The Grey, feat BeMyFiasco is the latest from Phonte and Nicolay, and it’s a prime example of what we should expect from our artists in this day and age.

The two core members of Foreign Exchange fortuitously first linked via the Okayplayer message boards, with little known Dutch producer Nicolay sending beats to Little Brother Member Phonte long-distance, culminating in a critically acclaimed project, Connected. The legendary album appealed to both headwrap set and the underground due to its soulful, organic sound. It was the perfect storm for the time, and to this day it is the quintessential Okayplayer album.

This time around, Nicolay sets the table for Phonte with warm melodic atmospherics coupled with the perfect ratio of synths and snares. That fusion allows Phonte to demonstrate his place amongst the preeminent emcees. Tigalo is prime Andre Ward, imposing his will by virtue of his versatility and knocks you out before you even know how he did it.

Over the span of 24 bars Phonte seamlessly maneuvers through lines about the good life, straight bars, and social commentary, ultimately ending on a powerful statement that segues into the outro scratched three times after a thought-provoking chorus by vocalist BeMyFiasco.

Here’s a snippet of Phonte’s verse:

“I’m nuts, I go acorns

When I chef, I go Raekwon

God Blessed me with the best of life

But I look at my sons and see two Trayvons

Been waiting and debating like a Cool J Song 

To Show then n*ggas  how I stay so strong

Understand that I do not gas, I do not overrate

If we gon ‘ face off, let me exfoliate”

The Grey is a little over 2:22 minutes, but what’s interesting is that when the song was initially released by EMPIRE Distribution to YouTube, the comments had to be disabled.

This is the world we live in. A bunch of Hip-Hop fans love Black culture but not Black people. Imagine the cognitive dissonance of hating someone yet needing their culture to funnel the expression of your worldview.

So despite the rhetoric about what America is and isn’t this election season, vote for you want, but let’s not fool ourselves. This country functions just as it was intended to all along.

EMPIRE Distribution has since uploaded another video with comments enabled. But the fact that they had to be disabled in the first place is a thinly- veiled reminder that we are not living in a post-racial America.