On TIGRAY FUNK, LA-based rapper Sideshow is stuck between worlds, finding a voice within inhospitable environments. Reflecting on a childhood spent in Tigray, Ethiopia and young adulthood as a Black American, TIGRAY FUNK powerfully contextualizes the rapper’s one-of-a-kind perspective. From his thoughts on the history of war in his homeland to his place in the modern rap landscape, Sideshow flexes his lyrical and curatorial muscles, cooking up restless musings over percussive, often minimal—though always engaging—instrumentals. On “VOLUME METRIC” he notes how he’d rather live freely than live for a long time, and there’s a desperation in his voice as he attempts to animate the struggles of working people everywhere. Alongside collaborators like El Cousteau, Niontay, and more, Sideshow speaks for those unable to speak for themselves on songs like “ALENA(ኣለና)PARADISE LOST,” where he rails against a cruel truth: that the “rich get richer while the poor get their wage cut.”