zzzahara → Glory Of The King's Hand

Glory Of The King’s Hand, not only represents Chuck’s matured attitude but also his matured sound. After a decade in the game, there’s an emphasis on songcraft like never before: “On this album, I made a lot of conscious [musical] decisions," he says. “I made choruses, there's melodies, there's instrumentation … I really tried to just make better songs that people might want to hear again — that are more than just a good verse.” Key to this refined approach was collaboration. Chuck is a proficient beatmaker in his own right as evidenced by his work production for himself and artists like Joey Badass, and Boldy James (see: 2025’s Token of Appreciation album). But this time around Chuck chose to be a producer in the Quincy Jones sense of the word, bringing together vocalists, producers, and musicians instead of handling all of the beats and rhymes himself: “I only did one beat on the album [“Everyday”], which is the least amount of beats I ever did on any of my albums.” The results of this collective approach are astounding. Take for instance, “Breaking Atoms,” a track built on the improvised-on-the-spot music of production trio/band Human Error Club. A hypnotic Fender-Rhodes and headnod-inducing drums are the perfect complement for Chuck and woods’ visual verses and give way to Zeroh’s psychedelic sung vocals and his exclamation “We the main soooource!”. Multifaceted newcomer Obii Say — Chuck's current favorite rapper — appears on two songs (“Everyday” and “Miracle Miles”) and produces a third.

The list of contributing producers is a who’s who of underground sound scientists including The Alchemist, Animoss, Theravada, Kenny Segal, Preservation, Child Actor, and Morriarchi.

Glory Of The King's Hand forthcoming July 10th. Pre-order on Smoke vinyl, tape and CD.

Artwork by Commission Studio.

Photography by Nori Rasmussen.