Rhymesayers’ labelmates Brother Ali and Evidence have planned a collaborative West Coast/Midwest tour a couple of weeks back. But what no one expected to happen was for them to collaborate in secret on a new album, which dropped on Friday.

Brother Ali took the wheel as Evidence took the navigation.

According to a press release, this newly unannounced album, called Secrets & Escapes, is the result of what happened when Ali took three trips to California to go see Evidence and record in a Venice garage. Everything they’ve done on this record is completely abstract. If there was anything that reminded them of what they’ve become known for, they simply threw it away and started over.

This album is basically two artists having fun recording an album just because it’s what they love to do. They’ve invited three other guests to join in on the fun as well, like Pharoahe Monch, Talib Kweli, and CS Armstrong.

Aside from the album, if you haven’t been following us on our IG page, Ali is about to embark on a two-month tour starting November 7th (see here and here to purchase tickets). Evidence will be co-headlining the West Coast part of the tour while Ali will be having Nur-D & DJ Last Word on the Midwest portion of it. Evidence will be joining Ali back in Minneapolis towards the end of the Midwest tour.

Stream the album snippets below.