Hip hop albums that made us wait – and ones we’re still waiting to hear

Hip hop has a rich history of eagerly-anticipated records that fans simply can't wait to get in their headphones. This past week has seen not only the release of Lil Wayne's long-awaited Tha Carter V (six years in the making and four past its originally planned due date), but Kanye West's previously promised Yandhi project being pushed back a couple of months, too.

Playing some tracks from Tha Carter V on the 1Xtra Rap Show, Charlie Sloth described Tha Carter V as "one of the strongest albums of the year, without a shadow of a doubt". Meanwhile, DJ Target celebrated Lil Wayne’s illustrious career by running through his favourite Weezy tunes in this week’s High Five. Over on Radio 1, Annie Mac made Wayne's Kendrick Lamar-featuring Mona Lisa her Hottest Record in the World.

While we continue to wait on Kanye's album, Wayne's new record clearly appears to have been worth the delay. Here's a look at hip-hop's biggest perfectionists, whose belated projects have kept us checking the clock.

How long in the making? Six years passed between Tha Carter V’s announcement (when he teased it as his "final" album) and its eventual release. In the prolific world of Lil Wayne (Weezy's released 12 albums, 26 mixtapes and 3 EPs since 1999), that’s an eternity.

Why the delay? Weezy was embroiled in a legal dispute with his label, Cash Money, as well as its owner (and Wayne's former mentor) Birdman over alleged unpaid royalties worth $51 million. While a slanging match ensued in and out of court, disgraced “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli at one point purchased the album, livestreaming parts of it to his followers in 2016. With the royalties dispute settled, Tha Carter V finally landed last week, with Wayne fans getting to hear the record in full at last.

Was it worth the wait? A definite return to form seems to be the consensus - not only from Charlie Sloth but among Wayne fans too, who have been enjoying its luxury beats and cameo-littered tracklisting (as well as Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg and Travis Scott also feature).

How long in the making? Four years, which may not seem that long a period of time, but for Frank Ocean stans, it felt like a lifetime. Perhaps what made the wait so agonising was the succession of proposed release dates that passed without any sign of new music from the notoriously enigmatic Odd Future man: having indicated a July 2015 release for the album, it wasn't until August 2016 that Blonde eventually dropped. During this wait, Frank even mocked up a fake library card listing all these missed due dates.

Why the delay? You can’t rush perfection, can you? Frank was prepping "twooo versions" of his Channel Orange follow-up, it transpired. Not only was he was busy crafting the gentle, alluring RnB of Blonde, but also an ambient odyssey called Endless, which debuted online alongside looped footage of the star showing off his carpentry skills. Decent excuse, really.

Was it worth the wait? Why don’t you ask the 275,000 people who bought Blonde in its first week? Or the countless journalists who gave it rave reviews, or the millions of listeners that made it one of 2016’s most streamed albums? Full of heartbreaking confessional lyrics and envelope-pushing production, Blonde would have been worth a wait much longer than four years.

How long in the making? Like Frank, almost four years elapsed between Nicki Minaj's 2014 LP The Pinkprint and her follow-up Queen, which surfaced this past August.

Why the delay? Nicki first started talking about the record back in October 2016, telling US radio station Hot 97 that she had been working on the album but first had to "complete a few things for other people". Fast-forward to May 2018 and Minaj announced that the full-length would be released on 15 June, later pushing the due date back to 17 August, before seemingly changing her mind and dropping the record a week ahead of schedule on 10 August.

Was it worth the wait? After a four-year wait, fans definitely weren't complaining about getting to hear the album a week early, with her legion of followers happy with its mix of punchy production and quick-fire rhymes. However, Queen didn't manage to top the chart in either the UK or US, reaching fifth spot this side of the pond and being beaten to No.1 in America by Travis Scott's Astroworld - something Minaj definitely wasn't happy about.

How long in the making? Three years passed following the release of Wiley's previous album, Snakes & Ladders, with the grime pioneer missing his own self-imposed deadline of September 2016 to eventually release the record in January 2017.

