Anderson .Paak and Cordae Announce Joint Album 'Heavy Is the Crown' for October
Anderson .Paak and Cordae are releasing a collaborative album, Heavy Is the Crown, on 23 October. The two rappers announced the project on 19 August via Cordae's official Instagram account, confirming the date and title.
The album adds a new alias to .Paak's name: he is credited as "HeisenPaak" in connection with the announcement, according to a post from EMPIRE, the label associated with the release (EMPIRE, Facebook, 19 August 2026). XXL Magazine also confirmed the album title and release date on the same day.
Behind the boards, the project features production from 9th Wonder, the North Carolina producer and veteran hip-hop collaborator whose credits span work with Little Brother, Jay-Z and Destiny's Child. His involvement was confirmed in an Instagram reel posted on 19 August.
For .Paak, Heavy Is the Crown arrives as a joint venture outside his work with Bruno Mars as Silk Sonic, the duo whose 2021 album An Evening with Silk Sonic swept four Grammy categories. Cordae, meanwhile, released his most recent solo album, The Crossroads, in 2024 and has been a fixture of hip-hop's new generation since his 2019 debut The Lost Boy.
A joint album between two artists at different stages of their careers is a format with a long lineage in hip-hop, from Jay-Z and R. Kelly's Unfinished Business to Kanye West and Kid Cudi's Kids See Ghosts. What makes Heavy Is the Crown notable is the pairing itself: .Paak, a singer-rapper-drummer whose work flits between funk, soul and hip-hop, alongside Cordae, a lyricist rooted in traditional rap. 9th Wonder's production, known for soul-sampled, boom-bap textures, sits at the intersection of both artists' instincts.
The album's October release places it in the fourth-quarter cycle, the period when labels concentrate their biggest titles to capture holiday-season spending. No tracklist, guest features or lead single have been announced as of 19 August.
