The Forever Story is JID’s third studio album, following his critically-acclaimed 2018 sophomore album DiCaprio 2 and serves as the prequel to his debut 2017 album, The Never Story. JID first gave word of this project on August 27, 2019 in a series of tweets hinting to October as a release for new music. He said that he was “depressed,” leading him to want to drop some new music. After about two and a half years of obscurity regarding the project, “Surround Sound” was released on January 14, 2022, where he collaborated with fellow Atlanta artists 21 Savage and Baby Tate. In a January 20 tweet, he regarded the track as the first single for the album, hinting at more music coming out soon. On August 8, JID confirmed the second single would release the day after, being the Kenny Mason-assisted “Dance Now.” Right after, Dreamville president Ibrahim Hamad announced artwork and the release date, while the track length could be seen on Apple Music. On August 18, the album’s original outro track, “2007,” was exclusively released on Dreamville’s YouTube channel. The song didn’t make the final cut for the album due to sample clearance issues, but was released in “need to understand the full story.” Alongside dropping the tracklist and features for the rest of the album (including the likes of frequent collaborators Ari Lennox, EARTHGANG, and more), JID claimed the initial album length was intentional in a tweet four days before release: "The Forever Story was supposed to be 16 son