Why the delay? When Godfather eventually surfaced, there wasn't much of an explanation as to why it was delayed. But perhaps Wiley was just trying to get things right. Much like Lil Wayne, for some time, this was thought to be Wiley's final outing. Upon the album's release, he was quoted as saying: "This is the end of my career, in terms of proving anything. After this, I don't have to prove anything to anybody. It's not my job any more to jump around and try being the number one guy... It's the next generation's job."

Was it worth the wait? Good grime comes to those who wait. Godfather was a legacy-defining juggernaut that reminded the genre’s current crop just who who pave the way for them. It was so successful, Wiley cancelled his retirement plans and got to work on Godfather 2, which was released without delay earlier this year.

How long in the making? Three years - plans for Azealia Banks' debut album started in 2011, with the New York rapper initially intending to work with Adele producer Paul Epworth (just imagine what that pairing would have sounded like).

Why the delay? Banks blamed the delay on multiple push-backs from her labels at the time, Interscope and Polydor. "I’d get a date from the label, then it wouldn’t come out," she later explained. "You just feel stupid after a while." The wait was tough for Azealia fans, but the artist says it was "really frustrating" for her too, revealing that she even "prayed" to be dropped by her label during this time.

Was it worth the wait? Azealia was definitely pleased to finally put out the record. "It was just happiness and relief," Banks said upon the album's eventual release in November 2014 - almost three years after her breakthrough hit 212. Blending hip-hop, house, pop, punk, trance and trap, Broke With Expensive Taste leapt ambitiously from genre to genre. Critics praised its "confidence, class, bursts of brilliance, and personality," resulting in a debut that transcended the controversy often surrounding the star.

How long in the making? Just a little longer than the others, with D'Angelo making fans wait a whopping 14 years for his follow-up to 2000's Voodoo (itself coming five years after 1995 debut Brown Sugar). In 2011, the record was said to be "97% done" and then "99% done" in 2013.

Why the delay? Rumour had it that D'Angelo refused to record another album until his guitar skills matched Jimi Hendrix's at his peak. The reality might have been more sombre though: the neo-soul sensation was beset by personal struggles and legal troubles after the death of a close friend following Voodoo. The manager of the studio where Black Messiah was recorded claimed a large part of the delay was simply executing D'Angelo's complex vision: "A lot of basic stuff had been done pretty quickly, so by 2003 or 2004, and then it's just been a lot of tweaking and exploring for all these years."

Was it worth the wait? When it finally arrived almost out of the blue in December 2014, Black Messiah was hailed as an instant classic, combining incendiary political lyrics and Funkadelic-level grooves. One reviewer wrote: "He may have taken well over a decade to show face again, but it turns out D'Angelo is right on time."

How long in the making? 16 actual years. Yes, a lot changed from the time that Dr. Dre released his second album 2001 (which, perhaps confusingly, came out in 1999) and 2015, when he finally dropped his third solo offering, Compton. For example, Dre's protege Eminem managed to release six LPs during this time. We even got to hear four 2Pac albums during this time - despite the rapper being deceased.

Why the delay? There are perfectionists, then there's Dr. Dre, who refused to release his follow-up to 1999 – originally titled Detox – until it was the hip hop history-making masterpiece he envisioned. He was also perhaps preoccupied with his numerous business ventures and becoming rap's first billionaire.

Was it worth the wait? After 16 years, hip hop’s very own Chinese Democracy had a lot of hype to live up to. Its production, though, was the main subject of praise from critics - the glossy, hyper-detailed work of a beatmaking futurist now in his fourth decade of rap envelope-pushing.

How long in the making? It's not really known when Kanye started work on what he now labels as Yandhi (a title that combines his nickname Yeezy with the surname of Mahatma Gandhi, the hero of Indian independence), but some of the songs could date back to the Yeezus sessions in 2012/2013. Mega-producer Rick Rubin had previously suggested that there had been another album worth of material left off Kanye's 2013 record, although this new record could simply be deemed as a follow-up to that album, boasting similarly minimalist artwork.

Why the delay? Yandhi was promised to arrive on September 29, with fans staying up late waiting for a new album that never came. However, Kanye has since explained that he's pushed the record back by two months and plans to relocate to Africa to record the rest of the LP. "Those five albums I dropped earlier were like superhero rehabilitation and now the alien Ye is fully back in mode," West explained to TMZ. "We’re going to Africa in two weeks to record. I felt this energy when I was in Chicago. I felt the roots. We have to go to what is known as Africa."

