Bad Ambassadors is the duo of emcee/vocalist Rich Jones and producer Walkingshoe, both from Chicago. Despite both living in the same city, they actually met each other on Twitter back in 2015. After meeting up in real life and some initial collaboration, they shelved things to work on individual solo projects. Fortunately, though, they didn’t lose touch or anything, and they got back to work on what is this self-titled EP, which is also their debut as a duo.

You don’t have to go any further than the first track, “Who Me,” to understand what makes Bad Ambassadors special. As the song begins, we get acoustic guitar and Jones on vocals. Everything sounds fine, but after a few seconds, I was asking myself whether or not this was Rich Jones’ full transition into indie rock. Of course, as soon as I began to ponder that question, the beat quicks in, we get a bass line, and all of a sudden things shift in a neo-soul direction in a really clever fashion. Over the course of the rest of the EP, we see this continuous blurring of lines, as they mix in hip hop, electro-pop, jazz, funk, and more alongside these neo-soul and indie rock elements already established. Walkingshoe is incredibly crafty and thoughtful with his production and the way he pairs different elements together and transitions from one thing to another. For the majority of the EP, it felt like I was saying to myself, “Wait a minute! How did we get here?” On top of that, Jones has really established himself as a talented vocalist over his last couple of releases, and on this EP he really gets a chance to showcase the full range of his talents. He’s got a nice full-bodied voice and a nice ear for melody, and he works well with Walkingshoe to figure out ways to bride the gaps between genres in a way that makes sense, often because his voice is the common thread across all the crazy shit that Walkingshoe is throwing down. With all this happening, it could be easy to overlook the lyrical work that Jones is also bringing into the project, but that would be a mistake, because that element is being handled with the same care that everything else is. Jones is able to balance personal narratives and romantic relationships with discussion about gentrification and city identity, all while maintaining a wry sense of humor across the whole EP.

Bad Ambassadors accomplish a lot with just a six-song EP. They carve out an identity as a duo as they blend genres, while also making music that is fun to listen to and easy to connect to. I can’t wait to see where they go from here.