Alan Doyle is an artist from Tulsa, Oklahoma who has been putting out music for about a decade now. His last release was an EP called Obscurity, which came out in 2017. Over the past year, though, Doyle had been teasing us with a series of singles. Now the payoff is here in a brand new full-length album, Fourtitude.

For this album, Doyle is getting production from DJ I-Cue, Skanka, RXG7RKINT, Casey Bennett, KPLEZ, as well as producing a few tracks himself. Listening to this album, you get a sense that his sweet spot is some funky boom bap, but Doyle also shows that he can rock some different styles like trap, chopped and screwed, or R&B as well. Doyle is a versatile enough emcee that he can match his delivery for all these different beats and help put everything in conversation with each other musically and help it all flow together. On the mic, Doyle is giving you an approach that is just as well-rounded, giving you a sarcastic sense of humor, pop culture references, and clever wordplay, but then grounding that with some heartfelt and honest discussion about his career, his family, relationships, his philosophy and so forth. Again, it’s just hitting on all the cylinders like you’d expect from a veteran artist like Doyle. There is a certain amount of Doyle’s music that feels like it has a chip on its shoulder, like he doesn’t get nearly the shine he thinks he should, largely because he’s an independent artist from Tulsa, a city that most hip hop heads aren’t checking for. The flip side to that is that you also get a sense that Doyle has worked that much harder because of it, and the proof is right there in the music. On top of all this, you can also get a sense of what a dynamic live performer he must be, since there’s that kind of energy oozing out of this album. Hopefully he’ll get to perform this live before too long.

Doyle might be a little overlooked so far, but hopefully Fourtitude will catch some new ears because he put his all into this album. It’s fun to listen to, it’s incredibly well-rounded, and it also delivers a strong emotional punch to it. This is his best work yet.