When can we expect it to drop? November 23, according to a tweet from West's wife Kim Kardashian. Whether Yeezy sticks to this revised due date, only time - and Kanye's whims - will tell.

How long in the making? Well, we don't actually know that the album exists. But the first colossal team-up between these two hip hop titans came out back in 2011, and a follow-up has been rumoured ever since.

Why the delay? The pair’s recent falling-out is perhaps the main culprit. Kanye publicly spoke out against Jay onstage in 2016, and Hov later addressed their strained relationship on his 4:44 album last year. However, Jay had since confirmed that he and Kanye are on speaking terms again, later sending "peace and love" to West in a shout-out during a concert in Kanye's hometown of Chicago.

When can we expect it to drop? In October 2016, Kanye said that there "will never be a Watch the Throne 2," but he appears to have changed his mind, tweeting recently that a second Watch The Throne album was "coming soon". However, their political leanings could prove too far apart for a full reconciliation - Kanye has been vocal in his support for President Trump, a person who JAY-Z definitely isn't a fan of.

Watch DJ Khaled discuss how his relationships with Kanye West and JAY-Z started in the video below:

Warning: Third Party video may contain adverts.

How long in the making? It’s been 13 years since Missy Elliott’s sixth album The Cookbook in 2005, but she’s steadily been releasing standalone singles since (including 2017’s I’m Better). The past few years have also seen Missy feature on tracks with everyone from Busta Rhymes and J. Cole to Fall Out Boy and Little Mix.

Why the delay? "Your brain needs time to refresh,” Elliott said in 2014. “I gotta feel like what I'm giving the fans is 100 percent and that it's game-changing. I don't just throw out microwave records."

When can we expect it to drop? A new Missy album could surface at any time. “I got enough records to make an album, but I would never say a day or time that it would happen because those fans are brutal and they will stone me if I told a date and it didn’t drop on that date,” she said in an interview last year. “The element of surprise works for me.”

How long in the making? 20 years or so. In the early 2000s, Lauryn Hill is said to have holed up in a Miami home-studio, surrounded by collaborators who had agreed to “do it for God” rather than money. Little is known what came of those sessions.

Why the delay? Following the success of 1998’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (which has sold over 19 million copies worldwide), the star largely retreated from the public spotlight; and has faced her fair share of problems since, including serving a three-month prison sentence in 2013 for tax evasion. In a Tumblr post around this time, Hill took aim at a pop culture climate of “hostility, false entitlement, manipulation, racial prejudice, sexism and ageism" that forced the singer “underground”.

When can we expect it to drop? In 2003, an associate of Hill’s told Rolling Stone: “She gonna sit down and record until she feels happy. Whoever can’t wait, she don’t care.” A decade later, in 2013, Hill released the singles Neurotic Society and Consumerism - both full of political fury and rockier sonics than the classic soul sound she’s known for. Having returned to stages to mark the 20th anniversary of Miseducation... this year, and with samples of her music appearing in mega hits by Drake and Cardi B recently, the time certainly seems right for a new release. Who knows if it'll ever materialise though.

Hear Little Simz talk touring with Lauryn Hill in the clip below:

How long in the making? When OutKast went on hiatus 12 years ago in 2006, it was assumed that André 3000 would embark on a fully-fledged solo career, as his Stankonian counterpart Big Boi has done (releasing three lone LPs following the group's break).

Why the delay? In 2017, André described himself "totally fine" with not recording any more music, stating that he was happy being away from "the hustle and bustle of putting out an album." In another interview around that time, he admitted not having his finger on the "pulse" anymore, explaining: "I can’t pretend. It’s kinda like watching your uncle dance."

When can we expect it to drop? Despite André downplaying his musical intentions these days, he has still cropped up as a featured artist on tracks by famous friends over recent years - his verse on Frank Ocean's Solo (Reprise) a particular highlight. He also dropped an addictive, highly experimental EP dedicated to the memory of his parents earlier this year, marking his first official solo release. Could that indicate that an album’s on the horizon after all?

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