Chilo is a New York emcee/poet/educator/activist who has been making music for many years, but really hit his stride at the beginning of this decade when he released Natural Evolution in 2011. A few years later, he paired up with his brother in arms, Queen producer/emcee/teacher Mane Event, to release an album called Magician’s Revenge in 2015. While they’ve both kept busy since then, things haven’t lined up for a proper follow up album until now, as they give us No Such Paradise.

Sometimes, when you meet someone who says they are from New York, you’ll follow that up with a question about where they grew up before they moved to New York. Then there are times when you put on an album from Chilo and Mane Event, and you don’t even have to ask – these two were born and raised in New York. They’re not just rocking a classic New York style of hip hop, they’re rhyming New York slang in New York accents with New York attitude that comes with growing up in the city. Chilo in particular has a voice that just booms on the microphone, and even though he’s got the accent, he’s making sure his words are clear and direct to his listeners. Both Chilo and Mane Event have backgrounds in education and working with the youth, and it shows on this album in the way that they are able to not just impart information in their rhymes, but the way that they ask questions and challenge their listeners to think about things, to question themselves about what matters and how they can make things better not just for themselves but for their community. This doesn’t mean there isn’t any room for shit talking – I mean, this is a New York hip hop album after all, and Chilo and Mane Event will cut you down to size if you don’t come correct, but that’s not the main focus of the album. This is an album about facilitating discussion, relaying their own personal experiences, both their triumphs and their failures, and it’s about having fun and rocking the beat while you’re doing it. Chilo and Mane Event have great chemistry together, and it’s a lot of fun seeing to artists on the same page building together the way these two do.

I’m glad we finally get another album from Chilo and Mane Event, because these two work so well together. With No Such Paradise, they’ve made an album with one foot firmly planted in hip hop history, especially that of their city, and one foot walking toward the future, encouraging the youth to make art that matters.