As much as it fits perfectly within the parameters that hip-hop was built on, rapping about the current political climate is something fewer and fewer rappers are doing these days. It isn’t necessarily a foregone requirement for artists who operate within the genre to be full-on social justice warriors, however the essence of rap music is and has always been a direct byproduct of sociopolitical revolution and ultimately a catalyst for positive change.

Joey Bada$$ has quietly developed into one of those self-aware artists who will gladly sacrifice boasting and bragging for politically protesting on the bleak environment that has recently been cast across the United States and beyond. This revolutionary fire is injected all throughout his second studio album, All-Amerikkkan Bada$$, which is perhaps the most explicit display of civil commentary since Public Enemy’s, Fear of a Black Planet.

Joey has always been labeled as a conscious rapper, with a heavy reliance on third eye perspectives for beats, rhymes, and life. This liberated logic of music making is coupled with strong technical rap skills—a lethal combo for any artist in the industry. However, it’s taken Joey over five years of releases to accumulate the complete arsenal we hear on tracks today. In a way, his past projects, like B4.Da.$$, have collectively groomed his expressive prowess to formulate an album of such unparalleled significance. All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ encompasses everything we’ve come to love about Joey over the past few years, with an added sense of social responsibility that is needed in times like these.

One of the most noticeable features on All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ is Joey’s immensely evolved sound. The lead single off the project, “Devastated,” directly attests to the growth in his sound, as the grandiose production pumps a heavy rhythmic bass and a rattling chant-a-long chorus. As his biggest song to date plays through, it’s almost hard to believe that the boom bap-obsessed skater kid from Brooklyn conceived an album of this magnitude  a mere five years after his debut. However, the sentiments of struggle turning into strength promoted on “Devastated” have very much been a part of Joey’s music since 2011, and have been taken to the next level on this album.

Joey noticeably takes himself out of the spotlight on this project and instead opts to create a sonic snapshot of the current state of our country. As well as detailing his own explicit interactions with contemporary “Amerikkka,” he speaks primarily on behalf of the people he feels he vividly represents. At every turn, he doesn’t hold back his contempt for President Donald Trump and the waves of injustices that repeatedly hit the Black community.

Joey uses “For My People” as a mission statement, declaring the aim for not only the album, but his rap career at large: “Music is a form of expression/I’ma use mine just to teach you a lesson/Rule one: this microphone’s a weapon/I’m shootin’ out the actions manifested and my passion.”

The only time Joey deeply references himself is when he’s using it as a catapult for the greater good, as heard on “Temptation”: “I just wanna see my people empowered/Tell me how we gon’ shape this vision/Complainin’ all day, but in the same condition/If you wanna make change, it’s gon’ take commitment.”

Even though the album only has a dozen tracks, All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ undoubtedly manages to check off all the boxes that encompass a great rap album. Joey delivers a token personification track in “Miss Amerikkka,” a treacherously dark deep cut with “Rockabye Baby,” boom bap bliss on “Super Predator” and a big name feature in J. Cole.

Diehard fans of Joey’s older, more minimalist songs will applaud the latter half of the album. Whereas the top half dozen songs flex Joey’s evolved songwriting and beat selection, the bottom has Statik Selektah handling a few more beats and thus opening up Joey’s perfect in-pocket rhyming.

That being said, Joey still manages to effectively implement the anti-establishment vibe within these cuts, even saving his most harsh criticisms for the final track, “Amerikkkan Idol.” “I’m out for dead presidents to represent me/Because I’ve never known a live one that represent me,” Joey raps on the track’s chorus. It’s obviously a somber statement, one that eventually ends with Joey stating “Ameri-K-K-K-a is force feedin’ you lies down your throats with a silver spoon/And eventually, we’ll all be doomed/Real, real, real soon.”

Although the album ends on a rather pessimistic note, Joey’s intentions are optimistic. The MC utilizes All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ as a loud wake up call to the masses—namely millennial America; for things in this country and around the world to get better, there needs to be cooperation without restraints. The extremely uplifting and socially exciting moments on this album should be used as a positive call to action for any and everyone who listens.