Breland has a popularity for dropping bangers like “My Truck” and “Throw It Again,” however for his newest launch, he wished to get slightly extra severe.

“I ended final yr on a fairly loopy run of getting performed, like, 170 reveals, and I used to be fairly bodily, psychologically, spiritually exhausted, and I felt like I type of misplaced a number of the pleasure,” the musician, 29, solely informed Us Weekly forward of the discharge of his new EP, Challenge 2024. “Folks have at all times mentioned that I’m a really joyful particular person once I make music, once I’m on stage, however I may simply inform that I used to be beginning to lose it.”

The artist — whose music blends every little thing from nation to rap and gospel and R&B — isn’t complaining about his success, however he felt like he wanted a “higher manner” to strategy his rising fame.

“I gotta type of floor myself and heart myself in what the aim of that is,” he recalled considering. “If I’m gonna miss my nephew’s birthday and certainly one of my greatest buddy’s weddings and all of those different issues in pursuit of this dream, it has to imply one thing extra than simply me changing into in style and me being profitable and me being a celebrity.”

After talking along with his mother, Breland, who grew up in New Jersey, determined to go to Selma, Alabama, the place a lot of his older family had been born and raised. Town is thought for being a middle of the battle for civil rights within the Sixties, however now it’s one of many poorest cities within the state — which gave Breland quite a bit to consider throughout his journey.

“I noticed Selma as this actually vibrant pillar of the civil rights motion the place it was an emblem of hope for lots of people traditionally,” he defined. “And once I went there, it was fairly destitute. … I used to be simply realizing, ‘Wow, I’m one or two ancestral selections away from having grown up on this neighborhood.’ For all intents and functions, these are my folks, and the way did this occur and what can I do? I felt actually moved.”

After that go to, Breland started engaged on the songs that turned Challenge 2024, which debuted Friday, October 18. The EP solely contains six tracks, nevertheless it nonetheless manages to include sounds from all of the genres that Breland is aware of and loves: nation, hip-hop, gospel and extra. And whereas the lyrical content material is often extra severe than what “My Truck” followers could be anticipating, there are nonetheless bops. “Movement,” for instance, stirs Afrobeats along with nation, whereas “Icing” is a twangy stomper a few beautiful woman.

“I felt prefer it was necessary for me to make a undertaking that was extra intentional than the music that I’ve made beforehand,” Breland defined. “I wished to get again to the supply of, like, ‘What’s nation music? What’s my place in nation music?’ And it’s actually about storytelling. And I’m like, ‘How can I inform some tales which can be slightly bit realer?’ To not say {that a} track like ‘My Truck’ isn’t actual. I’ve pushed vehicles, however I wanna go a degree deeper than that. Let’s not simply make the bops, however let’s make bops which have slightly substance to them as nicely.”

The “Boots Don’t” artist emphasised that followers of his 2022 album, Cross Nation, needn’t fear that he’s modified an excessive amount of — he’s simply making an attempt to turn out to be extra weak.

“I’ve lived an excessive amount of actual life and skilled an excessive amount of during the last couple years, to not let folks in slightly bit extra,” he defined. “I’ve by no means gotten too deep. With the music that I’ve put out beforehand, to an extent that was type of simpler as a result of I may shield a few of my internal ideas and emotions on that degree. However I do assume that vulnerability is necessary in artwork, and I’m understanding that greater than I had beforehand.”

As a result of Challenge 2024 is a lot impressed by his household, Breland made positive that they heard all of the music earlier than it dropped — and so they gave their stamp of approval. He even enlisted his 2-year-old nephew, Cassius, to make sure that every little thing sounded good.

“I actually mentioned, ‘I cannot put something on this undertaking if he doesn’t prefer it.’ So we had a couple of songs that I performed for him that he didn’t actually have a lot of a response to, and they didn’t make the undertaking,” the singer quipped. “So, shout-out to my nephew for secretly A-and-R-ing this undertaking. … That’s the true essence of why we make the music, to make folks really feel one thing. So on the household entrance, we’re good. Everyone loves it.”

Breland’s Challenge 2024 is out now.