Skipp Whitman is an emcee originally from Brookline, Massachusetts, but is now based Los Angeles. Just this past May, he released an EP reflecting on his new home, Hermosa. Now he’s back to what he does best by pairing up with producer Animalmilk to release the full-length album, Struggle Raps.

Animalmilk is not a producer that I was familiar with going into this project, and he’s not easily found online, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. What we get on Struggle Raps is this really great mix of vintage pop samples that are flipped expertly to give you this West Coast boom bap that is very much in dialogue with Los Angeles of sixty-plus years ago. It’s not exactly something that I’ve heard Whitman rap over before, but once things get cooking, you’ll wonder why he ever messed around with anything else because this works so well. Whitman has this real casual swing to his delivery on the mic that makes his rhymes sound real conversational, which matches the tone of his lyrics perfectly. Much like the title of the album implies, Struggle Raps is all about the day-to-day struggles to make ends meet, maintain the important relationships, romantic and otherwise, and to build something and make a little corner of the world that you can call your own and be proud of. On top of all this, Whitman and Animalmilk also find room to put themselves in conversation with some classic ‘90s hip hop as well, with references to tracks like “Luchini AKA This is It” by Camp Lo and “I Wish” by Skee-Lo, but updating them for 2020. It all comes together to create an album that is sunny and bright and fun to listen to, but also very real and relatable.

Skipp Whitman has been at this for a minute, but his work with Animalmilk might be his best to date. Their chemistry is excellent, and they cover a lot of ground on Struggle Raps to make for a really nice, well-rounded listening experience.