Sankofa is an emcee out of Fort Wayne who keeps busy but never drops in his quality level. After a 2021 that saw him drop BLKTHCP, Floodgates, and Showkofa, he’s come right back in 2022 with a brand new full-length album, Legacy Materials.

One of the great things about Sankofa’s career has been his ability to seek out and connect with lesser-known producers who have the goods when it comes to making some killer boom bap. We saw that last year when he worked with producers like phdbeats and DJ Matty Lite, and now he’s done it once again by pairing up with The Illustrated One out of South Oregon. Sankofa likes to let the beats guide his writing, and in this case, the slightly darker and somber tone of a few of these beats got Sankofa really in his head and thinking about his mortality and in turn reflecting on his own childhood and his current fatherhood. When you put this all together, you get a Sankofa project that you really need to sit with for large chunks of it and just really let the music and words sink in marinate. There’s a lot of emotional, philosophical, and personal lyricism going on there, and it is pretty densely packed into ten songs. One such song that really hit me was “That Pair of Crutches in the Third Grade,” which features this really haunting reverbed guitar line and a trap beat that inspires Sankofa to reach back to a childhood experience that stays with him and work through why it still lingers on in his life. That said, this is still a Sankofa project, so there are a few moments where he breaks out to some bigger and brighter beats, rocks the crowd, and maybe invites a friend to join him on the mic. To that end, nothing is bigger than the closing song, “That Classic Back and Forth,” which features longtime collaborator JON?DOE trading rhymes with Sankofa and having fun over this funky-as-hell beat with killer horns and bass line that will have you breaking your neck - there’s so much stank on the track.

Legacy Materials is one of Sankofa’s best releases in a run of quality albums. Working with producer The Illustrated One pushed him in a slightly different direction, giving us one of his more introspective albums, one that will really grow on you with each listen.