Anderson Paak and Cordae revealed the 11 song tracklist for Heavy Is the Crown on October 22, one day before the album release on October 23, 2026. The compact album runs about 32 minutes and opens with 58th Floor and closes with Godfather II.
This is the first album billed to both artists as co-leads. Their partnership goes back to 2019, but earlier songs were Cordae records featuring Paak. Heavy Is the Crown changes the billing, the structure and the expectation, and the newly revealed sequence shows exactly how tight the project is.
The full sequence and what it signals
The tracklist is 58th Floor, Airbender, I am On, A Good Day, You are Mine, Days Go By, Crown, Days Like This, Karma Tax, Helpless and Godfather II. At roughly 32 minutes across 11 songs, the album averages under three minutes per track. That points to a concise listen rather than a sprawling collection, with replay value likely built into the format.
Placement gives the title a structural role. Crown sits at track seven, in the centre of the second half. Days Go By leads into it and Days Like This follows it, so two similarly titled songs frame the title track as a pivot. 58th Floor and Godfather II bookend the record with very different images, height at the start and family power language at the end. A Good Day, the only single released ahead of the album, sits at track four, early enough to give new listeners a known entry point before the remaining seven tracks.
The album is presented through APESHIT and EMPIRE, alongside Hi Level and Mass Appeal, and reporting on the announcement listed it through APESHIT, Mass Appeal and EMPIRE for the October 23 release. Physical editions were part of the same rollout, including retailer exclusive vinyl variants, an animated zoetrope edition, a cassette and a CD with a lenticular cover.
A Good Day and the credits question
A Good Day arrived September 16. Produced by Hollywood Cole, the track is built around a sample of Bill Withers 1977 song Lovely Day. The video was directed by Dave Meyers and stars Jennifer Freeman. It plays as a nod to the 1995 film Friday, casting Paak and Cordae as brothers competing for the same love interest. That brother framing is not accidental. The album cover restages the poster for the 2008 comedy Step Brothers, with both artists in matching argyle sweaters, and an alternate version shows them mid fight.
The title is not just bravado. It speaks directly to the shared weight both artists carry as the primary providers and anchors for their families.
That line comes from the album description for Heavy Is the Crown, and it explains the tension the cover art is playing with. The presentation is comic and brotherly. The title is about responsibility. The music has to hold both ideas at once, which is also the balance Paak and Cordae have shown as collaborators, serious lyric writing beside elastic, soul driven performance.
The tracklist announcement named J Cole, Conductor Williams, 9th Wonder and Swizz Beatz among collaborators and production credits, with a wider list including FNZ, Hollywood Cole, Soul Rasheed, Caleb Oh and The Collective. Honesty matters here. The announcement did not identify which contributors worked on which songs, and no guest verses have been confirmed. Those names should not be read as a list of vocal features until detailed credits arrive with the album on October 23.
A partnership built across seven years
Three earlier songs built this album. The artists first worked together on RNP, from Cordae 2019 debut album The Lost Boy, produced by J Cole. They performed it together on The Tonight Show and at the BET Hip Hop Awards that year. They reunited in January 2023 for Two Tens, produced by J Cole and Dem Jointz. In August 2024 they followed with Summer Drop, produced by J Cole and Free Nationals bassist Kelsey Gonzalez. Both later songs appeared on Cordae 2024 album The Crossroads.
Release week adds a live layer. Reported events included a Los Angeles pop up from October 22 to 24 at 433 North Fairfax Avenue, with an album first listen on October 22 and a meet and signing on October 23, plus a sold out October 26 performance in San Francisco and an October 29 signing in New York. Some other pop up stops were merchandise only with neither artist present, a distinction fans were advised to check in the individual listings.
Heavy Is the Crown arrives October 23, 2026 with 11 songs, a 32 minute runtime and a tracklist now confirmed in full. The credits per track and any guest appearances remain unconfirmed, and that is the right place to leave it until release day. What is already clear is the shape of the record, a short, brotherly, family themed album from two artists whose collaboration has been building since RNP in 2019.
