. Now, as the halfway point of summer approaches, Dicky is ready to make his return to music.
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In a new interview with Variety, the 35-year-old multi-hyphenate announced that he is planning to put out a new album in the very near future, which will be filled with songs he previewed throughout the first three seasons of Dave. His first album since his 2015 debut Professional Rapper, the quasi-soundtrack will welcome one of hip-hop’s most intriguing characters back to the genre.
“I’ve been making music ever since then,” Dicky said. “I realized this year, as I took a step back and looked at all the different music that’s made it into the first three seasons of the show, there’s enough here, a great body of work and a project that I can put out as a soundtrack. I think this is such a better representation of Lil Dicky the musical artist than, honestly, my first album even was.”
Later in the conversation, Dicky revealed that most of the album will be produced by superstar pop instrumentalist Benny Blanco, who makes frequent appearances as himself in Dave. Additionally, he predicted that the final track list for the currently untitled LP will contain 15-20 songs.
“There are bits and pieces of songs you’ve been hearing for three seasons of Lil Dicky, the musical artist,” he said. “Sometimes you’ll hear 20 seconds of it, but I might have a full three-minute version of that song that’s unreleased. I want to get that out to the world. It’s a really strong body of work that I’m super proud of. I was surprised when I took a step back and looked at the inventory of stuff that have made it into the show — ‘Oh, my God, there’s like a great album here of work that can live on its own.’ So that’s what I’m working on now.”
On top of a comeback album after eight years, Dicky promised that even more albums will come after the new one, as he looks to officially restart his music career.
“I have so much other music that hasn’t been in the show that I’m not including on this project,” he said. “I think it’s been hard on fans of my rap music who have been loving the show, but wanting music to listen to in their headphones.”
As noted before, this album does not yet have a release date, and its track list is not close to being finalized yet. But, Dicky is hard at work, looking to complete and release the LP by summer’s end.
“The sooner the better,” he said. “It’s just some of these things you’ve seen in the show are 30 seconds. That’s a little too short. It’s not as simple as, ‘They all exist and I can just put them on a thing and boom, I can come out tomorrow.’ I want to do it the right way. And again, none of these songs were even mixed or mastered. But I’ll be working on it as fast as I can.”
(Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)