In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced the world into lockdown, Lyrics Born started an Instagram Live chat series called Mobile Homies, which featured casual, candid interviews with his friends and collaborators from throughout the music world. The videos were then edited into a podcast, and Mobile Homies: Season 1 is the first album born from the series, featuring a dozen collaborative tracks threaded with clips from the conversations. As such, the release feels looser than usual for a Lyrics Born album, most of which are already quite easygoing and eager to please. The tracks often seem to be dominated by the personalities of their guests, with LB mainly appearing for a single verse within the songs themselves, then as the host during the chat bits. San Francisco-based soul/funk group Con Brio provide a blast of studio-polished sunshine (though it's called "Sundown") to open the album, returning a bit later with the more aching, pleading "Mistakes." New Orleans' Galactic and LB's wife, Joyo Velarde, lead the rousing, feel-good "Long Shot." "This Song's Delicious," featuring Sitcom Dad (aka actor Randall Park), has a pleasant Dan the Automator beat. Of similar interest to aging devotees of golden age and alternative rap, Prince Paul stops by during the playfully charming and romantic "Everyday Love." The most socially relevant and emotionally powerful song, "Anti," addresses violence and discrimination against people of Asian and Pacific Island descent, referring to the political issues and uprisings of the pandemic but coming from a lifetime of firsthand experience (LB was born in Tokyo and has lived in the United States since childhood). A remix of the song, with a guest verse by Rakaa of Dilated Peoples, appears at the end of the album. The soul/gospel-tinged "My City," with longtime Solesides/Quannum comrades Blackalicious and Lateef the Truthspeaker, ends up feeling teary and bittersweet following Gift of Gab's passing in 2021. The darker, trap-influenced "Enough About Me (Remix)" (with the Grouch and Eligh) and the upbeat, Latin-inspired party funk of "Desperada" (featuring Lateef and Xarina) are two of the most detailed, alluring productions on the record, and also the most current-sounding, as of the set's 2022 release date. Lyrics Born is unmistakably a veteran artist who enjoys making music, and he sounds delighted to connect with his fellow musicians on this wide-ranging album. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi

1		Sundown
2		Misfits
3		Anti
4		This Song's Delicious
5		My City
6		Enough About Me [Remix]
7		Mistakes
8		Desperada
9		Long Shot
10		Everyday Love
11		Enough About Me
12		Anti [Remix]

	Like us on Facebook
	@SoundHound	Follow