Faiyaz cancelled this album the night before its scheduled September 19, 2025 release.
According to a message in the “have to.” music video, he had everything ready: the album, another lead single, music videos.
Then he sent his team a group text pulling the plug. What arrived on February 13, 2026 is leaner. Ten tracks. The earlier singles “Tony Soprano” and “Peter Pan” are gone from the tracklist.
Icon runs 31 minutes. Ten tracks total. It opens with “white noise,” a two-minute orchestral intro featuring violin. Executive producer Raphael Saadiq strips the sound back.
Where Wasteland sprawled across 19 tracks with Drake features and genre experiments, Icon contracts. Saadiq’s production credits include D’Angelo’s Voodoo, Solange’s A Seat at the Table, and work with Mary J. Blige and Erykah Badu.
Here, he keeps arrangements minimal. Drums, bass, one or two melodic elements, and Faiyaz’s voice.
“wrong faces.” opens the album proper after the orchestral intro. The production sounds like Darkchild and Timbaland’s work from the mid to late 90s, early 2000s.
Faiyaz’s vocals come silky, easing you into the record. The song tackles emotional displacement. He sings about searching for something real in the wrong places. One person wants forever while the other stays stuck on temporary.
Third track “have to.” takes you back to New Edition with that 1980s esque groove. The production is immaculate, another one of our favourites. It dropped as the lead single.
The music video shows sped-up footage of Faiyaz aboard a private jet from New York to Milan. During the flight, he’s seen recording music, texting, lounging. It was first previewed in September 2025 on the original album release date before Faiyaz cancelled everything.
The track finally dropped officially on October 31, 2025 with a Cole Bennett video. The song hit number one on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay chart, Faiyaz’s second time topping that format. The lyrics express intense devotion across distance.
“butterflies” is the most vulnerable Brent has ever sounded. The song shares DNA with “talk 2 u” and “stay down.” Far from that toxic relationship crooner.
Benny Blanco co produced. Faiyaz opens up about hoping his feelings get reciprocated.
“other side” has that Off the Wall vibe. Your mind instantly jumps to MJ. The production stays minimal.
“strangers” begins with acoustic R&B riffs. The song gets more upbeat as it progresses, adding elements that change the dynamic.
First it’s just guitar and light percussion. Then bass comes in. Then strings enter low in the mix.
By the final section, there’s a full arrangement, but it accumulated so gradually you barely noticed. Faiyaz’s vocal recalls Donell Jones on “Where I Wanna Be,” that conversational tenor that can shift registers without strain.
The outro shifts into spoken word self reflection: be truthful, eat healthy, read books, give without expecting anything back.
On “world is yours,” Faiyaz stretches into falsetto over electric guitar. The guitar rings out, each note sustained.
His voice has grit in the upper register. The falsetto rides the electric guitar, taking you back to the Ready for the World era.
Chad Hugo from The Neptunes co produced with Dpat and Faiyaz. He sings “whatever you want,” “have me your way, here I stand,” “the world is yours,” “I’ll write your name on every shore.” The second verse states “I don’t compare you to no one” and “forever is the only outcome.”
“four seasons” uses seasons as a metaphor for relationship shifts. The intro grabs immediately.
Those bells again, the ones that show up on nostalgic R&B Christmas songs. The build adds Timbaland’s So Anxious drum pattern, but sequenced in a unique way.
When Faiyaz sings “some days you’re hot as July sometimes you’re cold as the wintertime,” he’s describing how love fluctuates.
“pure fantasy” feels inspired by 90s R&B. The opening has that Human Nature liquidity, synth pads shifting slowly.
Then the drums lock into a Keith Sweat groove: snare on two and four, open hi hat on the off beats, minimal kick. Faiyaz’s delivery stays relaxed.
The song explores idealistic love, uncomplicated and removed from outside noise. Something you’d play when it’s raining outside.
The album avoids obvious throwback markers. No vinyl crackle. No deliberately degraded audio.
The production stays clean: drums that punch without over compression, bass that sits low but clear, vocals multi tracked but distinct.
The album came out through ISO Supremacy, the label and creative agency Faiyaz co founded in 2023. Full independence.
The Valentine’s Day 2026 release, months after the September cancellation, shifted the album’s context.
Where Wasteland explored what Faiyaz called toxic R&B, this one leans toward romance. The tempos sit between 85 and 95 BPM throughout.
“vanilla sky” closes the album. Laid back. Guitar strums create the vibe. The vocals recall Donell Jones, smooth and soulful, carrying the track.
Thirty one minutes total. The same runtime as Off the Wall, Jodeci’s Diary of a Mad Band, Usher’s My Way. Raphael Saadiq handled the overall vision. The marketing aesthetic matches the music throughout.
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