VALLEJO – The day is November 25, 2024 you’re at home couch surfing, scrolling through Instagram. You’ve waited 8 years for this moment and it’s officially here. Dej Loaf and Jacquees has officially announced the sequel to their mixtape from 2017, “Fuck A Friendzone,” debuting on Feb 14th 2025. The mixtape named “Fuck A Friendzone 2” released, and fans are reeling.
This album had been highly anticipated for 8 years, and when it was dropped, it made an impact. The conversational songs on the album as well as the musical ability of the artists have only grown stronger.
The theme of the album is two old lovers who wanted to be together before but the timing was wrong, now realize what they want, and they want to give their relationship another shot. They express the gratitude and emotions they once had for one another and how over the years it has matured and amplified.
The message can have many different meanings. It could either mean sometimes we have to let go of things that we love to realize how much we need it, it could mean that no matter what you may go through you can always count on that one person, or it can simply mean toxicity and the never ending cycle of that toxicity.
This album can also represent the new generation of lovers, and how they don’t value what they have at home. You could literally have everything in your life going as you want and you will still seek more.
Listeners may feel this way because Jacquees is newly wedded, and when the two artists announced this album, fans thought it would be weird for Jacquees to not only be working with Dej again, but talking about some of the topics that they talked about in the original mixtape.
No surprise, the sequel was exactly what fans thought it would be: the two were having conversations between each other. Some were sexual and downright disrespectful to Deiondra Sanders, the wife of Jacquees.
Being that the two have history and obviously still a very strong chemistry, Sanders wanted to be in attendance at the studio when the album was being recorded, just as a feeling of security. Dej denies and Jacquees backs her. So you can imagine how messy things were presented to the fans behind the scenes and even online.
The pick of beats, melodies, even the structure of the song line up, plays a huge part in the excellent production of this project. It resembles the production of the original mixtape, all the songs go in chronological order of what’s been going on in their lives. Their love for each other hasn’t changed, but has actually grown.
The sound resembles the first project, and some of the songs are supposed to be a part two to songs in the first project. For instance, the song “You Still Belong To Somebody Else” is a response to “You Belong To Somebody Else” from the first mixtape.
A lot of details made me realize that Dej Loaf is not a girl’s-girl and Jacquees doesn’t respect his wife the way he should. A lot of Dej’s lyrics were direct shots at his wife, entrepreneur Deiondra Sanders, and blatantly disrespectful. Sanders feelings weren’t considered which felt disconcerting to me.
Besides all of that, both artists take their crafts seriously and enjoy working with each other. The way that they work together in the studio, from the chemistry to the positive vibes, shows that they’ve grown professionally and are taking their careers and artistry seriously.
Currently Dej loaf is focusing on her music career after her previous delays and hiatus, as well as developing up and coming artists from her community, such as her cousins who make up the duo My Cousins.
She is currently on the “Fuck A Friendzone” tour with Jacquees which is doing great. She also spends some of her time doing speaking engagements, and performing.
Jacquees is still releasing music, he just released his fourth studio album titled “Baby Making”, and he is on tour selling out stadiums and bringing the fans what they’ve been waiting for. He recently dropped a documentary titled “Call Me Que” which also did great.
Outside of music, the pair have worked on their own projects in the meantime. Dej Loaf currently handles all of her artists development through her independent label Yellow World. The label currently only has Dej signed, but she is working on developing more artists in the future. Jacquees owns a lounge in Stonecrest Georgia called ‘The Wine and Tapas Lounge’ that he invested in with business partner Voneka Marks, and is still dropping music. The lounge is temporarily closed as it has been for the last year, and it is unclear if it will return.
The target audience was pretty much the people who had knowledge of the masterpiece that was created back in 2017, but not limited to them. Both artists have their own fan base outside of the iconic collaborative duo. If you’re into rhythm and blue and a collective of melodies this is an album for you.
Overall despite all the controversy and animosity, the two of the artists put together a beautiful project. Yes, they did take extremely long, but fans still have tracks from the original project in their daily playlists, so you can expect to still be hearing the new tracks in the aux rotation for years to come.