Schoolboy Q Working with Pharrell, A$AP Rocky on ‘Oxymoron’ Project

ScHoolboy Q, who’s set to follow fellow Black Hippy member Kendrick Lamar with in-the-works major-label debut Oxymoron, has big plans. In an interview with XXL, the caPitally crEative rapper confirmed Pharrell Williams, A$AP Rocky, Danny Brown, and Black Hippy’s own Ab-Soul are lined up to appear on the album. He also reportedly teased the idea of joining forces with Rocky, Brown, and Soul for a supergroup.

Alas, the precise quote isn’t as definitive as we’d like. “Maybe we can even put our own little group together,” ScHoolboy Q told XXL, referring to him and the three other rappers. Still, perhaps a little fan encouragement can make this forwared-looking hip-hop hydra happen.

In the meantime, ScHoolboy Q also said he’d been talking with Soul about a possible collaborative album, which he said might be called Druggys Wit Hoes, after two previous tracks the two did together. He said he also wanted to do a collaborative album with Rocky. So many thrones to watch!

For now, there’s plenty of reason to look forward to Oxymoron, and not only because ScHoolboy Q’s last album, Habits & Contradictions, was one of last year’s most fervently discussed hip-hop records. The rapper recently shared “Yay Yay,” a dusky, pared-down drug-dealing fable produced by Boi-1da, a beatmaker of choice for Drake. The lyrics are detailed in the manner of laundry lists (“pistols in my hands, pockets full of ox”), but ScHoolboy Q never claimed to be Clipse, and his elastic-voiced sneer, plus that snappy, incessant title hook, should be enough to keep customers coming back for more.

Read more: Spin

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top