Nicholas Craven & Boldy James – Trapper’s Alley 3: Hell or High Water [Album Stream]

Nicholas Craven and Boldy James reconnect on Trapper’s Alley 3: Hell or High Water, a 10-track album with features from 218 Bojay, Chip$, Dave Hill, and Lethalias Grain.

Craven and James continue one of underground rap’s coldest partnerships with Trapper’s Alley 3: Hell or High Water, a 10-track project built around patience, pressure, and the kind of detail-heavy street writing that rarely raises its voice.

Craven’s production gives the album its weather: soul loops, drumless pockets, muted tension, and just enough space for Boldy to move through every bar with that flat, clinical calm. Nothing here sounds rushed. “Summer’s Eve” opens the project with the familiar Craven glow, while “Mama Maxine” brings in 218 Bojay without breaking the record’s slow-burn atmosphere. From there, Boldy stays locked into survival talk, old consequences, coded flexes, and the matter-of-fact fatalism that has made his best work feel less performed than documented.

The guest list stays close to the project’s world. Chip$ appears across “Beautiful Snow,” “Hamburger Helper,” and “Powerhouse,” with Dave Hill and Lethalias Grain also stepping into the mix, but Hell or High Water still feels like a Boldy-and-Craven record first. The production does not chase momentum in the obvious sense; it lets the writing sit, breathe, and harden. By the time “Death & Taxes” closes things out, the title has already done its job: this is a record about what follows you, what waits for you, and what you still carry when the water rises.

Take a listen below and cop a copy on Bandcamp if you want to support.