The wait is over. Almost three years after the release of producer/rapper-powerhouse Pi’erre Bourne’s mixtape The Life of Pierre 3 (often styled as TLOP), Pierre (né Jordan Jenks) has finally released his newest body of work. After years of scattered rumors and details, Pi’erre blessed fans last Friday with the hotly-anticipated TLOP 4.

For many like myself, seeing him finally confirm the release date over Twitter was surreal. Pi’erre’s 2018 mixtape Pi’erre and Cardo’s Wild Adventure (entirely produced by fellow producer-prodigy Cardo) was an incredibly diverse and well-produced project, even though all but two of the songs were recorded in just one day. This led many to ask: How would an album that had been worked on for potentially years compare? Even the older entries in the ’TLOP’ saga were only released weeks apart, and those came out at the tail-end of 2016. Since then Pi’erre’s discography and credits have increased significantly, with his ubiquitous producer tag being spread across artists from NAV to Playboi Carti, 21 Savage to Travis Scott, Young Nudy to Warholl.ss. Every year, the list grows, and today Pi’erre Bourne’s cultural preeminence as a hip-hop producer is almost unrivaled. Perhaps with the exception of Metro Boomin, or Pharrell, very few others can claim that they have come close to doing what Pi’erre has done. The biggest difference separating Metro Boomin and Pharrell from Pi’erre? Pi’erre only needed four (some could argue fewer) years to reach such a level of notoriety, while Metro soon enters his second decade in music, and Pharrell his third.

Notoriety and clout aside, TLOP4 is a great album. Pi’erre’s ability to both rap and produce is something that makes many draw comparisons to this generation’s Kanye West, and I believe that those comparisons are not as farfetched as they may seem. The album lasts 50 minutes spanning sixteen tracks, and it is a wild ride from start to finish. Each track on the album (which is not a mixtape like the ones before it) features writing, production, engineering, and a performance that comes from Pi'erre and Pi'erre alone.

The album begins with “Poof, an aptly titled track for an album that dropped quite literally out of nowhere. The song title however, is actually in reference to the producer’s late Uncle, who was nicknamed ‘Magic’. The track had been teased multiple times over the past two years, so hearing it leading the album feels almost like coming home. The song’s crisp hi-hats and 808’s contrast nicely with the ambient and eerie pads and instrumentation. This track, like every track that follows it, is mixed and produced perfectly, no manipulation required. It is here that Pi’erre sings/raps to a love interest of his, and while he doesn’t re-invent the wheel lyrically or thematically, the lyrics remain complex enough to contain substance while being simple enough to be accessible to hip-hop fans old and new.

Every track flows perfectly into the next, and as quickly as it began, ‘Poof’ ends and ‘Try Again’ begins. ‘Try Again’ is a much faster pace and typical Pierre Bourne track. Fast rapping and melodic singing are paired over a Rhodes synthesizer-esque emulation, and while the percussion may be a touch too similar to the track before it, the stuttering hi-hats help provide the track with a more upbeat and energetic feel.

The tracks represent the two realms in which every track on TLOP4 inevitably falls. The dichotomous nature of these songs isn’t always as clear as night and day, but almost every song is pretty easily classifiable as one of the following: a more melodic and hazy concoction of singing, unique instrumentation and innovative harmonic conversation, or a more conventional but undeniably energizing and fun burst of rapping both with and without autotune.

Songs like “Be Mine” fall under the former group, with a sound font that could be borrowed from Runescape and saccharine lyrics about love and wanting. “Balled” falls under this group too, with a romantic mix that contains a guitar-laden track so nostalgic this could have been a cut from the upcoming Blood Orange project. It is on this track that Pi’erre opens up about the pitfalls of fame, and how where love may appear to be, distrust, manipulation and disappointment are sure to follow.

Once ‘Ballad’ ends, the tone quickly shifts as “Routine” begins. Easily one of the highest points on the album, Pi’erre still dwells on ideas of love and fame, but seems to lean into them this time around. Like the shift in message, the aural flavor of the track turns on its heels to produce one of the most fun cuts that I have heard from Pi’erre this year. Spacious and glistening pads take the main stage in this mix, with the percussion and Pi’erre’s sing/rapping providing the listener with enough depth and energy that makes this song one worth coming back to.

Throughout TLOP4, Pi’erre delivers close to 50 minutes of occasionally thoughtful, and occasionally reckless tracks that sometimes do not do much to depart from Pi’erres previously established repertoire of talents and capabilities. There is one exception however, with the album’s final track ‘Speed Dial’. Pi’erre Bourne takes a page out of the lilbootycall/Drake playbook and raps some “Sailormoon” / “In My Feelings” cute rap bars over a beat that is simultaneously fast enough that one could rage at a function to it, while also being slow enough that It could be a moody track to play during your long drive home afterwards. Despite this, somehow it ALSO has a bounce to it that was previously only ever heard by Bay-Area natives and YG. The song is a total clusterfuck of elements of writing and percussion that shouldn’t work, but totally do.

This seems to be the overarching theme with the second half of the album, where Pi’erre takes the very tropes and ideas that he worked to popularize into the mainstream, but he uses them in ways that would only be a success if he was the one behind the mixer. The many-times-leaked “Doublemint” is a prime example of this. The upbeat and fast-paced beat shouldn’t work with Pi’erres autotuned crooning, but it does. “Juice” is the exact inverse of this track, with Pi’erre’s raw rapping over a dark and moody track succeeding in ways that you need to hear to believe.

Pi’erre’s performance has also picked up a few tricks since we last heard from him. There are moments throughout the album where one can hear traces of Playboi Carti, Trippie Redd, Meek Mill, Partynextdoor, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Yachty, and even Nav. The presence of his contemporaries on his own musical style in interesting, because one could easily make the argument that he’s played a large part in giving those artists careers. Without Pi’erre, there is no Carti or Nudy at least, so where do we draw the line? Maybe there is no real answer to this question, but maybe we’ll have to wait and see.

TLOP4 is a fantastic album for fans of contemporary hip-hop, made by one of the leading tastemakers and trendsetters in modern music today. Though he may spend most of his time outside of the limelight, it’s about time that changed. Many producers try to break out of their shell like Kanye did almost two decades ago, and while most are prone to flop (looking at you, Ronny J), there are the rare few that can break those barriers. Time and time again, Pi’erre has proven that this is something he can do.