“Introducing the most critically acclaimed musical masterpiece of the century!” an anonymous and appropriately portentous voice announces at the beginning of this, the debut sampler of sorts from local hip-hop crew Soul Avenger. This opening is the kind of move designed to get attention and while you might have already guessed that these five didn’t accidentally come out of nowhere and improve upon Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, it’s still noteworthy—a NOLA crew that has nothing to do with bounce and one which finally leaves all that No Limit and Cash Money history behind.

This probably had something to do with the clique’s decidedly Post-K nature—the best flow here comes from CPF, a Philly transplant. But then there’s Mystah Beez, a vet out of Harvey, holding down the hood end of things; Jimi King as the resident scrub berserker; and Dhray Cruise, the new blood, who necessarily gets to have the trap track to himself (“My Own Lane”). The gang’s flows don’t always cohere with each other, in the same way that the heavily R&B nature of the production doesn’t always lend itself to the crew when they go hard. But the production is tight and there’s definitely enough here to suggest that Dhray and CPF, in particular, have the potential to get some national exposure. As to whether this unit can fully reclaim the Dirty South crown, that’s gonna depend on whether they can carve out their own niche. Their willingness to think next gen is a good start, though.