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Now that Nipsey Hussle and Bino Rideaux's long-awaited joint album is finally here, Bino and Nip's brother, Blacc Sam, are opening up about finishing up the anticipated project following the late rapper's death.
On Friday, August 14, Nipsey Hussle's estate and Bino Rideaux released their second collaborative project, PROLIFIC. The 15-track album features previously released singles like "Reckless," "I Just Wanna Know" with Cardi B and Ty Dolla $ign, and "Sacrifices" featuring James Fauntleroy. It also holds other collaborations with Buddy, Leon Thomas, BH, and the late Static Major. Bino told The Breakfast Club this album was created before they worked on their 2017 LP, No Pressure.
"The initial idea, we wanted to make songs for women," Bino explains. "A kind of vulnerable project, but after so long of that, it's still Nip Hussle and Bino Rideaux, we ended up making one street record just to have some fun and then caught that bounce. That's how we ended up just putting No Pressure out first. But we started working on these songs in 2015-2016."
Bino says he and Nip had about 80 percent of the project done before The Marathon Clothing founder was shot and killed in front of his store in Los Angeles in 2019. All they needed was to do the final mix after some last-minute songs were added. They had always planned to drop their second joint album after Nipsey's Grammy-nominated album Victory Lap. Bino says they're just "seeing it through" following the late rapper's passing in 2019.
Later on in the conversation, Blacc Sam discusses the status of Nipsey Hussle's anticipated documentary. Sam says the docuseries is for longtime Nip fans who want to know everything and for those who never knew his backstory. He explains the documentary is full of archived footage from Nipsey's life, from the time he learned to make beats as a kid to the moment when he became a Grammy-nominated rapper. Blacc Sam also reveals that Ava DuVernay helped them secure a deal with Netflix worth over six figures, but they had to walk away from it. Now, Sam says they plan to debut it for free with the help of Allen Hughes.
"Everything happens for a reason is what I tell the team because when we first was going to start and we wanted to bring [Allen Hughes] in just to help us, he was busy on a project," Sam says. "I think he was busy doing the 'Pac project. So now, he's free. So he really seen the footage we have and he's like, 'Man, I know exactly what this is.' So he's excited. He's on. So it's like everything happens for a reason. I think this is the perfect time to get it done how we really want it."
You can catch the entire conversation with Blacc Sam and Bino Rideaux on Netflix. See more clips from the interview below. PROLIFIC is available on iHeartRadio now.