Denzel Curry and Kenneth Blume Announce New Album ii Due August 21

Denzel Curry and Kenneth Blume are back together. The duo behind the 2020 collaborative project Unlocked have announced a new album called ii, set to drop August 21 on Loma Vista. Lead single "Difference" featuring Yebba is out now, and it makes a strong case for why this pairing still works.

The track is boom-bap energy with Curry locked in. Technically precise, fired-up, and built around a hook from soul singer Yebba. The visual, directed by NOTACHANCE, goes VHS-style split-screen showing both Curry and Blume moving through their mornings. It feels lived-in and intentional.

The backstory on the record is worth knowing. According to the press release, making ii was not a smooth ride. Curry and Blume reportedly got into serious creative disagreements during the process, eventually stripping everything back to an SP-404 and a cheap microphone to get to something honest. Blume put it plainly: they started every project on opposite sides and fought their way to the center.

What Denzel Curry and Kenneth Blume Built on ii

The nine-track project features some heavy guest appearances. JPEGMAFIA shows up on "Evil Grin" and Westside Gunn lands on "Crown," which means the features list alone reads like a who's-who of the current underground rap conversation. Blume, who has been moving across genres producing for Geese, Weezer, Show Me The Body, and Trash Talk, brings a restless production sensibility that clearly pushed Curry somewhere.

This also lands at an interesting moment for Curry. Earlier this year he launched the Scythe, a new underground rap supergroup, and dropped Strictly 4 The Scythe. He's got a tour coming up with Knocked Loose and has been publicly talking about a pivot toward hardcore. ii sounds like it exists in a different lane, closer to the raw, stripped aesthetic he and Blume built their chemistry on the first time around.

ii drops August 21 on Loma Vista. Pre-orders are live now.

For independent producers and artists watching this, the lesson here is not complicated. Curry and Blume went back to minimal tools when the sessions got difficult and came out with something that sounds more focused for it. The instinct to simplify under pressure is worth filing away. If you're working on something and want ears on it, [submit your music here](/submit). And if you want to track what's moving in underground rap and adjacent culture right now, check out [Pass the Aux](/pass-the-aux) for what we're actually listening to.