King Capital

In the spring of 2011, while still a student at Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, New York, Capital Steez had a performance at a local cafe, with friends including Powers Pleasant, Joey Bada$$ and Dirty Sanchez also in attendance to show him support.[1]

On their way home from the performance, he and Powers Pleasant came up with the idea of forming a hip hop collective, which they named "Progressive Era", or "Pro Era" for short.[2][3] In April 2012, Capital Steez released a mixtape entitled AmeriKKKan Korruption to critical acclaim, before following it up with a re-release of the mixtape entitled AmeriKKKan Korruption Reloaded in October 2012.[2]

On December 21, 2012, Pro Era released a collective mixtape entitled Peep: The Aprocalypse before Capital Steez took his own life two days later,[4][5] jumping off of a building in the Flatiron District of Manhattan.[1][2] In May 2015, Joey Bada$$ announced that Pro Era would hold a Steez Day Festival in his memory to be held annually on his birthday, July 7, with all proceeds going to his family.[6]

In an interview with XXL in April 2013, CJ Fly stated that Capital Steez had been working on the album before his death, adding that he recorded songs on instrumentals made by other producers, saying: "What we wanna do is – he did it on some unoriginal beats, [so now] we wanna get the beats made over so we can get the album sold. Give the proceeds to the family. The same thing that he would’ve done if he was here; help his family."[7]

In April 2013, Joey Bada$$ announced King Capital as a mixtape set to be released that summer, while his own debut studio album B4.Da.$$ (which wasn't released until January 2015) was set for release that fall.[9] The same month, CJ Fly stated in an interview with XXL that the album may be Capital Steez's last release, saying: "I think this might be the last [project] because we don't have that much material of his. [He only] recorded that project. Unless we find hidden verses that he recorded somewhere else, which is likely to happen, they might drop the EP but there's no hidden verses that were there."[7] On July 8, 2013, Pro Era released the album's lead single "King Steelo",[10] but the album itself remained unreleased.

In an interview with Rapfix Live on MTV in January 2014, Joey Bada$$ stated that Pro Era was compiling songs that Capital Steez left behind and building an album from them, adding that they were taking their time to get it right: "The thing is with that, it's so great, it's so classic, we just feel like we need to do more with it. We can't just like drop it as a mixtape; it deserves way more than that."[8] In another interview with The Stranger in June 2015, he responded to growing pressure from Pro Era fans for King Capital's release, stating: "People got to be patient and understand that we're trying to do the best we can for that project. It's easy to just put songs out, but why would we do that when these are the last songs he had?"[11] In April 2016, Nyck Caution also responded to the pressure, stating: "People don't understand that it's being worked on, but it's not something that's finished and ready to come out. […] People think we're holding onto it for whatever reason. It's the last recording. We're trying to find as many [tracks] as we can."[12]

In an interview with Revolt on June 1, 2017, Joey Bada$$ revealed that King Capital, as well as a new Pro Era album, were "coming real soon", confirming later on that both projects would be released in 2017.[13] On July 7, 2017, at the third annual Steez Day Festival, Joey Bada$$ revealed that King Capital would be released on December 23, 2017, the fifth anniversary of Capital Steez's death.[14] However, on December 12, 2017, Joey Bada$$ announced on Instagram that the album's release would be delayed until further notice due to "business legalities and sample clearances."[15]

• "King Steelo" was released as the album's lead single on July 7, 2013, as a free download on SoundCloud.[10][16]