Albums like Charity Starts At Home are the hardest for me to review. If you’ve ever met me, there’s a good chance I was wearing my Get Back Little Brother hoodie. I’ve been a fan for years of how Big Pooh and Phonte came together to make smart hip hop that was relatable and honest. I appreciated Foreign Exchange and how Phonte reinvented himself as an R&B singer that was emotionally vulnerable. I was really looking forward to see how everything was going to come together on this album. Unfortunately, we have apparently caught Phonte at a very troubled and bitter point in his life, and he makes some poor and hateful lyrical choices as a result.

There is stuff to like about the album, as there are elements from both Little Brother and Foreign Exchange on here. However, I really can’t look past the ignorant language on the album, especially because he offends several different groups here. In the second song, “The Good Fight,” when he drops a line about “f—– ass n—-s,” which made my heart skip a beat and my head hang low. Then there are a few sexist lines, like when he calls out some “pussy n—–.” In “Sending My Love,” he drops the line, “We act foolish, not Jewish, but when you hurt a man he bruise.” I’d like to think he’s just trying to make some wordplay here, but he also leaves it open to interpretation about the Jewish/foolish rhyme. It doesn’t help matters that later on the album, on “The Life of Kings,” we get the line “I spit that China white, n—- call it Hong Kong.” It’s just another line that is questionable, but would have been better off left off the album. On top of all this, the guest verse from Elzhi features some unfortunate lines about hos, sores, and dick sucking, that reminds me why I’ve never been able to get into his music. So while there are a few lines that are open to interpretation, there are straight up sexist and homophobic remarks on this album that make it hard to listen to.

On top of the language choices that Phonte makes, the tone of the album is really bitter, and I think that really constrained him creatively. There are moments of emotionally exploration, and deep discussion of life choices to be made, such as being married and starting a family. This is what drew me to his previous projects, but on Charity, he more often than not stops the discussion short and opts for the immature. At the end of “Eternally,” Phonte feels the need to include a sound bit of someone explaining that men have a problem with commitment because even when they find the woman they want to spend the rest of their life with, they are always going to want to “fuck” or “smash” other women. It’s not the most well thought out or mature discussion in the world, and one that Phonte should be better than. If he wants to write a song about temptation that provides personal feelings and insight into the situation, I’d be open to it. When you set up a song with something like that, though, it’s tough to find it anything other than sexist.

It’s really hard to watch an artist regress in front of your eyes, especially one that you’ve admired for so long. I still rank seeing Little Brother in 2007 with Oregone as one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. For now, though, I’ll have to deal with an album that makes me reconsider what kind of a man Phonte is. And that hurts. I guess I’ll have to go shopping for another hoodie.