Earlier this month, Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli ended their 24-year hiatus as Black Star by announcing their long-overdue second studio album, No Fear of Time. Shortly after the duo revealed the title of the new LP, the duo released their Black Thought assisted lead single, “Mineral Mountain,” exclusively on their Luminary podcast show, Midnight Miracle. 

The album is also set to be exclusively released on the Luminary podcast network on May 3. On the No Fear of Time page on the Luminary website, what appears to be a blurred-out tracklist is seen on the duo’s webpage. Of course, eager, web-savvy fans tried their hand at coding the web page, only to get trolled by the group with a secret message. 

“Oh, hello. Looking for the new tracks? Well, not yet. You waited two decades for Yassin Bey and Talib Kweli to return as Black Star. It’s happening. Stop rushing and enjoy the ride.” 

The 9-track LP is entirely produced by Oxnard, California beat guru Madlib. The project was conceptualized and recorded over the span of three years while the duo traveled throughout Europe, recording in dressing rooms and hotel suites any chance they’d get. 

“About 3-4 years ago, I was visiting Yasiin in Europe, and we started to talk about songs to do on an album, so I flew an engineer out just to see what that would be. Once I realized this conversation is starting to organically become a creative conversation, I started making sure to have the engineer around at all times. There was one day we were just in a hotel listening to Madlib beats, and he’s like, “Play that Madlib tape again.” I’m playing the beats, and he starts doing rhymes to the beats. And that’s how we did the first song.”

We are edging closer to finally getting a full-length Black Star LP. Stay tuned for more updates on the New York City duo, and stay tuned for more Hip-Hop news.