Sole has been through several phases of his career, whether it be as a solo artist and co-founder of anticon., reinventing himself with The Skyrider Band, or his side project as Mansbestfriend. In 2014, he began another phase when he teamed up with producer DJ Pain 1 to release the full-length album Death Drive. Fast forward to 2022, and we now have their fourth album as a duo, Post American Studies.

As a global pandemic continues, war wages, capitalism contiues to fail us, and it just feels like we are on a very dark timeline, I can’t think of a more welcome time for a new Sole and DJ Pain 1 album. Not because they’re going to fix all of our problems, but because you know you’re going to get some hard hitting beats and honest and passionate discussion about all of the issues facing us today. To that extent, Post American Studies does not disappoint. Featuring some of Pain 1’s most aggressive and pounding beats, he sets the soundscape perfectly for Sole to go in on the mic and do his thing. While Sole does not mince words or back away from any current political topic, what makes this album so successful is the way that Sole often counterbalances his disgust or anger with his grit and determination and his love for his family and his community. He provides an honest discussion about how he doesn’t have all the answers, but he also doesn’t have any choice but to keep trying and making his way the best he can. This could be in regard to the music industry, the global economy, or just his day to day choices about how he lives, it’s all on the table. It’s that balance between the anger at how fucked the world is and his very raw and open discussion about how he’s trying to make deliberate decisions about how he lives that makes this album work so well.

Post American Studies is the best Sole & DJ Pain 1 album yet. It’s not they did anything drastically different, they just focused and honed their sound and Sole came through with some poignant lyrics that you might need to hear right now.