Good news, everyone!

Bandana, the long-awaited follow-up to Freddie Gibbs and Madlib’s collaborative record Piñata, is done. The bad news, if you can call it that, is that Gibbs is not ready to release the album yet.

In a new interview with Elliott Wilson and Brian "B.Dot" Miller on TIDAL’s Rap Radar Podcast, Gibbs explained why Bandana remains in the vault.

“I’m done with, you know, that Madlib album,” Gibbs said. “I [have] just been sittin’ on that… I got money, I don’t gotta put it out yet. I could put it out when it’s time to put it out… I just wasn’t ready yet. I wanted to do something else first.”

That something else was, of course, Gibbs’ most recent, trap-infused project, Freddie. The album was a grimy rap-fest, with Gibbs demonstrating all sides of his lyrical ability and oft-intimidating delivery. In an era where artists and labels are rushing out releases ready or otherwise (think: Wyoming sessions), it’s refreshing to hear Gibbs focused on timing and pivoting to other projects if his creative itch needs to be scratched.

“I feel like [Bandana] is so serious, that I have to kind of like wait to put that out,” Gibbs continued. “I’m talking, like, recording something over a course of three, four years. There was a lot of things going on: the jail thing. There was a lot of things that I wanted to culminate in this album, so I wasn’t ready to put it out yet.”

While Freddie was clearly Gibbs’ method of letting off steam, it sounds as if Bandana could shape up to be the apex of Freddie Gibbs’ career as far as content is concerned. To compile the peaks and valleys of four years, of anyone’s life, is daunting in itself, releasing it to the world even more so. Good on Gibbs for taking his time, and if the project is half as severe and intense as he is alluding, it will be well worth the wait.