Sincerely, Kentrell

There are no features on YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s Sincerely, Kentrell album. This isn’t much of an issue for diehards—2020’s Until I Return was similarly independent—but for an MC with multiple collaborative projects under his belt as well as 2021 collaborations with Tyler, The Creator, Migos and Rod Wave, going it alone on his most anticipated project to date has to mean something. Luckily for fans, the answers are right here on record.

“Can you help me out, I don’t wanna explain how I feel/I don't want talk right now, I just wanna get from round here,” YoungBoy sings on Sincerely, Kentrell’s “Hold Me Down”. Despite more upbeat selections like “Bandit” and “Make No Sense”, pain music has become something of a calling card for YoungBoy, the MC mining his early life’s struggles as well as his current life’s stresses for content. Consistent within those paradigms are women problems and issues with the law. (Upon the release of Sincerely, Kentrell, YoungBoy sat in jail in St. Martinville, Louisiana, awaiting trial on charges related to a September 2020 arrest for firearms possession.)

Nearly every song on Sincerely, Kentrell has elements of YoungBoy reflecting on his life and ruminating on why things haven’t worked out for him the way he thinks they should have. He’s very clearly fighting demons and can shift in a matter of bars from apologising to a lover he’s wronged to threatening perceived enemies with his wrath. That turmoil is maybe best articulated in the final track, “Panoramic”, when YoungBoy sings, “She want diamonds/The streets want violence.”