Adam WarRock, the man of a million EPs and mixtapes has come back with another, this time teaming up with Mikal kHill of Charlotte’s Thought Criminals. The mixtape is inspired by the Joss Whedon sci-fi/western series Firefly. I actually hadn’t watched the series when this came out, but after a quick crash course of the first few episodes, I think have enough understanding of the show to comment on this release.

While sci-fi has inspired some of the best hip hop (hello, Deltron 3030), using Firefly as source material presents a little bit of a challenge, in that musically, the show leaned on folk and country music for the score. This doesn’t translate as easily to hip hop as say, a blaxploitation film soundtrack, but they do an admirable job of making it work. Upon first listen, I was a little concerned that it might not play out well, but the more I listen to it, the more it grows on me. The songs combine score samples with some mid to down tempo drums with some heavy snare hits. This combination gives the mixtape a grand, cinematic feeling that works well for the project.

This music really opens up some space for the lyrics, so the pressure is on WarRock to deliver some compelling storytelling. The good news is that Firefly is a pretty rich and involved text, especially for a show that only lasted fourteen episodes, with a cast that features a crew of outlaws traveling with a runaway doctor and his sister, a preacher, and a professional companion. There’s a difficult line to walk when taking on a project like this, where one can fall into traps like just retelling the series, or turning the whole thing into a parody. This is where WarRock really rises to the occasion as an emcee and lyricist. There are times when the balance is better than others, but for the majority of the mixtape, he does an excellent job of taking a piece of the show and projecting it to larger themes. This is especially true on songs like “River,” “Preacher Book,” “Still Flyin’ (Kaylee’s Theme),” “Leaf on the Wind,” and “Out of Gas,” which features Jesse Dangerously.

A project like The Browncoat Mixtape could have been a dismissible release from a lesser artist, but WarRock keeps blurring the line between nerdcore and the rest of underground hip hop, taking a long cancelled sci-fi show and making a mixtape with music that is thoughtful and moving. That’s not an easy feat.