Ayentee is an emcee and producer from the Bay Area who has been releasing music since the early 2000s. It’s been four years since his last release, Automation Vacation. He now returns with his ode to all the working people out there, My Retirement Plan Is Death.

Sometimes it can be easy to romanticize the artists you like, and just assume their life is fun and easy because you only know them from the albums you listen to and fun times you have at shows, but the fact is that real life is something that we all have to deal with in one form or another. In the case of Ayentee, the most obvious way in which he’s dealing with real life is simply holding down a day job and still finding the time to make music. It sounds easy enough on paper, but that shit can be draining on a person. The good news is that every few years, Ayentee is able to break through and give us some dope hip hop to listen to, as he’s done here. If you’re not familiar with Ayentee, he’s got some great laidback jazzy boom bap for you, with a real ear for flipping some vintage samples into some funky beats. This sets the tone for his rhymes, where he hops on the mic and spits a really conversational flow, where he weaves back and forth between some really honest conversations about making it day to day, and some cutting dry wit that’ll add some levity to the situation. My favorite song on the album is “Childhood Heroes,” which deals with the unfortunate event of meeting someone you looked up to, only to find out that they are an asshole in real life. It sucks, but it’s also very, very true, and it’s nice to hear it acknowledged in song form.

My Retirement Plan Is Death isn’t necessarily groundbreaking, but it is really good, emotionally honest hip hop. Ayentee isn’t trying to be anything he isn’t, he’s just repping for all of us that are doing our best to get through the day and still finding the time to work on our passions as well.