Gorillaz are reportedly working with Chicago rapper Vic Mensa on their new album.
Albarn is currently working on the next Gorillaz record with collaborator Jamie Hewlett, the animated band’s first project since ‘The Fall’ in 2011.
Producer Remi Kabaka, a frequent Gorillaz collaborator who provides the voice of fictional band member Russel Hobbs, shared a photo of Mensa in the studio on Instagram overnight (May 17). Consequence of Sound reports that Kabaka initially tagged Mensa in the pic and later removed it.
Mensa has collaborated with Albarn before, appearing with the Blur/ Gorillaz man on stage in New York in 2014 for a performance of ‘Clint Eastwood’.
Hewlett had previously said that “2016 is going to be Gorillaz all year,” confirming the return of the animated project for a fifth album back in October 2015.
Albarn had also given a little detail on the sound of the new material, describing the follow-up to fourth album ‘The Fall’ in an interview in October. Albarn said:
“I’m in the very early days on a new Gorillaz record. So far, it’s really fast, and it’s got quite a lot of energy. I’ve been stuck on piano, somewhere off Broadway, for years now. I want to go somewhere completely opposite of that.”