DMV-bred rapper IDK is back with his latest body of work. For Simple, IDK recruited Grammy-winning producer Kaytranada to handle all of the beats.
The 8-track effort contains features by Florida rapper Denzel Curry and Texas rapper Mike Dimes. Simple is IDK’s first full-length project since 2021’s USee4Yourself.
“There’s a neighborhood in my city called ‘Simple City.’ It gets its name because you can get killed for any simple reason,” states IDK. “Simple City is also the birthplace of Marvin Gaye. I wanted to tell the story of Simple City in a way that it’s never been told before.”
The Maryland native continues, “From drug abuse to crime and murder, I wanted to cover what it feels like to be from Simple City and teach the world that the fix to helping disadvantaged Black communities isn’t as simple as you think. The way people view our mentalities is a straightforward thing. There’s a lot of depth and it should be handled with care. I wanted to create a project where people can ‘dance to real s###.'”
Simple joins a discography that already consists of mixtapes such as 2014’s Sex, Drugs & Homework and 2015’s SubTrap. Those tapes came out under the stage name Jay IDK. IWasVeryBad dropped in 2017 as an IDK project. The Is He Real album followed in 2019.
Back in 2016, AllHipHop highlighted the wordsmith born Jason Mills as part of the #DMVOnTheMove series. Four years later, IDK started the No Label Academy music business program alongside the No Label organization.
IDK will celebrate the release of Simple with a special NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert presentation featuring veteran Hip Hop producer/multi-instrumentalist Mike Dean. Viewers can look for that performance on May 18.