Anderson .Paak and Cordae team up for joint album Heavy Is The Crown

Anderson .Paak and Cordae have announced their first full collaborative album, Heavy Is The Crown, due out October 23 through APESHIT, Mass Appeal and EMPIRE. A tracklist and lead single have not yet been shared, though the album is available to pre-order now.

The pair have a history of one-off collaborations before committing to a full record together. They first worked together on "RNP," from Cordae's Grammy-nominated 2019 debut The Lost Boy, then reunited on "Two Tens" in 2023 and "Summer Drop" in 2024, both pulled from Cordae's third album The Crossroads.

Heavy Is The Crown will ship with artwork modeled on the poster for the 2008 comedy Step Brothers, and the release is planned across multiple physical formats, including an animated zoetrope pressing and a lenticular-cover CD.

The album arrives during an active stretch for both artists. Anderson .Paak marked the 10th anniversary of his breakthrough record Malibu earlier this year with special vinyl and cassette editions, made his feature-directing debut with K-Pops! in February, and released its soundtrack in May. His most recent full-length was Why Lawd?, his second album with Knxwledge as NxWorries, which won Best Progressive R&B Album at the 2025 Grammys.

Cordae, meanwhile, earned a five-star NME review for 2022's From A Birds Eye View, which praised him for "breathing hope into the continuation of hip-hop" through his flows and storytelling. Heavy Is The Crown joins the release calendar as one of the more anticipated hip-hop pairings of the fall.