The world is on fire. You probably didn’t need to be told that; it’s nigh impossible to go a day without hearing of some kind of tragedy or evil happening in a different part of the world. It can be a bit overwhelming, with the people in power seemingly either too incompetent to bring any real solutions or actively in favor of the negative state of the planet. If only we had heroes dedicated to destroying tyrannical governments and inciting real change, right?

Well, we do. Meet: The Tomorrow People.

Brent Bronze and XHEF, hailing from Houston and New Jersey respectively, make up one of the most interesting music duos I have ever had the pleasure of familiarizing myself with. Their production is incredibly gripping, and the rapping is somehow even more so. These two are seemingly unfamiliar with the concept of filler in their raps; every lyric serves whatever message they are conveying and boy do they convey a message. This is most definitely not lost on their most recent joint effort, “TMRW.PPL 2: ESC FROM TMRW”. The project sees the characters we were introduced to from the first TMRW.PPL project continue their adventures, toppling tyrants and starting revolutions across the space-time continuum, but there’s an element of haste, paranoia and a tinge of fear right from the start. The Tomorrow People are in trouble, and it’s not looking good for our heroes. The Music reflects this mood in turn, complementing the frantic rapping of Bronze and XHEF perfectly with the way the beat and sample sound almost like they’re trying to avoid something themselves. soon, we’re crash-landing and trying to avoid some bounty hunters that want the Tomorrow People dead by any means necessary.

I won’t spoil you on what happens, as I believe you should check this out yourself, but this album is quite the rollercoaster of emotions, lyrically and sonically. The highs are as high as they can be, and the lows hit you so hard in the gut that you forget your emotions are about fictional characters. Brent Bronze and XHEF’s production is incredibly layered and well put-together, and their chemistry is plain to hear for anyone who has ears. I was incredibly enthralled with all the cool cadences and flows throughout this project as well, there’s no dull moments in that department and XHEF especially really flexes his cadence muscle to great effect. Brent is never outshone though and his slick rhymes and quick wit are on full display throughout the album.

My biggest praise definitely has to go with the imagery elicited by this project. I could imagine a whole science fiction movie through the music alone, and that’s not something I think I have ever said about an album before. The world that Bronze and XHEF create feels extremely real, and I was genuinely sad to leave it when the 29 minutes and 44 seconds were up.

In terms of negatives, I don’t really have anything major to say. There was one or two moments that i felt might make casual listeners a bit uninterested, but I think the overall experience is so rewarding that it cancels out completely. I think the project could’ve done with being longer to really get deeper into the concepts it was exploring and the emotions our protagonists were feeling, but this is just a minor critique of an otherwise pretty lovely project. I’m fully on the road to TMRW,

Follow Tomorrow People: twitter.com/FeelLoInc 

Stream ESC FROM TMRW: open.spotify.com/album/5C7PhmfDfpkUTTg9g6hLGU?si=4pS06bLzQ4Wk0FxcrN90oQ 

Written By Young J: twitter.com/ihateyoungj