As you might be familiar, Scallops Hotel is the alter ego of one Milo, the emcee who dropped the best album of his career last year with Who Told You To Think??!!?!?!?! To follow that effort off and to start out the new year right, he switches up names and gives us Sovereign Nose of (Y)our Arrogant Face.

There are a lot of different reasons to use a different name or alter ego, but in the case of Scallops Hotel, one of the major forces behind it is to just put some music out and experiment with stuff without the weight of attaching the name Milo to it. Entirely self-produced except for the last track, which features co-production from Steel Tipped Dove, Scallops Hotel creates a dream-like downtempo soundscape. This pairs nicely with Scallops Hotels lyricism, which drifts from philosophical musings, nerdy pop culture references, and some classic hip hop shit talking. The album isn’t concerned with crafting and pop songs, often just riding a beat and seeing where the lyrics might end up. There are also multiple instances over the course of the album where the tape keeps rolling after the song is over, which just helps give the album this live/rough draft/demo feel to it. So no, it’s not polished, but that’s part of the charm of listening to a Scallops Hotel release. It’s like you’re peaking behind the curtain and seeing how the music gets made.

Sovereign Nose Of (Y)our Arrogant Face is a nice way to start out 2018. It’s got a lot of smart rhymes and interesting production, but it’s also rough around the edges and hints at more to come. We’ll have to see what the rest of the year brings.