It’s official now: Young Goldie and Awesome Jones are down together. Former Inc. singer Lloyd announced last year  he was leaving his original label home and, several weeks ago, he finalized a new deal at Interscope. On Monday (August 16) it was announced that he inked a deal to release his next LP, The King of Hearts, via a joint deal with the Zone 4 imprint belonging to producer Polow Da Don a.k.a. Awesome Jones.

“I’m the King of Hearts, you know,” Lloyd said recently when we visited the New Jersey set of Lloyd Banks’ “Any Girl” video. “And at the album release, we gonna be drinking Ace of Spades,” he laughed.

“Me and Polow Da Don have been working hard,” he added. “I got a lot of surprises. I think that a lot of people haven’t heard me sound like this, haven’t heard me sing like this. It’s gonna be a new look, it’s gonna be like I’m back for the first time. It should be anticipated. The album is gonna be my best work to date, King of Hearts.”

The R&B heartthrob just released the single “Lay It Down,” and the tumble-in-the-sheets single is just the first hint of what’s to come from the Po and Lloyd collaboration.

Lloyd’s last LP was 2008’s Lessons in Love, which spawned the hit “Girls Around the World” featuring Lil Wayne. Of course, Lloyd, a.k.a. Young Goldie, was also heard on the Young Money blockbuster “Bedrock.” Lloyd’s connection to Cash Money/ Young Money is so strong that the singer nearly became an official Young Money member, but wanted to bolt entirely from Universal, where his last two albums were released through The Inc. and which serves as the distribution home for Young Money projects.

Instead, he’ll be over at the house that Jimmy Iovine built working with a fellow ATL music staple, producer/songwriter Polow.

“He’s dedicated,” Lloyd co-signed of the hitmaker. “The greatest thing about Polow is there’s no amount of time that’s unnecessary when it comes to making something the best, whether it takes two days or two months for one track. I’ve seen Polow sit with one song for six days and perfect it. You can hear the difference in the quality against someone else’s music. It sounds completely different.

“Working with Polow, he brings the best out of me,” Lloyd continued. “He pushes me to be a better artist. And I really feel like I found a home, I found a good home at Interscope. They believe in me as a star. I’m really looking forward to the future.”

Lloyd’s first album, Southside, was released in 2004, and he hit another milestone when his 2007 sophomore LP, Street Love, debuted at #2 on the Billboard albums chart. Now, he’s ready to take a fresh direction for his fourth effort. Polow will be handling most of the album’s production, which Lloyd says is a much-welcome change of pace.

“I don’t wanna bounce around too much. When an artist bounces around, you lose the consistency and the continuity in the sound,” he said. “For me, working with Polow has been all that and more. He’s given me a lot of different sounds, but at the same time, it’s a complete thought, so it’s not like we’re recording the same songs over and over again. Having that one creative partner in a producer is something I’ve never really had and I’m enjoying a lot not having to bounce around … just me and Po for the most part.” (Via MTV News)

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