Epic Beard Men is the duo of B. Dolan and Sage Francis. The two have been friends, collaborators, and labelmates for years, and they’ve even used the name before on mixtapes here and there in the past. However, it was about three years ago when they finally began to focus their efforts and finally make and official album together. Just last year, they hinted at bigger things to come when they released their mixtape, Season 1. Now it’s finally time for their full-length album, This Was Supposed To Be Fun.”

Every once in a while, there will be an album that you hear about that sounds great on paper, and you can’t wait to listen to it. B. Dolan and Sage Francis have been touring together for years, and they’ve always appeared on each other’s projects, so this album seemed like a no brainer. So when the project started to get delayed, there was a little bit of concern and worry, but that was balanced with a trust that these two have really strong track records and usually take the time to get things right. Well, now that This Was Supposed To Be Fun is finally here, I can safely say that I’m glad that they took the time to make sure they got things right, because this is exactly the album that I thought that I’d be getting. It’s chuck full of the two’s sarcastic Northeastern sense of humor and political commentary, and even more importantly, it’s very clear that these two actually recorded the album together, not just trading verses, but adding the little pieces of flair that come when you have two artists in the same room that can feel each other out, build off each other, and just add all the little “yeahs” and “uh huhs” that just capture that extra energy to push the album over the top. For the project, they get production from Reanimator, Widowmaker, Adam Schneider, DS3K, DJ Swab, Jonah “Th’ Mole” Mociun, Romero Shaw, and B. Dolan, and guest spots from Slug, Blue Raspberry, Vockah Redu, Eligh, and Yugen Blakrok. They all add just the right flavor to the project, but at the end of the day, this is about the gruff voices and bearded faces from Rhode Island having fun and taking names as they take down the music industry, toxic masculinity, political and economic issues, some tales from the road, and some good old fashioned shit talking as well. It’s just a classic underground hip hop album in every way.

Good things come to those who wait, and this time the three official and many more unofficial years that we’ve had to wait for This Was Supposed To Be Fun were well worth it. This album is fun, while still managing to take on some serious subject matter when the song calls for it. Ultimately, though, this album is just a celebration of the friendship and chemistry between B. Dolan and Sage Francis, and that’s a beautiful thing.