It appears the arrival of 21 Savage’s debut album is right around the corner. The Atlanta rapper announced a July 7 release date and shared cover artwork for his Issa album, which he first teased back in May.
The album’s title shows 21 has fully embraced his status as a meme. The now infamous “issa” quote stems from a 2016 interview in which DJ Vlad asked the artist about a tattoo on his forehead. When Vlad mistakenly referred to it as a cross, 21 responded by saying “issa knife.”
(This story has been updated. It was originally published on May 10, 2017).
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It’s a popular move in Hip Hop — mention an obscure date with little to no information about what exactly it’s referring to and watch everyone scramble to figure it out. Kendrick Lamar recently pulled it off at the end of “The Heart Pt. 4” and now 21 Savage has followed suit, posting the date “6-1-17” on his Twitter account with a series of knife emojis. Yes, “Issa knife.”
Naturally, many people are speculating that the post signifies the release date for the 24-year-old’s debut album, a follow-up to his 2016 EP, Savage Mode, with Metro Boomin. But for now, there are no further details surrounding the purposely vague tweet.
In January, the Atlanta rapper announced he had signed with Epic Records because CEO L.A. Reid is “black,” according to an interview with Rap Radar, but aside from pinning another ambiguous post to his Twitter page that read: “#IssaAlbum very very soon!” he’s been relatively hush-hush about what he has in the works. It appears, however, that we’ll be one step closer to figuring it out in 22 days. Until then, check out his tweets above.
