Chicago/Minneapolis emcee Psalm One has been one of the baddest to pick up a mic since the mid-‘00s, and she dropped a couple of the best albums of the 2010s, including the stellar P.O.L.Y. in 2015. As we enter the 2020s, and now into this quarantine, Psalm One is releasing an EP to tide everyone over, consisting of tracks she made with Brooklyn Producer Optiks (Blitz the Ambassador, Talib Kweli, Homeboy Sandman), Before They Stop Us.

Before They Stop Us is only four tracks long, but when you’ve got talented veterans like Psalm One and Optiks, you can get a lot done in that amount of space. On this EP, they start with the grimy midtempo title track to get you warmed up, as Psalm One casually bounces around on the mic, dropping little nuggets of wisdom, little pieces of information about herself, and still manages to talk a lot of shit as well. Things warm up over the next two tracks, as you get a sense for Psalm One’s chemistry with Optik’s beats and how dense a lyricist she is while still making the music feel light and accessible, all while clearly letting you know that you can’t fuck with her. This is all a prelude of course, to the main attraction, “Unfuckwitable,” with Flint emcee Jon Connor. Everything about this track is pure fire, from the killer horn riff and the big drums that will make you want to turn your stereo ALL the way up, to Psalm One and Jon Connor putting on a fucking clinic on how to rock the mic as they do verbal backflips all over everybody, rocking the crowd, putting people in place, and just having a blast while doing it. If you just want to lose yourself in some pure hip hop goodness for four minutes, get this track in your life.

Before They Stop Us seems simple enough on paper, but Psalm One is anything but simple. Her career has seen some bumps and bruises along the way, but the proof has always been in the music that she’s one of the all-time greats. With this EP, Psalm One uses four tracks to start a slow burn and turn in it into a raging fire by the time is all said and done.