Damu the Fudgemunk has been established as a top-notch producer out of D.C. for years now, and he’s already released one excellent project with Insight earlier this year, Ears Hears Spears. Raw Poetic is probably best known as one half of the duo known as Panacea, another staple of the D.C. scene. So it was written, these two D.C. artists decided to team to release The Reflecting Sea (Welcome to a New Philosophy).

This pairing works for so many reasons, but mainly it works because Damu and Raw Poetic both like to make hip hop that has roots in the East Coast hip hop of the early ‘90s, but then get more experimental with it. On the production side of things, this means that you’re never too far from some boom bap beats and jazz samples, but you’re just as likely to go off in some psychedelic or gospel direction and really explore that space. That works perfectly with Raw Poetic’s style on the mic, who while he can spit rhythmically with the best of them, his true talent is in the way he’s able to put together some abstract poetic imagery and philosophic stream-of-consciousness wordplay. The two complement each other extremely well, and the result is an album that balances it’s experimental side with some great East Coast hip hop roots. It’s an album were a song like “Zodiac” can rock a fast pace and funky beat and hint at an experimental side, and then later in the album, we approach the ten-minute opus “Calling,” which just keeps evolving and unfolding, and really explores its space, as the production really goes off in the free jazz and psychedelic directions and Raw Poetic really gets into a discussion about religion and finding his purpose on this planet.

Damu the Fudgemunk and Raw Poetic are veterans of the D.C. hip hop scene, and as talented as they are separately, they sound even better together. They clearly feed off of each other’s creativity, and the result is an album that’s not afraid to take chances and push listeners out of their comfort zones.