The now eight albums deep LA based rap duo, People Under The Stairs, are nothing but consistant. You can’t fault them for it, they’ve been delivering album after album filled with jazz loop laden anthems. It’s safe to say that the People Under The Stairs best of compilation will be one of the finest examples of our genre. However, they’re also prone to prescribing to the rule of quantity not quality, where hit and miss doesn’t even come close. Luckily after 14 years in the game they’re finally getting that ratio on the right side.

So let’s just get it out the way, this is a People Under The Stairs album. It’s got tales of debauchery and some slightly less-clichè-free topics than we tend to go for. The fact that this is still the case, is starting to get a little weird considering the fact that they’re now becoming veterans of the game. Although still in their early thirties, Thes One and Double K are hardly reaching the retirement home Open Mike Eagle imagined.

Ok, so these young veterans might have given the impression that they haven’t matured as much as other artists have, and certain tracks here would provide unquestionable evidence. Yet, Highlighter is easily their best effort since the days of O.S.T & The Next Step, as the group seemingly turn the act of producing albums into a fine art. Maybe the creative freedom of Piecelock 70 is helping them.

I gotta let you know I’m good, I got my music, my health / My family backin’ me, puttin’ records on your shelf / They say time’s tough, money bad, and crime’s up / But we’re living, so let’s live it up with little victories and love

The production is naturally at a high quality and again the duo let us know why we love them. Thes One is one of the most constant producers in the game, and doesn’t disappoint with some of the best beats of his career. It takes a few tracks to get into its stride but by the time you hit “At The House” & “Too Much Birthday”, it’s tough to put down (The latter of which being the birthday anthem that In Da Club always wanted to be). The peak of the album is easily the tales of trying to avoiding drugs backstage at shows on “Foolish People” that takes the duo’s sample work to a whole new level of brilliance. Then there is the criminally labeled bonus tracks that see out the album, where again Thes One and Double K make a triumphant last five minutes the most memorable on the album.

However, the problem with People Under The Stairs albums is that they’re People Under The Stairs albums. While that ratio is starting to favour the better side, it still makes itself present on Highlighter. However, and fans of the P will already know this, when they’re good they’re undeniably brilliant – and Highlighter has more moments of brilliance than not.

Highlighter came out on the 30th of October and can be bought through the friendly folks at Piecelock 70.