Brooklyn rapper Kota The Friend has spent much of April working on his Flight Night festival series but sat down with HipHopDX for an extensive interview to talk about his new album, which he admitted sounds very different.

“Album’s coming,” Kota confirmed. “I think it’s different, but that’s up to the fans to decide. I think it’s different from anything else that I’ve made, more mature. Even more introspective. With this album, I’m showing how solid you can be with yourself. Where you can see everything happening around you, but it doesn’t affect you. It’s happening, you see it, but you’re so solid in your perception of yourself that the way the world sees you can’t rock you off your axis.”

The last release Kota dropped off was January’s Lyrics To Go Vol. 3 EP. The last official album he dropped was 2021’s To Kill A Sunrise with Statik Selektah, but he said this next project will be nothing but good vibes.

“In the new music, I just want good things around me,” he said. “It’s not about the haters it’s about the people that love me. Take your focus off of those people that doubted you, and put your focus on the people that have always been there for you and always showed you love. Your reality is what you see and what you pay attention to.”

With that said, Kota said he’s worked hard these past five years, and that this album will likely be followed by a long break.

“This is my last album for a while cause I just wanna focus on friends,” he said. “I wanna be part of a project rather than the person that’s the center of attention. I want this album to show how far I came, and this is my story. It’s like the end of a book, or a last chapter, and I don’t know when the next book is coming, but it’s gonna be completely different.”

Listen to Kota’s latest track “Good Friday” below.