Providence emcees and BFFs Sage Francis and B. Dolan have known each other for years, with B. Dolan joining the Strange Famous family back in the mid ‘00s. The two have guested on each other tracks many times over the years, and even coined the name “Epic Beard Men” to describe themselves as a duo several years back. Finally, after all these years of hinting at an official release as a duo, we finally get the appetizer in the form of an EP named Season 1.

While this is being packaged as an EP, Season 1 feels a little more like a mixtape, and I mean that in the way that older hip hop heads mean, which is to say that it feels like something you want to listen to all the way through, because you’re not getting as much in the way of traditional pop songs as much as you’re getting a lot of shifting beats and emcees trading verses and having fun with it. There’s nothing wrong with that format when it’s done right, it just means that this EP isn’t quite as focused on the intro-verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus format that we’re used to in pop music. Instead, this feels more like a cipher session, with killer beats coming from Le Parasite, Cecil Otter, Swab, Alias, Reanimator, and the EPBM themselves, and guest appearances from Kalyn, Mr. Dibbs, Dope Knife, and DJ Pain 1. Even though there are all of these family members lending a helping hand, you can’t overshadow two of the biggest personalities in indie hip hop. More than anything, this EP delivers on what you ultimately want from a collaboration from Sage Francis and B. Dolan – absurdist humor, political rants, social commentary, frank talk about the music industry, and plenty of clever wordplay. It’s everything you’d expect from two veteran emcees with great chemistry together. There’s a lot happening here, but while you can pick apart the details all you want, the most important thing here is that Season 1 is just tons of fun to listen to.

There promises to be much more in the future, but for right now we’ve got a really fun and entertaining first official release from the Epic Beard Men. They’ve been at this a while, they know what they’re doing, and they clearly enjoy each other’s company. It all comes through on Season 1.