"What It Means To Be King" Cover Art Unveiled By King Von's Team Ahead Of Friday's Drop

The upcoming project will include "Don't Play That" featuring 21 Savage.

BYHayley Hynes
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Long Live King Von. This Friday, March 4th will see the arrival of the Chicago rapper's posthumous What It Means To Be King record, announced earlier this month along with the arrival of "Don't Play That" featuring the late artist's close friend 21 Savage.

On Monday, February 28th, Von's team shared the upcoming album's cover art to his Instagram page. The picture finds him looking intensely into the camera, a few locs hanging in his eyes as his drip-covered wrist hides the lower half of his face. Apart from a few flashy bracelets, we also see chains around his neck.

"What It Means To Be King | This Friday, pre-save link in bio," the caption reads. As HipHopDX notes, the highly anticipated work will follow 2020's debut Welcome to O'Block, which was released shortly before Von's untimely death in November of 2020.

In an interview with VladTV, the "Took Her To The O" hitmaker's former manager revealed that his client had a substantial amount of unreleased music in his possession. "Just going through my notes, I found a hundred songs, not released," he shared. "One day, I went, I said, 'Let me really see how much songs this man really had.' Man got over 200 or 300 songs."


Seeing as 21 had a strong bond with Von's family, including "Don't Play That" on his posthumous album made perfect sense to his team. Following his passing, the Savage Mode artist gifted the 26-year-old's younger sister Kayla with a brand new Range Rover as he knew it was what his friend intended to do.

"I knew Kayla before I knew Von because she talks to my little brother. Von was already planning on purchasing the gift for her birthday and due to his untimely passing, he wasn’t able to finish so all I did was finish what he started because I told Kayla when he passed I had her 4L and I meant it," the UK-born star explained at the time, shutting down "disrespectful" haters questioning his motives.


RIP King Von – check back in with HNHH this Friday to hear his posthumous album.

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About The Author
Hayley Hynes is the former Weekend Managing Editor of HotNewHipHop, she stepped down after two years in 2024 to pursue other creative opportunities but remains on staff part-time to cover music, gossip, and pop culture news. Currently, she contributes similar content on Blavity and 21Ninety, as well as on her personal blog where she also offers tarot/astrology services. Hayley resides on the western side of Canada, previously spending a year in Vancouver to study Fashion Marketing at Blanche Macdonald Centre and Journalism at Mount Royal University in Calgary before that. She's passionate about helping others heal through storytelling, and shares much more about her life on Instagram @hayleyhynes.