Following on from the release of her Flume collaboration, ‘Silent Assassin’, Tkay Maidza has announced the release of her highly anticipated sophomore album, ‘Sweet Justice’. To accompany the news, Maidza has also released the single ‘Ring-a-Ling’ and its video.
Maidza says she made ‘Ring-a-Ling’ as an “an empowering song that tells others that my biggest focus are [sic] my goals.” The track was produced by Two Fresh, who Maidza previously worked with on her track ‘Onto Me’. The ‘Ring-a-Ling’ video was directed by Jocelyn Anquetil, who has directed videos for King Krule and Sudan Archives, among others.
🔪❤️💰⚖️ my second album “sweet justice” is out november 3rd! ❤️🔥⚖️🔪💰 pic.twitter.com/DcpKv2WXcz
— yung gra$$hopper 🦗❤️🔥 (@TKAYMAIDZA) July 25, 2023
‘Sweet Justice’ is said to follow a period in Maidza’s life in which she “severed ties” with old friends and “toxic figures” in her life; and about putting to bed the self-doubt that has followed her thus far. ‘Sweet Justice’ is out Friday, November 3, digitally and on an Australia and New Zealand-exclusive transparent red vinyl release, via Due Process and Universal Music Australia.
Along with her Flume collaboration, Maidza has included other guests on ‘Sweet Justice’, too. ‘Out of Luck’ features the French-born San Francisco-raised singer Lolo Zouaï and New York City-based singer Amber Mark; and on ‘Gone to the West’ Maidza has tapped the rapper Duckwrth, who also lives in her new home of Los Angeles. Maidza was born in Zimbabwe and raised in Tarntanya/Adelaide. In addition to flume, the Canadian producers Stint and Kaytranada contributed to the album’s production, too.
It’s been a long wait for another album-proper from Maidza, whose debut album, ‘Tkay’, dropped in 2016. In between though, Maidza went through something of a reinvention with her critically acclaimed series of ‘Last Year Was Weird’ EPs from 2018 to 2021. She’s also been filling her time with huge support slots for Billie Eillish, Dua Lipa and, most recently, Lizzo.
NME’s Max Pilley gave the third and final of those releases, ‘Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 3’, a four-star review, saying: “Each of these eight tracks is its own self-contained pocket of frantic energy, finely crafted and targeted at the stars. It is, in other words, elite pop music, and the sooner the world realises that, the better.”
The third and final of those releases ‘Last Year Was Weird, Vol. 3’ won Maidza the 2022 NME Award for Best Solo Act from Australia; and in 2021, the ARIA Award for Best Soul/R&B Release.
On winning her NME Award Maidza said: “When I looked at so many artists that I really love, they would be on the cover of NME, and that was almost a ballpark of, ‘That’s what I want to do’”