.K-The-I???

Breaking up is indeed hard to do. And being dumped is even harder. An affiliate of Anticon, Galapagos 4, and NMS, MC K-the-I??? uses his debut album, Broken Love Letter, to transcribe the thoughts of the dumped. Though it’s twelve tracks deep, Broken Love Letter still seems like one long song, a jumble of thoughts and pain that K experiences over 43 minutes. On the hip-hop break-up track bitterness scale, Broken Love Letter constantly fluctuates between El-P’s TOJ (acceptance) and Kool G Rap’s Truly Yours (straight-up bitterness and hatred). The Cambridge, Massachusetts-born MC spits a mixture of resentment, pain, and confusion toward his girl for leaving him because he didn’t put her before his music. The jumble of verses, beats, sounds, and scratches burst through, mimicking thoughts rattling through his mind. Broken Love Letter is not easy listening, with the soundscape of a Def Jux fever dream, but there’s palpable, undeniable emotion that permeates the lyrics and beats. As the album progresses, K tries to reconcile his bitterness with his not-so-subconscious desire to reconcile. By the end, he comes to an uneasy acceptance, and pledges to stay away from his lost love and to never let himself get hurt again. That’s what we all say.