On the first day of 2021, R.A.P. Ferreira, the restlessly smart and inventive rapper previously known as Milo, released his loose and poetic album bob’s son: R​.​A​.​P. Ferreira in the garden level cafe of the scallops hotel. Before the year is over, we’ll get another R.A.P. Ferreira album. Today, the man announces the excellently titled new LP The Light Emitting Diamond Cutter Scriptures, which comes out next week. He’s also shared the new single “East Nashville.”

Ferreira is apparently based in Nashville now. (Last I heard, he had a record store up in Maine.) “East Nashville” is more of a straight-up rap song than anything on bob’s son, and it’s got lyrics about traveling the world. Ferreira’s lyrics can be head-spinning, but they can also be hugely quotable: “I like spare parts and alone time/ I did it without the co-sign.” The jazzy, playful beat comes from producer Vast Ness, one of the members of Ferreira’s Ruby Yacht crew.

Here’s how Ferreira describes the new album on his Soulfolks website:

during the first of my 15 year exile in the city of gnashville, the light emitting diamond cutter scriptures revealed themselves to i. eleven concise chapters of pure will with no dilution. these scrolls were time tested during the roughest of waters. when the monk relinquishes all things, all baggages, all material goods, all styles, all names, all containers, all ideas to become a shimmering effusion. releasing on Black Friday 2021 (11/26)

Here’s the lo-fi video for “East Nashville”:

TRACKLIST:
01 “Contrapuntal”
02 “Brother Mouzone Library Card”
03 “Hyperion”
04 “Wedding Cake Eights”
05 “Humboldt Park Jibaritos”
06 “Gemilut Hashadim”
07 “Blackmissionfigs” (Feat. Eldon)
08 “East Nashville”
09 “Praise & Worship”
10 “Uptown 37”
11 “Hot Bref”

The Light Emitting Diamond Cutter Scriptures is out 11/26 on Ruby Yacht. That night, R.A.P. Ferreira will play a record-release show at the Echoplex in Los Angeles.