On his new album, Samurai, Lupe retreats inward to give fans one of his most personal albums in his deep catalog. Musically, the new album finds Lupe delighting in the simple pleasures of assembling assonant syllables into playful and poignant narratives. The 8-track album is smooth, yet cerebral, brimming with ideas, but always radiating Lupe’s pure love for the art of emceeing and committing himself as a servant of the rap game. The album was produced in full by longtime collaborator and friend, Soundtrakk (“Superstar,” “Kick, Push,” “HipHop Saved My Life”), their second time linking up on a full album after 2022’s Drill Music in Zion, and is also the first time Lupe, Trakk, and longtime manager Charles “Chill” Patton were in the studio together since Patton’s release from prison in 2023. It’s the first time they’d worked together in the studio since Lupe’s seminal album, The Cool in 2005.

1 Samurai
2 Mumble Rap
3 Cake
4 Palaces
5 Headbanger
6 Big Foot
7 Outside
8 Til Eternity