Sometimes the answer to a thought-provoking question is found in the asking. Halfway though the latest Armand Hammer release Mercy , the seventh studio LP from the duo fronted by billy woods and ELUCID, the former rapper reminds listeners of that simple truth with a query that serves as the thesis for the album but also for the ages.

"'What's the role of a poet in times like these?'" he raps on "Dogeared" over the high-pitched drone of an Alchemist beat, relaying the details of a friendly grilling, perhaps from a potential suitor, over drinks. What follows next is a master class in the art of storytelling as woods proceeds to deliver a vignette in one verse, bending time as only he can with a stream-of-consciousness flow full of sensory observations and free association, while narrating

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