Is Kendrick Lamar About To Drop A New Album?

Way back when (like, before the Age of Enlightenment), albums were pushed out through a coordinated effort devised by record labels. Now, it's often the artist that's taking the reins. Sometimes they'll just plunk down a record with little warning (hi, Solange). Sometimes they'll unfurl a series of suggestive clues that end up being one giant MacGuffin (hey, Frank).

Now, L.A.'s most heralded musician (at least currently) is inviting us to play the latest guessing game. As noted at Vulture, Kendrick Lamar has wiped out his Instagram account, leaving only one post that was uploaded this early Thursday morning:

Unless Lamar is going deep into some occult/numerology stuff, it can be theorized that the "IV" is a reference to a fourth album (he's got three full-length studio releases so far). Further bolstering this claim, Tidal has flat-out said that Lamar is coming out with a new release:

And we do know that Lamar had been hard at work on a new album. In an interview with T Magazine earlier this month, Lamar said a new record is in the pipeline, and suggested that it may tie in themes of religion and , you know, everything going on in the world. "We’re in a time where we exclude one major component out of this whole thing called life: God. Nobody speaks on it because it’s almost in conflict with what’s going on in the world when you talk about politics and government and the system," Lamar told the Times. He added, however, that his mind has also been on the people and places that are immediate to him: "I think now, how wayward things have gone within the past few months, my focus is ultimately going back to my community and the other communities around the world where they’re doing the groundwork." Which is to say that the album will possibly be about anything and everything.

Not surprisingly, people online are ecstatic over the (possible) news. Weirdly, it's also engendered an uptick in Fresh Prince gifs:

There's also this meme taking a jab at Drake's "More Life," which was released just a few days ago:

What we do know is that Lamar is among the headliners at Coachella this April (which also adds to the speculation that he's timing his album release for the near future). Hope you were able to snatch a wristband. We'll see you out at Indio.