Rapper Big Pooh has had a host of quality releases since his days with vaunted group Little Brother with Phonte and 9th Wonder. From 2005’s Sleepers to his entire Fat Boy Fresh series, Pooh has stayed working. However, his recent union with Apollo Brown has produced some of the best music of Pooh’s still unfolding career.

Today, Pooh and Apollo have released their joint Mello Music Group project, Words Paint Pictures. Apollo supplies RBP with the dark and soulful tracks on which he’s shone over the years. That, combined with the turbulent times of 2014, inspired Pooh to go beyond creating choice rhymes to making music with a message. He addresses the deaths of Oscar Grant and Michael Brown head on and touches on several themes currently plaguing the nation. If you like Hip-Hop with Soul and a soul, it gets no better. Check out the full stream and excerpts of MMG’s description of Words Paint Pictures below.

Here’s an excerpt of a description of the project from MMG:

“Lao Tzu claimed that, “Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.” Occasionally, the universe can also stir music from the chambers of the soul. These are the songs tattooed into our memories, torn from headlines and unsettling encounters, intense anthems of immediacy. Soul music.

You can hear these eternal truths on Words Paint Pictures—Big Pooh’s debut release for Mello Music Group. Over seven songs and two remixes, the North Carolina MC captures the complex agonies of the human condition—specifically the black experience in America over the last several centuries. These are tales of racial profiling and corrupt politicians, reality TV distractions, thieving preachers and rapacious exploitation—all offset by tremendous strength. They are uniquely American stories, chronicling both the damned and hopeful. From bleak circumstances, a profoundly durable human spirit emerges.

While Pooh sketches in vivid detail, Apollo Brown supplies the canvas. The Detroit-via-Grand Rapids alchemist chops classic soul samples and scratches hooks into bangers—head nodding and hard, but still beautiful. The holy trinity of DJ Premier, Pete Rock and J. Dilla supply divine inspiration. As Pooh spits on “Candlelight:” “this is what they call boom-bap/when they try to find what’s in that backpack.”

Read the full description and purchase the album here.

Related: Rapper Big Pooh Flips Through His Rhyme Book While Apollo Brown Digs in the Crates (Video)