Posted by In honor of turning 26 years old on Wednesday (January 20), Joey Bada$$ unleashed a single for fans to gobble up with “Let It Breathe.” The track finds production from Statik Selektah, who dug in the crates for the dusty, Golden Era beat.
Right with the opening verse, Joey looks inward and gets introspective about his career. The Brooklyn rhymer feels underappreciated in the rap game and wants people to celebrate him as if he already passed away.
“Want you to celebrate me like I’m dead already,” he raps. “Like this crown up on my head is heavy/Put my picture in the dictionary next to legendary/Swear I’m raisin’ every bar, and it’s like thеy never ready/Thеy thrown’ dirt up on my name like I’m already buried/Graveyard shifts ’til they put me in the cemetery.”
Joey also delivered a visual to go alongside the track. In the Levi Turner and Waqas Ghani-directed video, the Pro Era leader whips a lime green Porsche 911 straight off the lot. He then posts up next to a chopper on a helipad as night falls and leans back against the picturesque New York City skyline.
Joey Bada$$ Reveals His New Album Is 85% Done After Finishing It 3 Times
The release of “Let It Breathe” also arrives on the sixth anniversary of Joey’s 2015 B4.Da.$$ debut album. With just an EP as his sole release in 2020, fans are still awaiting his 2017 All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ follow-up. In September 2020, the “Devastated” rapper promised his album was 85 percent done and he “finished this album like 3 times” already.
Keep an eye out for more heat from Joey in 2021 and in the meantime, watch the “Let It Breathe” video below.