It’s been a minute since we last heard from Detroit/Atlanta emcee Boog Brown. After making a splash in 2010 with her Brown Study album with Apollo Brown, and then following that up with The Late Bloom in 2013, Brown has been relatively quiet since then outside of a few features. One person that reached out to her for a feature, though, was producer Tom Caruana, who was looking to make a track for his Son of Sam album. However, after sending her a few beats, she ended up liking enough to write and come up with a four-song EP. There chemistry was just too good, and they just kept working on more material, first adding a bonus track, then two, and before they knew it they had an entire album on their hands. Just like that we have Boog Brown, her first full-length album in five years.

Boog Brown is an interesting album in a few different ways, but mainly I find it interesting how someone can find a collaborator from across the ocean, and suddenly find a sound that fits them better than anything they’ve done up until this point. To be fair, Caruana isn’t bringing a distinctly European style of production to the album. On the contrary, he’s channeling some Philly/Dallas neo-soul and hip hop, such as Jill Scott, The Roots, and Erykah Badu, which as it turns out fits Brown to a tee. She’s got a great singing voice and an ear for some great pop hooks, and she easily sits in the pocket of these grooves to spit a really casual and conversational flow that makes it feel like she’s talking directly to you. For the album, Caruana enlists the help of some fellow musicians such John Sam, Joe Sam, and Andy Vickery, along with scratching from Nick Maxwell and Jabbathakut, who help give the album this incredibly tight live ensemble feeling. We also get some guest appearances from yU, Flo, Dillon, Noland the Ninja, and Big REC, who all bring their own unique energy to the album and help round out the sound, but it’s Boog, with her confident soulful flow, catchy hooks, and honest lyricism about life, love, and music who shines so well in the spotlight.

It’s been long enough since her last full-length album that there will be plenty of listeners that are discovering Boog Brown for the first time with this album. You’ll be in for a treat, because her chemistry with Tom Caruana is second to none, and he’s really helped to put her in a position to succeed, helping her make the best album of her career to date.