After an 11-year gap between albums (his last was 2001's Ascension), Pep Love (one of the original members of legendary Oakland underground crew Hieroglyphics) is back with his latest solo project. Rigmarole chronicles the struggles Pep went through and the obstacles he overcame in order to grow as a person and artist, in order to push out his latest effort, which captures the MC on point on a record that brings the listener back to the essence of hip-hop. Check out single "Hip Hop, My Friend," which has Pep writing a poignant love letter to the art form he's made his life's work over a soulful backbeat full of vintage horns. Whether he's spitting about the tour life over a Middle-Eastern-flavoured head nodder ("Everywhere") or puffing his chest out with cohort Opio on the breezy funk of "Can't Nobody Do It Like Us," despite the rigmarole it took to get here, the end result of Pep Love's efforts speak for themselves on this dope listen.
Read an interview with Pep Love here.
(Hiero Imperium)Read an interview with Pep Love here.