Layers

Detroit’s Royce da 5'9" is something of a rapper’s rapper: hard-working, well connected, indifferent to trends but passionately dedicated to the craft. And he brings it all together on Layers with textbook boom-bap, as confident and cinematic as it is cool. “Highest exalted/Call me commercial?/I’m highly insulted”, he drawls on “Shine”, delivering a workingman’s credo that surfaces again on the album’s title track, alongside Pusha T and Rick Ross: “I philosophize with wise words from learned lessons/In my world, mistakes turns to blessings.” Not that he’s too humble to flex when he’s ready—just listen to “Hard”.