It's hard for me to understand how an album this good sneaks out into the world without anyone much noticing. For a solid year, the hardhead Buffalo rapper Conway has been talking up his new album G.O.A.T., calling it the best thing he's ever done. In the time that he's been touting the album, Conway and his younger brother Westside Gunn have signed a label deal with Eminem's Shady Records, an awkward fit that should still, at least theoretically, give two of underground rap's toughest wordsmiths a chance to find an audience beyond their internet cult. But that's not what happened. Conway released a couple of middling mixtapes and then, with no real warning, unleashed G.O.A.T. into the world on a slow day in late December. As far as I know, it's not even available as anything other than a SoundCloud stream. And yet it's an absolute monster, a piece of hard and dusty throwback '90s rap as strong and evocative as almost anything I've heard in the past year. Conway delivered exactly what he said he would, and the world barely paid attention.