Kofi Stone dates the 16-track album The Last Flower To Bloom for October

Kofi Stone releases a project called The Last Flower To Bloom on 2 October. It runs to 16 tracks, and the soulful title song is already online, which makes it a lead single and a thesis statement in the same move.

The title is doing deliberate work. His 2025 record was called All The Flowers Have Bloomed, and this one picks the image back up from the other end. Clash says the earlier project earned considerable acclaim, and describes the new one as a neat follow-on rather than a change of direction, which the titles rather give away.

Stone's own note about it is about anticipation rather than arrival. He calls the record "a moment to self, an internal dialogue of wonder", and describes an honest, unsuspecting feeling about what is coming, comparing it to a child waiting by a window or a caterpillar still in its cocoon. For a rapper whose reputation rests on introspection, that is a consistent position.

His festival year explains why a UK rap release is being covered like a jazz one. Clash lists Glastonbury, Love Supreme, We Out Here and the Jazz Cafe Festival among the places he has played, which is a circuit that runs through the overlap between British rap, soul and jazz rather than through rap alone.

The collaborator list points the same way. Clash names Loyle Carner, D Double E, Tom Misch, Kojey Radical, Rubii, Maverick Sabre and Tiana Major9 among the artists he has worked with, a spread that takes in one of the most respected lyricists in the country, a grime institution, and several musicians who sit closer to soul than to rap.

One correction to our earlier note, which recorded that no tracklist had been named. Clash gives a count of 16 tracks, though not the titles, which is more than we had. What is genuinely missing is a label and any guest credits for the record itself.

Confirmed release dates are tracked on the release calendar, and the rest of our coverage of the genre is on the hip-hop hub.