Marsha Ambrosius has given fans a big update during this year’s Soul Train Awards: her long-promised album with Dr. Dre is closer than ever.
During Sunday night’s (November 26) award show, the former Floetry member took part in the “Soul Cypher alongside Eric Bellinger, Nicci Gilbert and Arin Ray. During the performance, she teased her upcoming Casablanco album.
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“Check out the credits, Dr. Dre,” she sang. “That Casablanco on the way… Got a brand new classic ’bout to hit.”
You can see her full performance below, beginning at the 2:40 mark:
The last time Casablanco made headlines was back in February, when Ambrosius and Dr. Dre held a listening party for the project. During the event, both of them took some time to say some words about the process.
“End of 2020, Dre and myself were going back and forth, shooting each other ideas,” the singer began. “And January 2021 happens and I’m pretty sure everyone got the text alert. Sorry to bring up your personal but we all saw it. It was Dr. Dre’s brain aneurysm and I remember my heart stopped and I’m calling everyone.”
She continued: “I’m like, ‘Yo fool, what happened?’ [They’re like] ‘Everything is okay. Relax, calm down. Dre is okay.’ I get a call from Dre and by February 2021, I was out working with him. So his rehab, his rehabilitation and resurgence back into wanting to make music to make people feel good was what I needed. Ultimately, what he needed. And this album was kind of our trauma bond in some way.”
Dre revealed that their sessions were initially birthed out of a plan to make music for him, but it turned into something totally different.
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“And the way it started out was she actually flew down to work on some songs for me,” Dre said. “And all of a sudden I’m like okay let’s work on some songs for you. Let’s work on three or four songs and all of a sudden that turned into an entire album over a two-week period.”
That two-week period appears to have ended in mid-December 2021. Ambrosius posted on Instagram at the time that she “just finished recording an album with Dr. Dre.” She called it “some of my best work.”
No official release date for Casablanco has yet been announced.
