Mic Crenshaw is a Portland-based emcee with roots in Chicago and Minneapolis. Under the Sun is his second album, after releasing Thinking Out Loud in 2009. He prides himself in his work not only as an emcee but as a community organizer and founder of the non-profit organization Global Family. While I commend him for this kind of work, there is the matter of the music at hand.

Crenshaw has a powerful low voice and very deliberate delivery on the mic. When he’s on his game, he can be a very good emcee. However, on Under the Sun, the quality of work flucuates greatly. The opening track, “Yeah,” has a good groove, but is filled with weak metaphors and a chorus that’s hard to take seriously, as Crenshaw just repeats the word “yeah” ad nauseam. I’m hoping he meant to be ironic with it, but even then I’m not a fan of ironic choruses due to the confusion it causes amongst listeners. In contrast, the title track that follows “Yeah” is one of the strongest on the album. It even pulls off the rare feat of seamlessly including a guitar solo on a hip hop album.

Ultimately, Crenshaw suffers from one of the hardest problems facing a musician making politically-aware songs: how to avoid coming across as too preachy. It’s a difficult line to walk, and material on Under the Sun falls on both sides here. “CIATFBI” might be the worst example on how things can go wrong, with some terrible, cheap-sounding drums and keyboards accentuating a chorus that seems to be begging the authorities to treat him as a threat. It’s an odd stance, and it undercuts the verses’ lyrical impact. To offset this and frustrate me as a listener, Crenshaw drops a great a capella track, “Bounty,” and follows that up with “Grounded,” a song with solid production, good lyrics, and a sung chorus by Portland-based vocalist Toni Hill.

Under the Sun give us a tale of two artists, and it’s incredibly frustrating. Crenshaw certainly has some talent and good intentions. But he can’t consistently deliver over the course of the album. One moment I’m moved, the next I’m looking to skip a track because it’s too cheesy for me. I can only hope that Crenshaw does a better job on his next album of separating his good material from his bad.