Mr.Composition is an emcee from San Antonio that’s been releasing music for the better part of this decade. His last release came back in 2016, when he released an EP called Excuse My Graffiti. Now he comes back with a full-length album called Light Labors.

It doesn’t take long once you listen to Light Labors to see what the attraction is with Mr.Composition. He’s got a really versatile flow, with a penchant for melodic runs to his rhymes, and a higher pitched voice that remind me at different points of Slimkid Tre from The Pharcyde, Butter Fly from Digable Planets, and One Be Lo from Binary Star. When he’s at his best, he’s weaving some personal tales, doing a great job of painting pictures and letting you walk in his shoes as the songs play out. There’s also a heavy helping of political activism to his lyrics as well that adds energy to the album. He’s also got a good ear for hooks, and a great deal of this album will immediately get into your head and stay with you after you’re done listening. The only hold up with Light Labors is that the production doesn’t always live up to the level that Mr.Composition is reaching for on the mic. The tracks laid down by Ruler Why give Mr.Composition the best chance to succeed, both in terms of how Mr.Composition clearly has chemistry with his style and can sit in the pocket of his grooves, but also in terms of how Ruler Why is giving him the most sophisticated and developed song structures that push Mr.Composition to write in different ways with the verses, hooks, bridge, and so on that others aren’t challenging him with. Most of the other tracks are still good, just not quite on that level, but some don’t quite make the cut. “I’m Ready” features the most basic trap production on the album, and it’s almost like Mr.Composition lowers himself to the level of the beat, giving us his most basic rhymes on the album.

Light Labors is a little bit inconsistent, but its more up than down. Mr.Composition clearly has a lot of talent, he just needs to find collaborators that are pushing him and helping him reach his full potential. The best thing about this album is knowing that as good as this album can be, we haven’t even gotten close to the best that Mr.Composition has to offer yet.