no1mportant is an artist from Austin who has been releasing music since the mid-2010s, best known for his work with fellow Austin artist Scuare as the group …&more. It had been a couple of years since we had heard from him until he showed up on Scuare’s excellent 2021 solo album, Phenomenal. As it turns out, that was just the appetizer, because now he’s back with his first solo album in seven years, There’s No I.

For this album, no1mportant enlisted the help of Scuare, Luther Van Dam, Slick Vic, Rav, Dr. Bobby Banner MPC, and FLOOG on production, as well as handling those duties himself or collaborating on several tracks. The overall sound of the album is just what you want from no1mportant, working mostly in a modern hip hop/R&B style with a generally melancholic tone. However, there is plenty of room to get weird with it, whether that means going the experimental electronic music route, or leaning heavily into the jazz side of things. The key here is that no1mportant knows how to walk that line between weird and accessible and he does so expertly on this album. One minute he’ll be getting really avantgarde and might go on a musical tangent, the next minute he’ll be dropping a hook or a beat that will stick in your head for days. On the mic, no1mportant is charismatic as ever, with a great rasp to his voice as he moves between some great melodic flows and some really technical and rhythmic raps as well. Throughout the album, he’s touching on everything and anything that pops into his head, from keen social observations to pop culture references to deeply personal rhymes to more abstract and philosophical lyricism. It’s all on the table, but no1mportant always finds the thread to bring all together and he always finds his way back to the main idea of each song. The album is slightly on the longer side, but it’s so adventurous and engaging, you don’t really notice it. There’s nothing meandering at all, everything is done with purpose, and no1mportant has chosen his moves really well on this album.

If you’re going to take seven years between solo albums, you should make it count. That’s exactly what no1mportant did with There’s No I. It’s musically daring, lyrically honest, emotionally moving, and just a lot of damn fun to listen to. This is easily one of the best albums of the year so far.