In 2011, as part of the Doomtree showcase at SXSW, there was a ten minute slot towards the top of the bill slotted for an act called Four Fists. For most of us, this was the introduction to the newly formed duo of P.O.S. and Astronautalis. They didn’t have much material at that point, and there were technical difficulties that led to most of the set being freestyled, but it was clear that there was something between these two friends and dynamic personalities that made this pairing intriguing. When interviewing both artists later that fall, both confirmed separately that the Four Fists album was all but done, and that it would probably be out next year. Nothing happened in 2012, but in 2013, they released a 7” single, “MMMMMHMMMMM,” b/w “Please Go.” We all hoped that this meant that the album was coming shortly thereafter, but we just kept waiting. In the coming years, there were the random one offs, maybe at a festival, but it was also around this time that I started referring to the Four Fists album as “The Detox of Indie Rap,” just assuming that it would never come out. Much to my surprise, earlier this summer we got the release of two new songs from Four Fists, but I had also been burned before, so I tried to temper my expectations and keep the songs at arm’s length. But then there was an album announcement, presales, and a tour announcement, and it started to feel real. Now, seven years later, we finally get to enjoy 6666.

When an album is this long in the making and you’ve been anticipating it for years, it can be a little bit hard to find your footing when you first listen to it. Then you get about a song in, and you let go of all that history and just enjoy two friends and talented emcees doing what they do best. P.O.S. and Astronautalis have been friends for years, and it was even P.O.S. who convinced Florida native Astronautalis to move to Minneapolis several years ago, right around the same time that they debuted the name Four Fists. While they come from different backgrounds in some ways, they meet with their raspy voices, punk rock attitudes, love of literature, and sense of humor that can cut the tension in the room. Oh, and they are both charismatic as fuck. When it finally came time to officially make the album, they enlisted the help of a producer named Subp Yao from the Netherlands. While you might not be familiar with the name, when you listen to the album you will certainly understand why they chose him. He can come with these hard-hitting industrial, noisy beats, but he can also move intro some modern electronic dance music, and also shift into some electro-pop or chillwave. This means that there is enough space on the album for you to get every side of P.O.S. and Astronautalis as they work their way through eleven songs. Sometimes that might be shit talking, sometimes it might be spouting some anarchist politics and reflecting on the legacy of Joe Strummer, sometimes it might be a rare tender moment of personal confession, and then other times you just might bust a gut laughing at one of their ridiculous jokes. I know I had to stop the album when I heard P.O.S. quote Bobby Hill (on the song titled “Bobby Hill,” of course) yelling, “I don’t know you! That’s my purse!” It’s an incredibly well-rounded album that sounds familiar the first time you listen to it, and it still sounds fresh the tenth time you listen to it. It’s two friends having fun together, but it’s also two artists who have been honing their skills for about fifteen plus years apiece, knowing what it takes to bring everything together to make an album that is both challenging and accessible.

If you’re going to take as along to make an album as Four Fists did, you better do it right. Fortunately, P.O.S. and Astronautalis knew that if they were going to do this, they would have to make it count and live up to all of the pressure that they had put on themselves. The result is an album in 6666 that will make all of the fans that have been patiently waiting all of these years extremely happy.