Kamaiyah has unveiled new project No Explanations. Stream it below via Apple Music and Spotify.
The 11-track outing is the third (!) full-length release that the Oakland MC has released in 2020 alone. Way back in pre-COVID February she released her first album in three years, Got It Made, and in September she released a collaborative mixtape with fellow Oakland rapper Capolow.
No Explanations only contains two features, one from Jackboy and another from the Sacramento rapper Mozzy, and instead focuses on showcasing Kamaiyah’s artistic progression as a soloist. The entirety of 2020 has been a year of celebrating independence for the former XXL Freshman. After signing to Interscope and YG’s label 4Hunnid Records, she experienced multiple album delays that put a major dent in the trajectory of her career.
Eventually, she left the majors labels to start her own imprint, GRND.WRK, which she used to release Oakland Nights. Speaking with The Source earlier this year, Kamaiyah talked about taking matters into her own hands after years of being fucked around.
“It was a situation where my project had been pushed back and kept getting pushed back. And I told them, I warned them, if y’all do it again, I’m leaving,” she told The Source. “I pre-warned you that if this happened again, that I wasn’t going to remain unhappy. I’m not going to keep sitting here fighting y’all to put out music.”
She continued, “I don’t care if you don’t like my single, if I say this is it, let me shoot that shot. And if I brick, at least I know I shot this shot and tried. I never got the opportunity to have a national campaign. It was always held up. And that was my issue, I’m seeing everybody else get their shots. Every time that I feel like I’m about to get mine, it gets called away from me.”
Rather than stick it out and wait for her superiors to control the direction of her career, Kamaiyah left and started GRND.WRK. However, she’s fully aware of what it will take to get her hype back to where it was pre-Interscope. “I’m learning to just have patience and in order for me to even have a successful label, I have to be successful,” she told The Source. “And that’s not going to happen overnight.”
She continued, “Like people look at my history and think that because of the things that I’ve accomplished in the past affect me presently. I feel like I have to be in the momentum of the world right now because I took the four-year deficit. I accomplished so much in my first year. And for three years I wasn’t able to do anything. So in order for me to get back cracking, it’s gonna take half of that time. So I may not get a hit record for two years and I’m okay with that.”
That’s her explanation, and here’s No Explanations.
No Explanations Artwork:
No Explanations Tracklist:
01. Big Step
02. Still I Rise (feat. Jackboy)
03. Bend Da Corner
04. Art Of War
05. Go Crazy
06. Scared To Lose
07. Momma Said (feat. Mozzy)
08. Chosen
09. The Distance
10. Cash On Delivery
11. Bape Hoody