Rome Streetz — Sock It 2 My Pocket

Eleven records deep, Rome Streetz finally sounds like a man who owns the building. Sock It 2 My Pocket landed on July 17 through Nas's Mass Appeal: fifteen tracks, forty-three minutes, no deluxe edition, with Pete Rock, Havoc, Conductor Williams and 9th Wonder on the loops and Styles P, Lloyd Banks and Westside Gunn passing through. Pitchfork gave it 73; the user score sits at 79 across 1,396 ratings, which is the more useful number for a rapper whose audience buys physical copies rather than streams. London-born, Brooklyn-raised, he still writes like every bar is a debt being collected. The consensus that this is his best since Kiss the Ring is, this time, correct.