Today, underground rap auteur Mike Ladd releases “Time Has,” the latest single from Nonechosen, his debut album for Backwoodz Studioz due out November 6. Propelled by a fanfare of bleating brass and chipmunk soul, Ladd sizes up the cracks in imperial capitalism, electrified by the possibility of reckoning and societal transformation. He sounds invigorated and ambitious, affirming that doomerism in the face of collapse is simply a failure of imagination. Listen to “Time Has” here.

Accompanying the single is the “Time Has” video, a kinetic rendering of Raymond Wade’s expressive and liberated choreography.

Watch the “Time Has” video — directed by Will Sicot-Carr — here.

Executive produced by Preservation, Nonechosen — Ladd’s first solo album in over a decade — is dense, literary, and urgent as reflects on climate collapse, empire, Black history, fascism, addiction, survival, family, and hard-won gratitude. It’s a powerful return that bridges his visionary and lacerating turn-of-the-millennium work with the political, cultural, and spiritual chaos of the present. Pre-save / pre-order Nonechosen here.

The “Time Has” video follows lead single “Twenty Five,” a collaboration with longtime Ladd co-conspirator Tom Degeeter. Atop a ping-ponging post-soul beat, Ladd’s wounded croon-croak recalls Gil Scott-Heron. Watch the “Twenty Five” video, directed by Ben Gordon, here.

Mike Ladd. Those who know say the name with a certain reverence. If you will allow an imperfect analogy, Ladd is underground hip-hop’s Terrence Malick: an uncompromising auteur whose early work was both unconventional and critically acclaimed before he abruptly withdrew from the scene he helped build and decamped to Paris, never to be heard from again.

Of course, the reality is more complex than the legend.

Mike Ladd never stopped making music; over the years he’s popped up on all sorts of unexpected collaborations—who could forget his searing appearance on billy woods’ Aethiopes—soundtracked a Netflix series, and worked with visual artists in settings like the Pantheon in Paris. That’s not even counting all the stages he ripped as part of various touring bands and live acts.

Still, Ladd’s last solo album was more than ten years ago, and his magnum opus Welcome to the Afterfuture dropped in early 2000. If we are going to follow the Malick analogy, Nonechosen is Mike Ladd’s The Thin Red Line. A granite testament to the fact that the artist has evolved and grown, but maintains the same gravitas that made his name what it is.

Here we are, deep into the Afterfuture and it’s as though Ladd had always been waiting for this time, building towards this moment. “Now you know why I remained in my station,” he raps on Nonechosen, confident that his patience has paid off.

Nonechosen is a solo album, but Ladd will be the first to tell you that he didn’t do it alone; He has always worked with old friends. No Surrender and Tom Degeeter collaborated on respective tracks. Once Mike got the record 95% there with his own production, he passed it on to Preservation, who, with a few well-placed tweaks, elevated the project to new heights.

Backwoodz Studioz is honored to be part of Ladd’s comet-like return, and excited to properly introduce this seminal artist to a new generation of hip-hop fans while they’re at it.