Thundercat‘s fourth studio album, It Is What It Is has arrived. The 15-track project serves as an existential mediation on mortality, as well as a tribute to his friend, the late Mac Miller.
Executive produced by Thundercat and Flying Lotus, It Is What It Is features previously released singles “Black Qualls” with Steve Lacy, Childish Gambino, and Steve Arrington, “Dragonball Durag,” and the Mac Miller tribute “Fair Chance” with Ty Dolla $ign and Lil B.
While a triumph for Thundercat, real name Stephen Lee Bruner, It Is What It Is is an undeniably melancholy project. “This album is about love, loss, life and the ups and downs that come with that,” he said in a press statement.
“I think the existential dread set in when Mac disappeared,” he told The New York Times recently. “I was faced with a choice — to either follow suit or figure it out. And I guess this is me trying to figure it out.” “Fair Chance” and “It Is What It Is” in particular see Thundercat grappling with Mac’s death and his own mortality.
Listen below.