Kendrick Lamar releases ‘Untitled Unmastered’ album of outtakes

We know you’re probably getting tired of hearing it but, surprise, there’s a new album that the Internet is spending the night salivating over.

The latest thin-air drop comes courtesy of Compton emcee Kendrick Lamar, who dropped a new collection entitled “Untitled Unmastered” on music services late Thursday night.

Comprised of eight tracks, the near full-length features studio versions of the untitled songs Lamar performed over the recent year, including on “The Colbert Report,” “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” and, most recently, at the 58th Grammy Awards.

The arrival of new Lamar material isn’t completely a surprise.

Earlier Thursday, Spotify, either by mistake or as a way of drumming up pre-release hype (who knows these days), uploaded the title, tracklist and album cover art as a placeholder after several days of speculation from Lamar’s label bosses at Top Dawg Entertainment.

After the Grammys, TDE head Anthony Tiffith mentioned — in a Twitter conversation with LeBron James — that he was genuinely considering James’ suggestion of releasing the many untitled Lamar tracks that the rapper had performed on television in recent months.

Then two days ago, Tiffith took to Instagram to add, “Ive decided 2 drop a project 1 day this week. I won’t say wut day or who. It cud be 2nite So don’t ask me jus stay close to the net. Is this Kool with y’all?”

Lamar, himself, also teased the wealth of unreleased material.

In an interview with hip-hop site 2 Dope Boyz, the rapper said the untitled tracks he’s been performing on television are records that couldn’t make the album for whatever reason.

“You see all these performances on these late-night shows,” he said. “I got a chamber of material from the album that I was in love where sample clearances or something as simple as a deadline kept it off the album. But I think probably close to 10 songs that I’m in love with that I’ll still play and still perform that didn’t make the cut.”

The possible Spotify mishap felt like a nod to the surprise release of “To Pimp a Butterfly,” which was dropped a full week before its scheduled date in March (although the release initially appeared to be an accidental leak, major-label distributor Interscope later confirmed that the early drop was indeed intentional).

“Untitled Unmastered” arrives weeks after Lamar’s riveting, emotionally charged performance at the 58th Grammy Awards, where he rapped about police brutality and the shooting of Trayvon Martin in the most politically minded performance of the night -- a medley of “Butterfly” tracks “The Blacker the Berry” and “Alright,” as well as the latest entry in his “Untitled” series of verses.

Lamar was the most nominated artist of the evening with 11 nods, but despite his album’s daring approach of breaking rap conventions and universal acclaim, it lost the night’s biggest honor — album of the year — to Taylor Swift.

The rapper was awarded the televised ceremony’s first prize, rap album, which the 28-year-old artist accepted onstage. He won four other awards, including rap performance and rap song.

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