Chali 2na has been making hip hop for over twenty five years, as part of Jurassic 5, as a solo artist, and as one of the most sought-out guest artists in underground hip hop. In the past couple of years, he teamed up with British deejay and producer Krafty Kuts, releasing a single called “Hands High” in 2017. Now they are ready to release their album together, a concept album called Adventures of a Reluctant Superhero.

Concept albums always sound great on paper, but they are tougher to pull off in practice than you might think. As you might have guessed from the title, this album is about the tale of superhero realizing their power and responsibility. This isn’t a bad idea, but when you are aware of a little thing called nerdcore, you’ve heard this before, and probably done as well as it could be done at this point. And that’s really where this album falters – this whole thing plays like two artists who are really good at one thing dabbling in another thing that they don’t know how to do as well. When they are just rocking some killer West Coast boom bap and Chali is rhyming some smooth lyrics about hip hop and his personal life and upbringing in his baritone voice, things sound great. It might not be anything you haven’t heard before, but it’s fun, quality hip hop. These two know how to rock a crowd. When they start trying to work in this superhero story, things become convoluted and unfocused really quickly. There’s less of a through line and more of just a collection of references to superheroes here and there, with no fully developed storyline or character. On “Bruce 2na,” we get a song that’s kind of about The Hulk, but that’s never returned to the rest of the album. We get a skit called “Superhero Kit” which sounds like a fake old time radio ad for a superhero kit that hints that ends on a line about becoming a villain, but the next song, “Black Vapor,” has nothing to do with becoming a villain. It’s a good song with some killer production, but again, the biggest problem here is that the theme and concept just seem to happen whenever these two remember that’s what they’re were doing. It’s incredibly frustrating, because if they had just gone all in in either direction, they might have done something well, but instead we get this album with title and artwork and a few songs that indicate one thing, and then half an album that has nothing to do with the theme. On top of that, we get a couple or guest verses from Lyrics Born and Gift of Gab that are disappointingly subpar as well.

Adventures of a Reluctant Superhero is frustrating to say the least. If you’re going to come up with a theme for your album, go in all the way or don’t do it at all. This album fails as a concept album and as a superhero tale. There are still songs that bump if you skip around, but two veterans like Chali 2na and Krafty Kuts should have taken the time to either just make a fun summer album to rock some crowds, or they should have put in the proper effort to make a superhero album that actually stays on topic and says something interesting about the genre.