Chicago rapper Joey Purp might be the hardest rapper ever to come out of that after-school freestyle-rap scene that also produced stars like Chance The Rapper. Two years ago, Purp came out with the excellent solo mixtape iiiDrops. Last year, he impressed the hell out of us with a purposeful, energetic Pitchfork Music Festival performance. And today, he’s come out with a new single called “March 12th.”

“March 12th” has a warm, melodic beat from producer Don Robb that offers Purp plenty of negative space to work with. And he works with it. Purp’s got a rangy, urgent voice, and even at his most casual, he sounds like he has something very important to tell you.

On the new song, Purp gets deep into his own flaws and fears. There are some bad lines in there: “She offered me brain, I said I’d rather have a mind.” But even if all his lyrics don’t hang together, he passion remains strong and vivid. You can hear the new track below.

This is a standalone single, but Fake Shore Drive, who knows about these things, claims that a new project is coming “sooner than you think.”