Killer Mike - Michael

Michael is Killer Mike's first solo album in over a decade, after the politically charged R.A.P. Music led to the formation of Run the Jewels with producer/rapper El-P, altering the trajectory of Mike's music career and eventually returning him to the Top Ten of the Billboard 200 with 2020's RTJ4. The 2023 effort is both an autobiographical reflection on his life's journey to this point as well as a musical homecoming, largely drawing from gospel, funk, soul, and '90s Dirty South rap. Haunting choral vocals and church organs call out beneath the booming beats and nimble bass guitars on songs like the confessional "Shed Tears" and empowering, Last Poets-sampling "Nrich." Much of the album finds Mike navigating through his numerous identities (hip-hop lifer, loyal churchgoer, family figure, social justice activist, property owner, businessman, wealthy celebrity), acknowledging his contradictions with the album's cover, a childhood portrait bearing both a halo and devil horns. "Talk'N Tha