Chairman Maf is a producer from Sheffield who has been releasing music for about twenty years now. He had an excellent run of releases across the mid-2010s, but it has now been four years since his last album, Ginger, came out in 2018. Not to worry, because Chairman Maf is now back with a brand new album, KING COOK.

KING COOK is Chairman Maf’s tenth album, and if you’ve spent time with the rest of his catalogue, you’ve got a good idea of what to expect with this one. This is all to say that nothing was broke, so why should Chairman Maf fix it? He’s excellent at making sample-based midtempo instrumental hip hop songs, and KING COOK gives you plenty along those lines to enjoy. Maf has been at this long enough that he had a great feel for finding interesting samples to flip and he cooks up a lot of inviting grooves that will have you bobbing your head along the entire time. A lot of lesser or inexperienced producers would just leave it on that base level and let this live as more of a beat tape, but Maf is skilled enough to really construct a bunch of fully developed songs that take you on an emotional journey. KING COOK also does a great job of demonstrating the full range of how an album like this can work, going from the smooth and sexy “Ain’t Nothin’” to the cheeky “Lemon Popsicle,” to the celebratory and soulful “Milk and Honey,” to finally ending with the politically charged and melancholic “Escape From Brexit Island.” He also does a great job of finding short vocal clips to inject some meaning into the tracks without derailing the music. It’s a skill that’s easy to take for granted, but it requires some discipline to find just the right clip and match it with the perfect moment to make an impact, whether it be as a connection between tracks or as part of the music.

KING COOK is exactly what you from a veteran producer like Chairman Maf. It’s accessible, funky, playful, and soulful. It’s also got a lot of depth to it, both on a technical and an emotional level. It’s great to have him back after a little bit of a hiatus.