Humanz is the fifth studio album by British virtual band Gorillaz, released on 28 April 2017 by Parlophone in the United Kingdom and Warner Bros. Records in the United States. It was the band's first studio album released in seven years, following a multiyear hiatus.

Following media reports of a fall out between Gorillaz co-creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, Gorillaz entered a multiyear hiatus after the release of the 2012 non-album single "DoYaThing". During this time, Albarn released a solo record, Everyday Robots (2014), and recorded and toured with his band Blur, while Hewlett worked on film projects. Albarn and Hewlett reconciled and decided to return to Gorillaz in late 2014, with Albarn beginning to write songs for the album while still on the Everyday Robots tour. Recording officially began in late 2015 and continued throughout 2016, taking place across various locations worldwide, including London, Paris, New York City and Jamaica. The album was produced by The Twilite Tone and Remi Kabaka Jr., with Kabaka Jr. making his first contribution as a permanent producer for the band.

The album features political themes, taking inspiration from the 2016 United States presidential election. Albarn has described the album as the soundtrack to "a party for the end of the world," envisioning a "dark fantasy" in which Republican candidate Donald Trump won the election, which was still considered a remote possibility at the time of recording. Musically, the album embraces an electronic "modern-sounding urban hip-hop/R&B sensibility", and features an expansive roster of guest artists, including Jehnny Beth, Grace Jones, Kali Uchis, Vince Staples, Popcaan, D.R.A.M., Anthony Hamilton, De La Soul, Danny Brown, Kelela, Mavis Staples, Pusha T, and Benjamin Clementine. Several songs from the album were released as singles, most notably lead single "Saturnz Barz" and "Strobelite". A "Super Deluxe" edition of the album was later released in November 2017, featuring an additional 14 tracks.

Humanz debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200, and reached the top 10 in 23 countries. The album received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its energetic tone and political themes, though some criticized the abundance of guest artists, feeling it resulted in a bloated track list and a reduced presence from Albarn. The album was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. It was supported by the Humanz Tour from 2017 to 2018, the band's longest tour to date at the time, during which Albarn began recording the band's follow up studio album The Now Now (2018).

After the release of their 2010 album The Fall, rumours began to circulate on the internet that Gorillaz creators Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett had fallen out, and that this had led to the band split; People subsequently reported this to be true. Representatives for the band denied the rumours in a statement to Pitchfork. Gorillaz released a single with James Murphy and André 3000 commissioned by Converse, titled "DoYaThing", on 23 February 2012. In April 2012, in an interview with The Guardian, Albarn stated that Gorillaz were "unlikely" to release new music, citing Hewlett's dissatisfaction that his animation had become less central to the band and their performances. In June 2013, Hewlett said that he "believe[s] there is a future for the Gorillaz. But Gorillaz is quite a complicated and expensive thing to produce. So, I think we need to wait a little bit to see what happens because usually in the music industry everything changes."

On 25 April 2014, Albarn released the solo album Everyday Robots. Hewlett revealed that he and Albarn decided to revive Gorillaz after Albarn had played a gig, stating: "...we were at a party afterwards. We'd had a bit to drink, and he said, 'Do you want to do another one?' And I said, 'Do you?' and he said, 'Do you?' And I said, 'Yeah, sure.' I started work on it straight away, learning to draw the characters again. I played around by myself for eight months while he was performing with Blur in 2015." In October 2014, Albarn was said to be "in the process of reactivating Gorillaz for a 2016 release." In an Instagram post on 30 January 2015, Hewlett posted new drawings of fictional band members Murdoc and Noodle. He also responded to a fan's query by stating, "Yes Gorillaz Returns." Albarn's band Blur released their eighth studio album The Magic Whip on 27 April 2015. Before Blur's tour in support of The Magic Whip, Albarn said, "I'm starting recording in September for a new Gorillaz record." On 19 January 2017, Gorillaz released the first track from the album, "Hallelujah Money" featuring Benjamin Clementine, accompanied by a music video as a non-commercial single on Uproxx's YouTube channel.

Prior to studio recording, Albarn made use of iPad applications such as GarageBand to create the framework for each song. Albarn had previously utilised his iPad as an audio workstation for The Fall, touting its convenience over the 4-Track recorder he'd previously used for preliminary music production.

To guide collaborators into the "dark fantasy" setting that Albarn envisioned for Humanz, Albarn instructed guest artists to imagine a future in which Donald Trump had won the 2016 United States presidential election. As recording for Humanz began well before Trump had secured the Republican presidential nomination, much less the presidency, the possibility of a Trump presidency was still considered remote by many; collaborator Pusha T (who recorded his contribution in early 2016) later commented on Albarn's inadvertent foresight, saying: "I wrote from the perspective of this day, I was writing from the perspective of a Trump win. When this really happened, I was like 'Wait a minute, what type of crystal ball did this guy have? Why are you even asking me to think along these lines?' I don't think he thought that [Trump] would win, I'm not gonna go that far, but he definitely conceptualized this whole thing." In April 2016, Hewlett uploaded two video clips onto his Instagram showing the continued work on the album. The first clip featured Liam Bailey and the Twilite Tone. The second clip was a time-lapse video featuring Albarn, Remi Kabaka Jr, the Twilite Tone and Jean-Michel Jarre. On 17 May 2016, Gorillaz were in the studio with Chicago-based hip hop artist Vic Mensa, although Bailey and Mensa's contributions were ultimately left off of the finished album.