If you’re not paying close attention, it would be easy to pigeonhole Adam WarRock as “that guy who does the pop-culture mixtapes.” However, his talent and ability go well beyond that, and his love for hip hop is legitimate. Getting serious isn’t anything new, either, who most recently dropped the fantastic anti-Chik-fil-A single, “Guilty as Charged,” and whose album You Dare Call That Thing Human?!? featured serious tracks alongside the nerdier and funnier ones. With his latest EP, Self-Help, WarRock again shows everyone that he’s no one trick pony, and he’s capable of dropping some really moving songs.

There’s a short but awkward intro to the EP, which lifts an audio track from Gravity Falls. It’s a funny line, but doesn’t seem to fit the mood of the rest of the EP and just seems out of place. The good news, though, is that it’s only six seconds long, so whether or not you agree with me, it’s over before you know it, and it’s straight to the music. The title track does an excellent job setting the tone for the EP - an introspective song with a warm tone, as WarRock tries to find his place in the world, whether it’s his trouble finding a woman or his relationship with his family. All the beats on the EP are from Sabzi of Blue Scholars. WarRock sounds so at home on these beats, it makes me wish that the two could do a full length collaboration together. There’s a certain warmth to Sabzi’s beats that really do well to bring out the vulnerable side of WarRock. “Tryin’” details his difficulties growing up in the South as an Asian kid, namely in trying to meet girls as a teenager, and “Cats & Cradles” explores his relationship with an emotionally distant father that makes me hurt for WarRock. It’s not all sad, though - “No Lies” is a fun summer jam, sure to rock some parties, with a great tribute to the late MCA in one of his verses. “DTD” closes out the EP and explores the struggles of trying to make it as an independent artist.

It’s a short trip from start to finish, but WarRock opens up and gets intimate with his lyrics, and as a result, the EP is very moving and relatable. We get a little bit of fun, but there is some important discussion of some serious issues, and some conversations that we need to be having. EPs about Parks and Recreation are fun, but a release like Self-Help shows that WarRock has much more to say. Sometimes it’s hard to strike a balance between the two, but I think Adam WarRock is well on his way to finding it. Hopefully his fans will follow him through all of it.