Madlib previously shared that the three have recorded eight tracks for the new album.

Could this be the year Black Star releases the follow-up to their seminal debut album Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Blackstar? Hopefully.

READ: From Surprise Reunions To A New Album: A Timeline Of Yasiin Bey And Talib Kweli’s Black Star

In a new interview with Columbus Alive, Talib Kweli offered an update on the project, saying that he, Yasiin Bey, and Madlib have been working on the new Black Star album “a lot lately.”

Previously, Madlib had shared that Kweli and Bey have recorded eight tracks for the album, and apparently Dave Chappelle has heard some of it for himself.

“I got an exclusive leak from the new Mos Def, Talib Kweli joint,” Chappelle previously said, describing what he had heard from the project as “fire.”

Bey had first shared the news of a new Black Star album last year during a Madlib DJ set in Denver, Colorado.

“New Black Star with Madlib, Talib Kweli, Yasiin, coming soon!” Bey said. “All Madlib, all day. 2018, Madlib, Black Star. Madlib Black Star.”

Following reports of a new album, Kweli said that the announcement was a surprise to him.

“I found out on the internet the same way y’all did. We’ve been talking about doing an album with Madlib for years. That’s been an idea we’ve had for so long, but for him to make that announcement…I didn’t know he was going to make the announcement,” Kweli previously said. “…now we just gotta make it happen.”

Elsewhere in his Columbus Alive interview, Kweli talks about how Questlove encouraged him to get on Twitter and how a collaboration he was working on with Kanye West ended because of the rapper’s support of Donald Trump.

Source: Columbus Alive