Bino Rideaux is set to put out Prolific with Nipsey Hussle, a collaborative album recorded and sequenced nearly two years before Hussle died in March 2019. The release lands on the eve of what would have been Hussle’s 41st birthday, giving the project a timing that is as personal as it is unusual.
Rideaux has said the album reaches back to work they did before Hussle’s death, when the two were already making music together. He and Hussle first linked on No Pressure in 2017, after Hussle heard Rideaux’s debut solo mixtape Life Is Like a Movie and invited him to the studio; that session led to two new tracks that Hussle later used on Slauson Boy 2 in 2016. Hussle also chose the cover art for Prolific, which shows the two rappers with friends at the Hollywood Roosevelt.
The release carries weight because it is not a project built from loose verses gathered after the fact. It was completed while Hussle was alive, with Samiel Asghedom and the All Money In label revisiting unreleased tracks and then moving only after family was consulted. Asghedom said he spent years uncomfortable with putting out new music from his younger brother, but after starting a group chat with Rideaux and their teams, everyone agreed the timing was finally right.
Rideaux, whose face is tattooed with the words Victory and God Will Rise, has said both marks point back to Hussle. Victory is his daughter’s name, while God Will Rise is a direct nod to Hussle, whose given name, Ermias, carries that meaning in Tigrinya. He has also made clear he expects pushback over the release, even though the music predates Hussle’s death, a sign of how closely this project will be judged against the line between tribute and exploitation.
That is why Prolific matters now: it arrives with Hussle’s hand still visible on the work, from the music itself to the cover art. The question left open is not whether the album exists, but how listeners will receive a posthumous release that was planned before it became posthumous at all.
