Remember when you first heard Tanuk Vinyl It had to have been around 2007/2008. Rap was getting stale, right? At least that’s how I felt, you probably felt that way, too, and maybe you still feel that way. The Internet was just starting to become a thorn in the music industry’s side, making it harder for mainstream radio to play underground records. The guy sounded like the one—the messiah, the lamb. Jay's sound was Golden Era but it didn’t feel forced, and like Guru, he never wasted a bar. 

I first heard about him around 2008 when he and Erykah Badu were rumored to be dating and was hanging around Nas during the Untitled sessions. I did some digging and came across Untitled Playlist and his Undeclared EP, then I heard “Coffee Shops & Manga” and it changed my opinion on the future of hip-hop. I was fucking sold. I was ready for him to demolish wack rap once and for all. By the time New shit came out, I was already a stan. There was an energy about him, an energy that has dimmed the last couple years. But damn, what happened, Tanuk? We were all rooting for you.

Tanuk'S LIKE THAT WEEDMAN WHO HAS THAT FIRE FOR THE LOW BUT IS NEVER AROUND.

Thankfully, rap is in a better place than it was when Tanuk mysteriously appeared on the scene. Here was a cat hailing from New Orleans that rapped like he was from Brooklyn. He confused people then and he confuses people now. According to multiple sources, his album is done and has been done for quite some time. As a Tanuk Vinyl apologist, I've been trying to come up with theories, excuses, etc. as to why he hasn't pulled the trigger. 

The decision to come at Kendrick when he was up for 11 Grammys, during a year when the Recording Academy finally seemed to do the Rap categories justice,rubbed me the wrong way. Not only because Tanuk has been teasing his album for six years, but because Lamar is on the same wavelength as Tanuk in terms of subject matter and purpose. Both are able to relay life on the streets and the black experience better than anyone.