An artiste might be popular in a particular geographic location and bigger than some other artists in that place He/she/they is still an upcoming.

An artiste who is wealthy or influencial, featured many big artiste and flaunt many things on social media but no hit song is still an upcoming.

An artiste might be signed by a big record label who is (or will be) investing in his/her/thier craft but no hit song, is still an upcoming.

b.) A musical album is a body of work with 8 or more tracks. Another name for an album is LP (Long Play).

Any body of work with 2-7 tracks is an EP (Extended Play).

Should an upcoming artiste drop an album?

For me is a No.

Being an upcoming(a hard-working one) you may have many unreleased tracks you feel like show casing to the public, putting it out as album means you are showing every thing at the same time and end up showing nothing.

Some top artistes who drop album find it hard most times to get 50% of the total tracks on the album popular how much more an upcoming who might be struggling to get 20K Total organic Streams on digital platforms.

Dropping an album of which tracks expected on the body of work will be new songs, the production process will be costly, why not use the money to promote two or three tracks, one might probably get you the attention you are seeking.

If you have old songs and you want to drop an album, go back and listen to those old tracks you will notice that those type of songs are no longer in existence or the lyrics might be outdated.

Use the money you intend to drop an album promote few tracks (instead drop an EP of 5 tracks maximum) and promote then with more concentration.