Verbal Kent

Few things are more ugly or heroic than telling the truth. Life is often bleak, brutal, and over all too swiftly. Leaders are corrupt. Job prospects are limited. Cigarettes and shots of gin rarely lead to a peaceful finish. But between the lunacy and squalor, there exists those who make it all worthwhile: family, friends, and ruthlessly honest artists who remind you that you aren’t alone, shedding light on those dark nights of the soul. As Michigan’s anti-Surgeon General, Red Pill quips: “We may not be the heroes this world needs, we’re definitely not the heroes this world wants, but at least we’re here.” His partners in Ugly Heroes are Chicago MC Verbal Kent, and Detroit producer Apollo Brown. Their sophomore Mello Music Group release, Everything In Between, offers diamonds of wisdom amidst the existential dumpster fire. It’s been said that if you go down deep enough, past the personal, you eventually reach the universal. Ugly Heroes embody that axiom, unraveling their own stories, self-doubts, and bouts with depression to arrive at something as profound as it is vulnerable. Apollo Brown warps soul music and bayonet-hard drums, creating a singular form of soul-coughing dirty-sky symphonies. Levitating boom-bap for the 21st Century. “Have you ever figured what you’d be like in a few years…why don’t you look ahead” A cinematic voice opens up “Today, Right Now,” with these words, doubling as a manifesto for things to come. Just as quickly, a voice retorts, “ah, don’t preach at me…as if you can