Some performers end up having more lively discographies posthumously than they ever did in life. Anderson .Paak does not mean to be one of them. And whereas some artists might just put a ban on post-death releases in their wills, .Paak isn’t just waiting for the executor of his estate to get the message — he’s taking more extraordinary measures to make sure that his current fans and his future coroner all see it, too.
The singer posted a photo to Instagram Monday that made a key part of his last testament perfectly clear: “When I’m gone,” it reads, “please don’t release any posthumous albums or songs with my name attached. Those were just demos and never intended to be heard by the public.”
Just to let you know he means business, the new tat appears directly below an illustration of Animal, the Muppet, playing the drums.
A rep confirms that the image is legit. (The photo is no longer visible on .Paak’s account, since it appeared in the Stories section, where photos expire.)
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It’s not immediately clear whether .Paak intended some humor in getting his message down in permanent ink or really just feels that emphatically about it. But he’s certainly speaking it into a climate in which posthumous albums have been in the top 10 almost every week for the last year-plus.
The album that might have provoked .Paak’s ire about life after death for vault material is Prince‘s “Welcome 2 America,” recorded in 2010 and then put on the shelf for 11 years — before and after Prince’s 2016 death — before coming out July 30 of this year and subsequently debuting at No. 2 on the chart.
More common, though, is the recent preponderance of releases from artists who were cut down in their prime. Both of Pop Smoke’s albums, even his debut as well as the recent “Faith,” came out after his murder. The late Juice WRLD has been another staple of the top 10 with “Legends Never Die.” Mac Miller’s “Circles” was completed and released in 2020 after his 2018 death.
.Paak is known for being fairly prolific in life, which may be reflected in his contention that he’s already issuing anything he thinks is good enough to meet a release standard. The debut album from Silk Sonic, his duo project with Bruno Mars, is due for release later this year.