Mister is an emcee from Detroit, formerly of the group Passalacqua along with Blaksmith. As he now ventures out on a solo career, he has teamed up with a producer from London named Curt Cataract to make an album called Approaching Land.

Mister and Curt Cataract actually connected over ten years ago on Myspace, but the timing has finally worked out to release an album together just now. If you spent the time with Passalacqua, you probably think of them as a fun group, something you want to listen to when you want to get the party started. However, when you listen to Approaching Land, you get a different look altogether. Cataract isn’t all that different from previous production that Mister has worked with, but he does steer things into a more intimate East Coast boom bap style that encourages Mister to get more personal with his rhymes. Over the course of the album, Mister carefully weaves in an analogy of maritime travel with discussions of mental health to deliver a really moving album that becomes really easy to relate to. You also get some excellent guest spots, such as Chris Orrick’s confessional rhymes on “Collapse,” or Hemlock Ernst’s excellent tradeoffs with Mister on the title track. It’s an album that works really well on headphones, allowing yourself to get inside your own head and have a conversation with yourself about where you are with your own issues. It’s not a “fun” album, but it’s a really thoughtful and heartfelt album, and one that ultimately feels good to listen to.

Approaching Land is an album a long time in the making, but it feels like in a lot of ways that this album couldn’t have been made until now. Making an album this personal and vulnerable is tough, even if you’re using metaphor half the time. Kudos for Cataract and Mister for pushing each other to make hip hop that’s this mature, which will hopefully inspire others to look inward as well.