1996 is my favorite year in rap.

It’s one of the last years when I was just a fan of the music and not spending time and money contributing to it/obsessing over it/fine tuning my approach to it.

96 Mentality is the fastest album I’ve ever made. Most of the songs are under 3 minutes. I wanted to capture the joy of rhyming over east coast beats as quickly as possible.

There’s some concept songs and guest appearances by venerable homies who bust my ass on this record. There’s some producers I’ve worked with heavily and cats that might be new to you.

Overall, I think this is the type of album you’d lend your to your man in high school who was on the fence, and then never got the tape back again.

-z