The Weeknd, Gunna, Papoose and More – New Projects This Week

We’re a few days into a new year and the big releases are already rolling in. This week, there’s an album from a Canadian crooner who is known to demolish the charts, a former 2019 XXL Freshman with inarguable drip—pun intended—a Brooklyn rap veteran with insurmountable bars and more.

The Weeknd has released his latest, Dawn FM. The 16-track offering contains appearances from Tyler, The Creator, Lil Wayne, Quincy Jones, Oneohtrix Point Never and actor Jim Carrey. To announce the LP’s guest features, Abel unveiled a cinematic trailer to go along with his imaginative and aged album artwork, which shows himself in his elder years. The album’s arrival is also accompanied by a live global stream via the Amazon Music app and on Amazon Music’s Twitch channel. The Weeknd’s last album, After Hours, came out in 2020.

Gunna is kicking off 2022 with new music. Following the 2021 release of his album Wunna, which moved career-high units for the Young Stoner Life Records artist, Gunna has dropped the fourth and final installment of his Drip Season series: DS4EVER. The LP has a host of star-studded appearances including Drake, Young Thug, Future, 21 Savage, R&B singer Chloe Bailey, whom he’s been spotted with on more than one occasion recently, and much more. DS4 comes days after Gunna hinted at a diss track on the album that’s directed towards Freddie Gibbs. Earlier this week, he sparked a Twitter back-and-forth by tweeting, “When my album drop Freddie Gibbs will the biggest moment of his career.” Of course a Twitter spat ensued, but this all likely stems from Gibbs subliminally calling Gunna a snitch after Gunna appeared on a CNN program in 2019 that people mistook for a Crime Stoppers episode.

Papoose has wrapped up his year of consecutive monthly releases with December. As promised, Pap said he would deliver albums every month and he did just that. The album series was the grand closing of Papoose’s rap career as he announced in February of last year that he’d be retiring from the game to focus on his family and other endeavors. Pap’s new album isn’t available on streaming platforms. Instead, it can be purchased from himself directly via Cash App.

See other releases below from Johnny Cinco, Montana of 300 and more.