Anderson .Paak Tattoos Guidelines on Posthumously Releasing Music to His Arm

Anderson .Paak unveils a provocative tattoo to stave off unauthorized releases of his music.

Anderson .Paak isn’t waiting until his health slips to issue instructions about how to treat any posthumous releases that may surface once he’s gone. In fact, he’s put them on his arm.

In an Instagram Story, the Oxnard singer, drummer, and producer, recently unveiled a new tattoo with an explicit warning. “When I’m gone, please don’t release any posthumous albums or songs with my name attached. Those were just demos and never intended to be heard by the public,” the ink on .Paak’s forearm reads. It’s unclear what prompted the statement, but you can’t blame .Paak for trying to get out ahead whatever the label system might envision for his unreleased catalog when he’s no longer around to protect it. Posthumous releases have been a contentious topic amongst both musicians and their fans for decades now. The handling of recent post-mortem albums by Prince, J Dilla, Juice WRLD, and Pop Smoke, have been heavily scrutinized. But even with their mixed reception, it seems pretty unlikely that we’ve seen the last drop from the afterlife.

Still, it does feel a little overly cautious to have such stern guidelines this early in his career. Especially when its seems there’s still so much on the horizon from the artist. At some point this year or next, .Paak will release a full-length collaborative project with Bruno Mars as Silk Sonic. And according to his own report, a follow-up to his debut album with Knxwledge as NxWorries is already in the book. Neither of those have dates just yet, but we can’t be too far out from a reveal at this point.

Catch a glimpse of the new tattoo below. Hold tight for the next transmission from Anderson .Paak in the weeks and months ahead.