New Kendrick Lamar album IV: K-Dot confirms next release with sole Instagram post

Kendrick Lamar has all but confirmed that the follow-up to To Pimp a Butterfly is on the way.

His Instagram account this morning contains just one post, a marbled black square bearing the numerals ‘IV’.

Update 24/3: He's dropped a track, 'The Heart Part 4' which serves to tease a new album dropping 7 April

This would seem to reference the albums that came before it: 2011's Section.80 (I), 2012's Good Kid mAAd City (II) and 2015's To Pimp a Butterfly (III).

This canonisation of his work does not include his mixtape Overly Dedicated (2010), nor the compilation album untitled. unmastered. he put out last year.

Last month, the vinyl used for the original production of To Pimp a Butterfly was added to the Harvard Library in acknowledgment of its cultural significance.

Little is known about the nature or genre of Kendrick's next album - his last two releases having seen him experiment with funk and jazz - as he gives few interviews and isn't particularly active on social media.

He did, however ,say shortly after the release of TPAB: "I know exactly what I want to say next. Everything is going to make sense – not only to myself but to anybody who wants to understand life and music. Everything will make a little more sense."

Capping off months of very strong features, K-Dot most recently contributed a guest verse to The Weeknd's 'Sidewalks'.

“He’s a genius. He is really a genius," The Weeknd said of the collab.