The Need to Know is Queens-based rapper Duncecap’s most refined project to date. steel tipped dove (Armand Hammer, Fatboi Sharif) crafts the new album with a cinematic touch, soundtracking the worlds Dunce builds with dusty kicks and bespoke samples.

Art-rap legends doseone and SKECH185 lend verses to the project, and stalwart collaborator Samurai Banana lends his cutting hand for frenzied scratching over Dove’s plucky thumps and sprawling loops.

With a triumphant pessimism, The Need to Know examines the human condition through big-box store nostalgia and city parking; trans-humanism, and anxiety. steel tipped dove accentuates the levity and tension of Duncecap’s writing with nuanced expertise, bringing out funky colors from the bouncy darkness.