Fatboi Sharif is an emcee from Rahway, New Jersey who made his debut in 2016 with the album Age of Extinction. Since that time, he’s garnered a following due to his entertaining live shows and creative lyricism. We last heard from him just this past March, when he dropped the project Cyber City Society. Now he’s back with a new LP done in collaboration with producer noface, Preaching in Havana.

noface is a relatively unknown producer, but one listen to Preaching in Havana, and you can see why Fatboi Sharif wanted to work with him. He is laying down these dense, grimy, off-kilter beats that really challenge your ears and force you to pay attention. It is a style of production that Fatboi Sharif really clicks with, where he can hop on the mic and hit you with his deliberate flow and abstract poetry. This is where the album really kicks up a notch. For as entertaining as Sharif is in person, he really makes you work as a listener when he drops an album. He’s clear and direct with his delivery, but his lyricism is so dense and abstract that it really takes a moment for the words to line up so that you can realize how the different phrases and references are playing off of each other to make a bigger statement. When paired with the production that noface is laying down, you end up with a style of hip hop that falls somewhere between billy woods and Cannibal Ox. Sharif has a sense of humor and can drop a pop culture reference, but he’s just as likely to drop a historical or literary reference that makes a pointed observation about race, class, or war. It’s the type of album that is intriguing at first because it sounds so different, but then the more time you spend with it, the more you realize how much is going as everything comes into focus.

Preaching in Havana is a bold and challenging album from Fatboi Sharif and noface. They’re not spoon feeding you anything, but if you really take the time to absorb what they are laying down here, you’ll be rewarded with some really smart and passionate music that has a lot to say.