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Lana Del Rey and Anderson .Paak prohibit posthumous releases

By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 20 August 2021

Lana Del Rey has revealed that her will prohibits the posthumous release of any of her unreleased music. This follows Anderson .Paak showing off a new tattoo that publicly states a similar demand.

Del Rey shared an image of .Paak’s tattoo – which reads “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” – with the added comment: “It’s in my will but it’s also on his tattoo”.

Posthumous albums are nothing new, of course. Artists such as Tupac Shakur and Jeff Buckley have had far more music released after their deaths than when they were alive. In recent years, however, there has been a rush of posthumous albums by artists who died young, including Juice Wrld, Pop Smoke, Lil Peep and Mac Miller.

Such releases have always been controversial. Will.i.am criticised the first of two posthumous Michael Jackson albums, ‘Michael’, in 2010, saying: “Whoever put it out and is profiting off of it, I want to see how cold they are to say that what [Jackson] contributed during his life wasn’t enough. He just wasn’t any ordinary artist. He was a hands-on person. To me it’s disrespectful. There’s no honouring”.

In 2014, Drake cancelled plans to complete a posthumous Aaliyah album, following a backlash from both fans and the late singer’s family. Although it seems that at least some of that shelved work will now appear on a posthumous Aaliyah release set to hit streaming services on 8 Oct.

Of course, stating your wish that none of your unreleased work makes it out into the world after your death in a tattoo – or even in a will – doesn’t mean it won’t happen. It does, however, highlight that just because an artist recorded something doesn’t mean that they wanted people to hear it.

While they’re alive though, both Lana Del Rey and Anderson .Paak have new music on the way. Del Rey was scheduled to release new album ‘Blue Banisters’ last month, although it has not yet emerged. Meanwhile, .Paak has a new Silk Sonic album with Bruno Mars set for release in January.