the best rap album i've ever heard

Part of what I love about music is the storytelling. You get a good producer and good rapper together and if they're both honest and invested you end up with something great. Heck, sometimes you get a rapper and producer at the top of their game to make something together and you get a masterpiece like Madvillainy. For the longest time I thought that was as good as it gets, and I was satisfied with that.

Then, at the behest of a close friend, I listened Manger on McNichols.

Manger on McNichols could've very well been a Madvillainy-esque masterpiece. There was an entire album's worth of verses on beats done, and were it released in that state it would be an excellent project worth remembering. Sterling Toles had gotten at the time up and coming rapper Boldy James to pour his heart out on every song; the unbelievably evocative writing alone would've carried the whole thing over the finish line. But that's not what happened. Toles knew how strong of material he was working with, and more importantly he knew what that material represented. Over the course of the next almost ten years, over 20 musicians from the Detroit area contributed to the instrumentals. Finally, after a few more contributions from Boldy and a lot of mixing and mastering from Totes, the album was released.

The result is one of the most emotionally and artistically dense projects I've ever had the good pleasure of experiencing. The instrumental version of the album (aptly titled The Sound of Manger on McNichols) is by itself a deeper and more interesting listen than most, with a harmony of disparate elements ranging from a cellist to a Buddhist monk singing in Sanskrit coming together in one voice, yet somehow it never becomes overwhelming. Then you have Boldy James putting words to this group therapy session, crafting a decade-long narrative with the benefit of hindsight. The desire for redemption throughout the album is palpable, with constant references to both the Bible and hip-hop icons of old. The pacing is also immaculate, it both respects the listener's time while also never feeling like it's trying to rush through anything. It takes confident, surefooted steps from beginning to end without wavering.

This album is also the very definition of "greater than the sum of its parts". From a technical perspective the production isn't quite as crisp as something like Let God Sort 'Em Out, and Boldy's pen isn't quite as sharp as a Kendrick or a DOOM. However, when viewed as a whole, these individual problems fade away. Usually I get more and more bothered by whatever flaws I perceive as I relisten and the initial shock wears off, but Manger on McNichols has only continued to grow on me.

Masterpiece.