It’s been an exciting journey for Chuck Strangers from Pro Era affiliate and producer to one of New York’s strongest independent hosts. After serving primarily as Joey Bada$$’s band’s in-house beat producer, he established himself as an astute investigator of Brooklyn politics on his debut album, Consumers Park. With each subsequent release – 2020’s Don’t Dare to Dance, 2023’s Boys and Girls – he has become more confident and has a firmer belief in the talent of his contemporaries.
Now, with A Forsaken Lover’s Plea, MC delivers a concept album that’s bolder and more powerful than anything he’s done before. It’s both a love letter to New York, a chronicle of the pain and ecstasy of a not-so-secure romance, and an ode to the wonders of hip-hop itself.
With assistance from Remy Banks, Joey Bada$$ and Erick the Architect, Strangers keeps New York City alive – except for him while spitting on Alchemist’s beats on “Sermonette” and “Ski’d Up.” Even in these moments, however, the Stranger was never far from his favorite subject. In the former, a diamond-sharp two-minute dart, the host ponders life and death, and all the life he sees lost in his Brooklyn neighborhood.
“Your life is right, your stripes are fine, but at night/He closes his eyes and sees the trivial life they tell you to run to the white light/But they won’t say what happens after that,” he raps. Even with all the victories and successes, the stranger still falls asleep longing for more.
Elsewhere, on the album’s spiritual centerpiece “Sunset Park,” Chuck Strangers spits on acoustic guitar and haunted vocal samples, displaying some fast rhymes. The song is a prayer, a quiet wish for oneself to stay on the steadfast path and continue this journey not only unscathed, but thriving. “L by L/Spliff by spliff/Keep the pain subsided/My fingers on the cliff/God forbid I slip/Give me one more chance/Walk like a man,” he gushed. This is the most vulnerable moment he allows himself, and therefore, the most powerful moment on the album.
Chuck Stranger wanted to do better, and in “The Forgotten Lover’s Request,” he did just that. He balances the personal and the cosmic, tracking his own relationships and how they reflect the wider world. The Stranger is a chronicle of a fractured modernity, looking at fissures and disconnections as symbols of a fractured spirit. Still, he cherishes the little things and moments that make life so endearing. On “Sunset Park,” he summed it up simply: “Breakless or millions/I’m gonna quit drinking.”
Release date: March 15, 2024
Record label: Lex
Listen to the jilted lover’s plea below:
