Activated is the debut studio album by Detroit rapper, Tee Grizzley. On 20 March, Grizzley took to Twitter to announce that the album would be released on 11 May. Later, on 17 April, he revealed the album art. He told XXL that the album would display a different side of Detroit: When people hear my music, they ain’t really hearing about no shiny stuff, the glamorous life. They’re going to hear that gritty, slum. It’s a dark cloud over my city. I’ve been through it and I'ma tell you in detail. A lot of people just ride past the slums in their music. Boarded-up trap houses, cars parked on the grass. I’m going to take you into those houses, into the minds of the people that’s in those houses. In an interview with Beats 1, Grizzley confirmed that his album would feature many big names of the hip hop industry, including Jeezy, Rae Sremmurd, Chris Brown, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Lil Yachty and YFN Lucci, and said that the album would include production from London on da Track, ChopsquadDJ and Helluva Beats.