Over the last few years, Killer Mike’s graduated from making raps to crafting religious proverbs.

On his July single “Humble Me,” Mike carves a biblical tale from his Grammy Awards arrest this past February. Skittering across a frenzied soundscape, he recalls an act of perceived divine intervention that saved both himself and his son: “The Devil put me on his whipping post/ The Lord did not allow him to whip me/ So I went to sleep as free as can be and the next day, my son got a kidney.” It’s just the latest chapter in the Book of Michael, a tale of a former D-Boy turned rap star and community organizer who hobnobs with both Atlanta politicians and former trap stars. It was the throughline for his Grammy-winning album Michael, and it continues to be one on Songs For Sinners And Saints, a joint album with his backing gospel choir, released under the name Michael & The Mighty Midnight Revival. While it’s a little sanctimonious (not least of all on “Humble Me”), its combination of atmosphere and rap dexterity make it a notable addition to the Killer Mike scriptures.

Stretching across 10 tracks, Sinners & Saints combines Mike’s personal struggles with multitudes of Southern Black music, which aligns it with Michael in the sense that it’s a homecoming. Whereas he tends to use Run The Jewels tracks to tackle macro issues over dystopian boom bap, Michael and Songs For Sinners & Saints reflect the Black churches that raised him, making the gospel-infused soundbeds appropriate canvases for the most personal raps of his career. Mike knows there’s a big world out there, but for Sinners & Saints, he’s as locally focused as an Atlanta councilman, and the beats here reflect that. It’s pristine narrative-aesthetic symmetry. The crunk and trap influences are still there, too.

The shifts between apocalyptic trap and Sunday Service maintain a push-pull energy between his braggadocio and his humility, creating a natural tension that keeps the experience from becoming flat. At its best, the project blends motivational bars with shapeshifting production to deliver everything from classical shit talk to soundtracks for a sinner’s rebirth. For tracks like “Nobody Knows,” he wades through triumphant church keys; a song later, on “Humble Me,” he sprints across pummeling 808s. Regardless of the beat, he meshes them with tightly wound couplets and the theatrics of a minister behind the pulpit. He preaches the Gospel of Michael.

He can be searing or passionate, but meditative. As on Michael, his deepest ruminations are enhanced by Southern aesthetics, with organ keys from Warryn Campbell and vocals from The Mighty Midnight Revival imbuing the songs with all the omnipotence of the Ebenezer Baptist Church choir. On “Nobody Knows,” he situates himself as a former trapper whose hard-earned deep pockets and some glorious Anthony Hamilton vocals symbolize the Lord’s grace: “Bought and got all the buildings I was trapping out/Bankhead Seafood, me and T.I./Apartments in the Bluff, yeah that’s me and got.” “Nobody Knows” brims with both technical mastery and perspective. There are flurries of intriguing genre experiments, too.

For “Higher Level,” Mike layers glossy keys with a Trillville sample and harmonious croons from the Midnight Revival. It’s a trap sermon that blends the sounds of both the church and the crunk era he emerged from, with its hook being an anthemic one you could easily end up repeating to yourself. Elsewhere, on the Key Glock and Project Pat-assisted “Still Talkin That Shit,” he somersaults through syllables to let collapse the distance between his past and present: “Take that street shit and the scholarship and run em all/I’m at attendance at the players and the mayor’s ball.” It’s tidy self-mythology at its best, and it’s embedded with a propulsive hook and effortlessly menacing bars from his two guests. In other words, it goes.

While “Prepare Me” feels like it meanders a bit, there aren’t many if any skips on the LP, which makes sense; “Slummer 4 The Junkies” combines three Michael songs into a 10-minute slice of micro-theater. “Exit 9” is a slightly reworked mix that adds an Offset verse to the affair. If Mike were a more cynical man, he’d turn grifter and simply tack these tracks on a deluxe deluxe edition of Michael. But instead, the album stands as its own independent creation.

Sinners & Saints doesn’t reach the heights of Michael, but that’s fine. Despite what skeptics say, Michael was as worthy a rap Grammy winner as any in the last few years. Sinners & Saints is a fitting stop gap between this part of Killer Mike’s story and the next. Combining spirituality with dexterity and lucidity of intent, it’s a worthy continuation for the Passion of Michael Render.

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