Joey Bada$$ - B4.Da.$$ [2LP]

Joey Bada$$ was barely out of his teens when he released B4.Da.$$, and this 2LP gatefold edition brings his 2015 debut album back with all of its boom-bap conviction intact.

The Brooklyn rapper and Pro Era leader had already earned underground acclaim with his 1999 mixtape, which wore its love of 1990s New York hip-hop proudly. His first proper album, whose title reads as before the money, took that classic foundation and widened it, adding reggae, jazz and soul colours to vivid tales of ambition, identity and coming of age in Flatbush.

DJ Premier lends his signature dusty drums and scratches to "Paper Trail$", and a J Dilla beat powers the soulful "Like Me" with BJ the Chicago Kid. "Christ Conscious" is a ferocious showcase for his breath control and wordplay, while "Belly of the Beast" brings in Jamaican reggae star Chronixx and nods to the Caribbean roots running through his neighbourhood.

It is a record that honours its heroes without ever sounding like a museum piece, and it confirmed Joey as one of the sharpest lyricists of his generation.

Spread across two LPs in a gatefold sleeve, it is a cornerstone of 2010s East Coast rap and sounds best played loud through a decent pair of speakers.