The artist known as Quelle Chris has emerged as one of the most ambitious and creative voices in hip hop over the past few years. He certainly swung for the fences with the album he dropped last year with his wife and artist Jean Grae, Everything’s Fine. Now he’s back with another bold and interesting album, Guns.

It is no secret that gun violence is a major issue in the United States today. It only took a couple of days since this album was released to see the death of Nipsey Hussle due to gun violence. It’s very real, and it’s very prevalent. With that in mind, Quelle Chris didn’t want to just make a simple statement or try to provide a simple solution when making an album called Guns. He wanted to do a deep dive, and to create some serious discussion. For the project, he handled most of the production, but he did get a couple of assists from Chris Keys and Dane as well, and the beats are just as well-rounded as the lyrical discussion on the album, ranging from hard-hitting gangsta beats to intimate boom bap to moments of novelty, and everything in between. Quelle Chris uses a lot of different writing approaches to create the discussion as well, sometimes employing farce, sarcasm, and absurdism to make a point, especially when it comes to guns and toxic masculinity. Other times, he knows when to get serious and personal with the matter, weaving together a vivid narrative or digging deep into some personal experiences that he can’t shake. It’s a wild ride, but it’s one with such depth and variation that you’ll find something new to latch onto each time through. One time it might be the confrontational opening track, “Spray and Pray,” another time it might be a personal detail from one of the lines in the moving “Straight Shot.” Quelle Chris has been pushing himself and his listeners for a while now, but this might be his best effort to date.

Guns isn’t just a timely album, it’s a thoroughly ambitious and thoughtful album that takes many different perspectives and puts them in conversation with each other, going from playful and absurd to heartfelt and solemn and everything in between. It’s an album that you can return to over and over again and get something new from it each time.