West-side rapper Philmore Greene has been crafting a catalog of mature, unfussy boom-bap since he dropped his 2018 debut, Chicago: A Third World City. His new fourth full-length, Price of Dwelling (launched by esteemed hip-hop indie Mello Music Group), builds on his established components—relaxed, sample-based instrumentals and considerate ruminations concerning the systemic unfairness that has traditionally Black folks (and the irritating new methods it manifests itself because of fashionable know-how). However the album additionally feels rejuvenated, as if Greene’s creativity has been reborn and he’s newly excited to be doing the identical work. That is little question partially as a result of he’s discovered a collaborator who can supersize his imaginative and prescient: veteran Detroit beat maker Apollo Brown, who’s additionally labored with established MCs equivalent to Responsible Simpson, Skyzoo, and Ghostface Killah. The producer populates Price of Dwelling with tracks constructed from evenly dusty samples that intensify the crispness in his understated percussion. This music has a self-consciously throwback really feel, however as a lot as Greene reveals his deference to hip-hop historical past, he doesn’t let it distract him from focusing his songs on the current. He’s an unflashy rapper who delivers frank descriptions with a workingman’s confidence and care. His voice capabilities as a sturdy component within the album’s instrumentation; he ends his traces with exclamation factors, so that every one lands like a rim shot in a drum break, and he smooths out the movement of his songs with a subtly soulful, melodic contact. On “Steep Life,” Greene displays on the grim socioeconomic outlook for younger Black males, delivering his lyrics along with his entire chest—he raps like he desires you to consider that even when the world blocks your path, you may make your individual method the place nobody expects it.
Philmore Greene & Apollo Brown’s The Price of Dwelling is out there by way of Bandcamp.
