Tunde Adebimpe, the multi-hyphenate talent and critically acclaimed lead singer of the renowned band TV on the Radio, has announced his long awaited debut solo album. Thee Black Boltz will be released on April 18th via Sub Pop Records. Showcasing his unique voice and visionary soundscapes, Thee Black Boltz is a nod to Adebimpe’s propensity to write and sing about the human condition – in all its forms, under all its stressors, both big and small. 

Adebimpe shared a new track “Drop” from his forthcoming collection. The song begins with beatboxing before its lyrics question: “But will I feel it when I drop? / Restless hours / The ticking of a clock / On my life / And my life’s just a dot / On a timeline / And my soul / Is fading tonight.” Check it out HERE. 

The excitement of doing something on his own for the first time ignited a similar spark for Adebimpe as during the early TV On The Radio days. The songwriting process is the same, he says, but with his TVOTR bandmates, Adebimpe knows he doesn’t always have to complete his ideas. “I’ve been doing this thing with this group of people for so long, that I can just have a vague sketch of a concept and I know Jaleel or Kyp will have five brilliant ideas on where it can go,” he says. “But for Thee Black Boltz, I didn’t have that scaffolding to hang on. That was both terrifying and exhilarating.”

The album title is his response to the macro unease of a post-pandemic world careening towards violent authoritarianism and the personal grief that has come from loss in recent years, specifically the sudden passing of his younger sister while making it. Thee Black Boltz is Adebimpe’s desperate grasping of small moments of joy amidst the dissonance and sadness, any way he can. Making this album, he says, was his way of processing everything: “It was my way of building a rock or a platform for myself in the middle of this fucking ocean.”