Sankofa is the prolific emcee from Fort Wayne who has been at this for about two decades now. In the past year, he’s collaborated on projects with ACT-1, Bless 1, Supermuch, JON?DOE, and Agent Orange. Just earlier this year, we got a new project featuring a range of different producers called Multitudes Vol. 1. Now he’s back with a new project made with St. Paul producer Iron Mike Sharp, Iron Kofa Sharp.

There are a lot of different ways in which Sankofa has made projects over the years. Sometimes they simmer on the back burner for a while until the time is right, sometimes he approaches them with certain themes in mind, and other times he’ll let a collaborator set the parameters and then rise to the challenge. In the case of Iron Kofa Sharp, Iron Mike Sharp reached out to Sankofa with a batch of beats to see if they might do a project together. Sankofa was so inspired by Sharp’s beats, he knocked out seven of the eight songs in just one day. So this EP is all about that live cypher energy, ripping ideas off the dome and not spending too much time trying to make things perfect. The result of this practice is one that really gives you that old school mixtape energy, where it’s all about some hard hitting beats and raw rhymes that feature the artist’s skill and energy. Iron Mike Sharp is just hitting you with these gritty midtempo boom bap beats, the kind that just get you amped, so it’s easy to see how Sankofa would feed off of that energy. Over the course of the EP, Sankofa jumping around between rhyming about hip hop culture, politics, and everyday life, the way you would when you’re rhyming off the dome in a cypher, just grabbing at things that are at the top of your mind. Of course, Sankofa is a veteran who has put in his reps on the mic over the years. So while you get that energy, the rhymes and flow are sharper than most who would attempt a project like this.

Iron Kofa Sharp is one of those projects that helps keep a veteran emcee like Sankofa sounding fresh and sharp on the mic. Iron Mike Sharp laid down some beats that knock, and Sankofa fed off of that energy, got in his reps, and delivered some really enjoyable hip hop in the process.