Mike Ladd: Nonechosen

Mike Ladd. Those who know say the name with a certain reverence. If you will allow an imperfect analogy, Ladd is underground hiphop’s Terrence Malick: an uncompromising auteur whose early work was both unconventional and critically acclaimed before he abruptly withdrew from the scene he helped build and decamped to Paris, never to be heard from again.

Of course, the reality is more complex than the legend. Mike Ladd never stopped making music; over the years he’s popped up on all sorts of unexpected collaborations—who could forget his searing appearance on billy woods’ Aethiopes—soundtracked a Netflix series, and worked with visual artists in settings like the Pantheon in Paris. That’s not even counting all the stages he ripped as part of various touring bands and live acts. Still, Ladd’s last solo album was more than ten years ago, and his magnum opus Welcome to the Afterfuture dropped in early 2000.

If we are going to follow the analogy, Nonechosen is Mike Ladd’s The Thin Red Line. A granite testament to the fact that the artist has evolved and grown, but maintains the same gravitas that made his name what it is. Here we are, deep into the Afterfuture and it’s as though Ladd had always been waiting for this time, building towards this moment. “Now you know why I remained in my station,” he raps on Nonechosen, confident that his patience has paid off. Nonechosen is a solo album, but Ladd will be the first to tell you that he didn’t do it alone; He has always worked with old friends.

No Surrender and Tom Degeeter collaborated on respective tracks. Once Mike got the record 95% there with his own production, he passed it on to Preservation, who, with a few well-placed tweaks, elevated the project to new heights. Backwoodz Studioz is honored to be part of Ladd’s comet-like return, and excited to properly introduce this seminal artist to a new generation of hip-hop fans while we’re at it.