Ryan Montgomery, better known as Royce 5’9” (formerly Royce da 5’9”), is known for being one of the top lyricists in the hip-hop game. He is a Detroit rapper who got his start in 1997, and this is something he explores in the stand-out track “Tabernacle” on his new album, “Layers.” The album is the veteran MC’s sixth studio album. Royce is known for working with Eminem in the rap duo Bad Meets Evil as well as performing as one-quarter of super-lyricist group, Slaughterhouse. But he is also one of the best rappers in the game in his own right, and has been for nearly two decades.

Royce had been dealing with alcoholism throughout the 2000s and he believed that it negatively impacted both his work and his life. The rapper has recently opened up to discussing his issues in both recent interviews, and through his own music. Anyone who is familiar with the style of “Nickle Nine” is aware of his propensity to rap about how good a rapper he is – and he is definitely entitled to do this since his lyricism is always on point – but “Layers” attempts to steer away from this aggressive approach, and Royce instead creates an introspective album.

“Layers” is a 17-track album, including skits, and the album begins in a way that could be the most powerful beginning to any rap album ever released. The story which Royce switches between telling and rapping in “Tabernacle” involves the night which he called “the most important day of my life” in an interview with the Breakfast Club. Royce had to battle the emotions of his first son being born, of his beloved grandmother dying in the same hospital after being hit by a drunk driver, and having to open up a show for a young Usher, all in the same night. Oh, and he also met Eminem that night, the same Eminem who would help propel the MC to stardom.

For being dubbed an introspective album, and definitely being Royce’s most personal musical venture yet, the album still has some outstanding production value. A lot of the album’s production is handled by Mr. Porter, who is best known as being a member of Detroit supergroup D12. Mr. Porter has handled the production on many of Royce’s past projects, and he delivers great beats that Royce has no problems flowing over, and destroying.

Today’s hip-hop/rap is dominated primarily by trap, and lyrics that can barely even be called lyrics, and the only subject matter that is really ever explored is themes of drugs, sex, violence, drugs    and more drugs. Royce 5’9” has always been a lyrics machine, and the way he spits out intelligent bar after bar on this album makes it seem almost effortless. Sitting back and listening to the album in its entirety, it’s amazing to think about how he was even able to come up with all those bars. It’s genius. It’s nice knowing that rap can still be a respectable genre when artists like Royce are still doing their thing and sewing stories together, and crafting actual pieces of art – because a great album should tell a story and speak to the listener in some way. Royce is sending the message of ending his alcoholism, and look how positively it has impacted his life.

Hip-hop needs the “fun” side of the genre just as much as it needs lyricism. Some rap lovers listen to trap, or they listen to pop-rap, or they listen to lyrical rap, and some rap lovers listen to all of it. All of these subsidiaries of the genre matter. But in terms of crafting a great album and telling a story, great lyrics and flow and beats are all needed. And this is what “Layers” is; very simply put, it’s a tremendous rap album. The only knock on the album could be that there are too many ideas going on in 64 minutes; he has too much to tell on one album, and Royce has said he is releasing another album soon, when another “layer” of the rapper will be peeled off.

Royce 5’9” deserves a lot of praise for all he’s done and is continuing to do for hip-hop, and it would be foolish to not include him in any list of the best rappers in the game – of any era. Normally I’d give a few stand-out tracks, but the whole thing stands out, and Royce 5’9” stands tall while telling all.

Final Grade: A