It's Almost Dry

The album features guest appearances from Kanye West, Jay-Z, Pharrell Williams, Nigo, No Malice, Lil Uzi Vert, Kid Cudi, Don Toliver and Labrinth. West and Williams also served as executive producers and produced six tracks each, with additional production from BoogzDaBeast, 88-Keys, FnZ, Luca Starz, ThaMyind and Labrinth.[4]

On April 19, 2022, Rolling Stone published an interview with Pusha T in which he explained the meaning of the album title, saying,

I'm always creating a masterpiece and in the creation of that in terms of a painting, you end up telling people while they waiting on it, 'It's almost dry,' because they're always asking, 'When will it be done?' And you have to wait on masterpieces. Also in drug culture, a lot of times you'll have people waiting on the product and it's not dry yet. You can come get it when it's dry.[5]

The next day, Pusha T officially announced the album's artwork and the track list.[6][7]

To mark the album's release, Pusha T was the musical guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and held an album listening party in New York City named Cokechella.[8][9]

The album's release was preceded by the lead single, "Diet Coke", which was released on February 8, 2022, alongside a music video.[10] The next single, "Hear Me Clearly" featuring Nigo, was released on March 4, originally intended only for Nigo's 2nd studio album. Shortly after the single's release, it was revealed to be on It's Almost Dry as well. "Neck & Wrist," featuring appearances from Jay-Z and Pharrell, was released on April 6, and was the last of 3 features released for the album.[11][12]

On January 24, 2022, Pusha T shared an image of American singer Lana Del Rey with her face seemingly obscured by a pile of cocaine.[13] He later revealed that he posted the image with the belief that he and the singer talk about similar subjects in their music. According to Pusha T, Del Rey's label contacted him shortly after, to request him getting on a remix.[14] The day before the image was posted, Pusha T had previewed new music in Paris, with several snippets showing up on various celebrities Instagram stories.[13] On January 28, 2022, Pusha T shared a Instagram post of a contract indicating him signing off on Def Jam, captioned "Some people call you their brother, other people show you you're brothers", adding a thanks to Kanye West, with saying "Thanx Yezos", a play on the name of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Pusha T's manager Steven Victor confirmed that It's Almost Dry was set to be Pusha T's last album on Def Jam and that he now owns his masters, thanks to Ye.[15]

Pusha T debuted the album's lead single "Diet Coke" on February 8, 2022, alongside a music video featuring an appearance from Ye.[10] The second single, "Hear Me Clearly" was released on March 4, 2022, in conjunction with BAPE founder Nigo for his album I Know Nigo!, which released on March 25, 2022.[16] On the same day, "Diet Coke" was performed at Stephen Colbert's The Late Show on a stage set in a snow storm.[17] The third single, "Neck & Wrist," featuring vocals from Jay-Z and Pharrell Williams, was released on April 6, 2022.[18] On April 18, 2022, Pusha T announced that a public listening party would be held in New York that same week.[8] Later that day, Push officially announced the album's release date while sharing a snippet from the then-unreleased song "I Pray For You."[19] The album ended up leaking on the same day, four days before its official release.

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	87/100[20]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Clash	8/10[21]
HipHopDX	3.8/5[1]
NME	[22]
Pitchfork	7.8/10[23]
Rolling Stone	[2]

It's Almost Dry received critical acclaim. According to Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 87 based on 9 reviews. Marcuss Shorter of Consequence wrote that the album "drips confidence from knowing Pusha is one of a few artists who can do what he does at a very high level" and called it "the perfect complement to Daytona, creating Pusha's very own gangster saga on wax".[24]

Notes

• An alternate configuration of the track listing, titled It's Almost Dry: Ye vs. Pharrell, was released a couple days after the original release. This version moves Ye's six produced tracks to the start and Pharrell's six produced tracks to the end of the track listing.[25]

Sample credits

• "Dreamin of the Past" contains samples from "Jealous Guy", written by John Lennon, as performed by Donny Hathaway.[26]
• "Diet Coke" contains a sample from Verzuz Battle, as performed by Fat Joe.[10]
• "Rock N Roll" contains an uncredited sample from "1+1", written by Beyoncé Knowles, Terius Nash, Corey-Jackson Carter, and Christopher Stewart, as performed by Beyoncé.[26]

• It's Almost Dry at Discogs (list of releases)