Between coaching on season 10 of NBC’s The Voice and prepping to tour this summer, country artist Blake Shelton has not had an abundance of free time. The six-time Grammy Award nominee, however, released a surprising album on Apple Music midday yesterday. Long time fans of the artist will find the unannounced album surprising, especially considering the work contains hip hop, not country songs.

Country music fans everywhere expressed excitement on Twitter Thursday when they saw that Shelton released an entire album on Apple Music. The excited tweets quickly turned to exclamations of shock when fans realized the country superstar’s latest release, Straight Outta Oklahoma, contained 10 rap and hip hop tracks.

Through tracks such as “Chainz on My Cowz,” Shelton addresses themes characteristic of country music set to beats undeniably derived from hip hop. Shelton uses other songs to reveal previously unknown facets of his past, including the 7 years he spent working at McDonalds to directly fund his McFlurry addiction.

In an exclusive interview with Reader’s Digest, the artist explains that those close to him do not find his release of a hip hop album surprising: “I’ve always considered myself more of a hip hop artist, the public just wanted me to be country.” Demonstrating Shelton’s deep underground presence in the hip hop community, many rappers took to Twitter to congratulate him on his latest album.

Tweeting at Shelton, rapper Lil Wayne exclaimed, “So proud my boy Blake for finally dropping his fire verses on the public.” Many of Wayne’s own followers echoed his support, largely expressing their favoritism for Shelton’s track, “Horse Gang 4 Life.”

As the album has already surged to the top three trending works on Apple Music, many wonder if Shelton will ever return to country music. Should the artist have twanged his last acoustic guitar string, his cow bells may only live on through his beats from here on out.

April Fool’s, you fool!

XOXO, The Chant