Brent Faiyaz Announces New Album 'Wasteland'

Brent Faiyaz is gearing up to release a new album later this year. The sophomore album from the Maryland native is titled Wasteland and serves as the proper follow-up to 2017’s Sonder Son.

Wasteland is set to release July 8 via Faiyaz’s imprint Lost Kids.

Executive produced by Jonathan “Freeze” Wells, the 19-track album will consist of four of the songs Faiyaz previously released, dating back to 2020’s “Dead Man Walking.” It went certified gold in June 2021.

In January 2021, Faiyaz teamed up with Tyler, the Creator for “Gravity,” the album’s second song released.

Wasteland will also include the Drake-assisted “Wasting Time“ and “Mercedes.” The former track, produced by the Neptunes, logged his first top 10 entry on urban radio as a lead artist.

Currently, “Wasting Time” has been amassed more than 57.5 million streams on Spotify.

The album’s third early single, “Mercedes,” has been played over 25.9 million times on the same music platform.

Beyond Drake and Tyler, the Creator, Wasteland comprises guest appearances from Alicia Keys, Tre’ Amani and Joony.

Confirmed producers and songwriters on Faiyaz’s forthcoming album include The-Dream (Mariah Carey, Beyoncé), Atupele Ndisale (Snoh Aalegra, Vince Staples), Steve Lacy (Ravyn Lenae, Fousheé), Daniel Aged (Frank Ocean, FKA twigs) and DJ Dahi (Eli Derby, Mahalia), to name a few.

Grammy-nominated producer LosHendrix, who has worked with artists SZA and Givēon, is also expected to lend writing and production skills to Faiyaz’s Wasteland. During last year’s Grammy season, LosHendrix spoke to Rated R&B about his creation method with Faiyaz.

“Brent and I have a process that’s different than most people I work with because we’ve been working together for so long,” LosHendrix told Rated R&B. “It just has to be different than everything that’s out and that we did before, so it can take a bit longer, but when we find the sweet spot, it’s special.”

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LosHendrix also reminisced about his first time working with Faiyaz. “It’s funny [because] ‘Eden’ was actually the first song me and Brent ever did,” he said. “I sent him this guitar loop after we had been talking for some time in 2016 around when he was to move to LA for the first time.”

He added, “Literally, he wrote the record on the flight, and when he landed, he went to my boy Paperboy Fabe’s studio and cut the song. I came through and added more production and later had Jordan Waré play violin on the record. The same week we did that song, we did ‘Invite Me.’”

In 2020, Faiyaz released his F**k the World EP. “Don’t really use this app, but I wanna take the opportunity to thank everyone who ever gave us a chance,” Faiyaz tweeted shortly after the EP’s release. “Big ups 2 Freeze & the whole family for continuously helping me execute my vision.”

Last year, he returned with a three-pack effort via Dropbox.