Musiq Soulchild has announced his joint album with producer Hit-Boy, Victims & Villains, will release March 10.
The Grammy-nominated singer shared the news in an Instagram post. “Good Vibes! Ran into #LyorCohen in LA at @YouTube New Album ‘VICTIMS & VILLAINS’ 3•10•23 #produced by @HitBoy LET’S GO!!!!!!!” Soulchild wrote in a caption for a photo he shared of him and music exec Lyor Cohen.
The first single, “Beat of a Slow Dance,” is set to drop Feb. 24.
Soulchild first announced his collaborative album with Hit-Boy in an interview with actor/comedian Bill Bellamy of Top Billin’.
“It even being an album is a relatively new thing. This is just months in the working. So a lot of it is moving fast,” Soulchild told Bellamy in December 2022.
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Soulchild shared more details in a recent interview with JayTek on Audacy’s V-103. “Basically, the topic is anybody can be the victim or the villain. It’s a matter of perspective. Some people think they’re the victim when they’re really the villain,” Soulchild said.
He added, “It’s all a matter of details and paying attention to the things happening. It’s just a conversation piece that I want to introduce people to think differently about what’s happening in relationships.”
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Victims & Villains is Soulchild’s second joint project. In 2013, he released 9ine, a collaborative album with fellow singer Syleena Johnson. Though the project was filled with solid tracks such as “Feel the Fire,” it did not receive much promotion.
Johnson told Rated R&B in 2014: “Musiq and his management decided that they didn’t want to go forward with the promotion of the album. I don’t know why. That’s something you would probably have to ask them. I still love the project but him and his management didn’t want to promote it.”
When Rated R&B interviewed Soulchild in 2015, he had this to say: “There was no real support. There were folks in the background acting stupid. Folks got greedy. I just don’t associate with chaos. It kind of pissed Syleena off a little bit… I did a couple things with it but for the most part, I kept my distance. It just started to get stupid. I feel bad because we could’ve toured with it. We could of made some cool moves with it.”
Victims & Villians will mark Soulchild’s first project in nearly six years. In 2017, he released his double album, Feel the Real, which included the Marsha Ambrosius-featured title track. Feel the Real debuted at No. 16 on Billboard’s Top R&B Albums chart.
In other news, Musiq Soulchild is currently supporting Kem and Ledisi on their co-headlined Soul II Soul Tour. Their upcoming schedule includes stops in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Memphis, Houston, and Washington, D.C., before concluding in Baton Rouge on May 12.
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