The rapper pleaded not guilty to charges he directed a murder-for-hire plot in November
Lil Durk isn’t letting prison time stop him from giving his fans new music. On Monday, the rapper’s team shared a trailer and the artwork for his upcoming album, Deep Thoughts, scheduled for March 28.
The trailer captures his producers in the studio while on the phone with Durk from behind bars. The clip teases the track list and hears Durk say he likes “the energy” of the songs chosen, as he thanks his team for the “bigger and better changes” on the album. “The streets still need me,” read a post from Durk.
The track list teased in the video mentions songs such as “Connect the Dots,” “Notebook,” “Untouchable,” and “They Wanna Be You” featuring Future. The album cover, seemingly made with AI, sees Durk sitting in a graffitied jail cell with his back to the camera.
The album comes nearly five months after Durk pleaded not guilty to charges he directed a murder-for-hire plot that led to the shooting death of Georgia rapper Quando Rondo’s cousin at a Los Angeles gas station two years ago. He was remanded to a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles and awaits an October trial.
According to his indictment, Durk “was the leader” of a hip-hop collective founded in Chicago in 2010 called Only the Family, or OTF. While the group produced and sold music, it also allegedly “engaged in violence, including murder and assault,” largely at Durk’s “direction,” the indictment states.
The upcoming album will follow 2023’s Nightmares in the Trenches and Almost Healed. Just prior to his arrest, Durk released singles “Opportunist” and “Late Checkout” featuring Hunxho. He also joined Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign on Vultures 2‘s “Dead.”
