Going into Somewhere over the Rainbow, DMV-based rapper Nino Paid seemingly had one mission. He explains on the album’s penultimate track, “Rewind It,” “I know I said I’m done with all the sad songs/I know I said I gave up on the sad shit,” he begins, before explaining why he can’t ever move away from the pain music that propelled him to stardom: “It’s hard for me to smile when my brother gone/Somebody I would live for and die with.” Much of Somewhere over the Rainbow reckons with this tension. On the one hand, he’s won—he’s defied the odds, finding success while so many stories like his end up with the protagonist either dead or in jail. “Knowin’ I could die any time or hour,” he admits on “Mirror.” So, despite all the hard-earned success, Nino searches for true happiness, honoring those who are unable to celebrate the many joys the rap game has brought him. Our Favorite Beat: the mischievous, off-kilter pop-punk energy of “When You Miss Me Most.”