The Uncomfortable Truth

Like Roc Marciano and the Griselda crew, Ransom’s one of those rappers whose place in the culture seemed to open as he got older—a traditionalist whose dusty, soul-sampling mixtapes (all the Nicholas Craven collaborations, but let’s say Directors Cut Scene 3 for starters) affirm Core Values for the old heads while appealing to the underground refinement of new ones. (If you know what an obi strip is, we’re looking at you.) Paired here with the unfailingly great Conductor Williams, he discourses on the present (the politically-correct-or-not “TRIGGER OR TRIGGA”) but sounds more salient exploring the past, from the sobriety of “LATE REPLIES” (“funny memes in the group chat can’t replace what’s ahead of us”) to “BLOOD STAINS ON COLISEUM FLOORS”, where he says he used to brag about what he was but is now more interested in talking about what he’s not. Youth—it’s wasted on the young.