Sankofa has is an emcee from Fort Wayne, Indiana who has been laying down rhymes for over fifteen years now, releasing music at a pretty steady pace. Two years ago, he released an EP produced by J.Dankworth called 100 Magnets. Now they’ve followed it up with a full-length album, 102 Magnets.

102 Magnets, among other things, is a very teachable album. By that I mean that if you want an album that will show you the ropes of hip hop and show you what you need to have a solid foundation as an emcee or producer, you need to listen to this album. J.Dankworth lives by the motto of “Dig. Find. Listen. Sample. Chop. Repeat,” throwing together some great sample-based boom bap production for this album, with a style indebted to the East Coast, namely acts like Wu Tang, Nas, or Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth, but also throwing in some late ‘90s underground beats as well, like you might have heard in the early days of Rhymesayers or anticon.. Sankofa then hops on the mic and puts on a clinic, coming at you with multiple flows, his low voice booming on the mic, but every word clearly annunciated. He’s rapping about hip hop culture, he’s dropping NBA references, he’s talking about his shoes, but he’s also dropping verses about being a dad, working in education, and other personal issues as well. He knows how to have fun and rock a crowd, and he knows when to get serious and drop some knowledge or get personal and open up about his own life experiences.

102 Magnets is just an incredibly well-rounded hip hop album from two veterans with incredible chemistry together. It sounds familiar the first time you listen to it, and it doesn’t get old the tenth, twentieth, or hundredth time you listen to it. It’s fun and packed full of information and emotionally packed lyricism.