Chuck Strangers‘ rise from Pro Era affiliate and producer to one of New York’s sturdiest independent MCs has been a thrilling come up. After serving mostly as an in-house beatmaker for Joey Bada$$‘s crew, he established himself as a keen surveyor of Brooklyn politics on his debut Consumers Park. With each release that followed – 2020’s Too Afraid to Dance, 2023’s The Boys & Girls – he’s grown more confident and has a stronger belief in his generational talent.
Now, with A Forsaken Lover’s Plea, the MC turns in a concept album bolder and stronger than anything before. It’s both a love letter to New York, a chronicle of the pain and ecstasy of a less-than-sturdy romance, and an ode to the wonders of Hip Hop itself.
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With assists from Remy Banks, Joey Bada$$ and Erick the Architect, Strangers keeps the New York energy consistent – except for when he’s spitting over Alchemist beats, like on “Sermonette” and “Ski’d Up.” Even during these moments, though, Strangers never veers far from his favorite subject matter. On the former, a diamond-sharp two-minute dart, the MC wonders about life and death, reckoning with all the life lost he’s seen in his Brooklyn community.
“Your life right, your stripe nice, but at night/ He close his eyes and see the trife life They tell you run towards the white light/ But they ain’t say what happens after,” he raps. Even with all the triumphs and successes, Strangers still falls asleep yearning for more.
Elsewhere, on “Sunset Park,” the album’s spiritual center, Chuck Strangers shows off some speedy rhymes as he spits over an acoustic guitar and a haunted vocal sample. The song is a prayer, a quiet wish to himself that he stays on the sturdy path, that he continues this journey not only unharmed but thriving. “L after L/ Spliff after spliff/ Keep the pain quelled/ My fingers on the cliff/ Lord forbid I slip/ Grant me another chance/ To walk as a man,” he spits. It’s the most vulnerable he allows himself to be, and as such, is the album’s most powerful moment.
Chuck Strangers wants to do better, and on A Forsaken Lover’s Plea, he does. He balances the personal with the cosmic, tracing his own relationships and how they reflect the wider world. Strangers is a chronicler of broken modernity, seeing the cracks and faults as emblematic of a fractured spirit. Despite this, he treasures the little things, the moments in between that keep life so lovely. On “Sunset Park,” he concludes simply: “Broke or worth millions/ I’ma be off the wine chillin’ with my n-ggas.”
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RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2024
RECORD LABEL: Lex
Listen to A Forsaken Lover’s Plea below:
