Apollo1 – “RELEASE”

Apollo1’s album “RELEASE” is a 21-track project that does not waste any time pretending to be something it is not. This is personal music made by someone who clearly had a lot to say and finally found a way to say it. Ten years of experience, heartbreak, and a real battle with substance abuse all poured into one record. From the vocals to the production, everything is perfect here.

The whole thing was recorded out of Apollo1’s bedroom studio in Durham, North Carolina, with his longtime collaborator Zenlee handling production on roughly half the beats and handling all the mixing and mastering. The DIY setup does not hold it back at all. The result is polished enough to feel complete without losing any of the raw emotion that makes the album worth listening to in the first place. Having childhood friends like Nic main, C9, Zenlee, and St. Raichu show up on features adds another layer to a project that already has a strong sense of community around it. My favorites are “Fade Away”, “Still Alive”, “Down On Me”, and “Rolloin Round”.

Apollo1 draws from a wide pool of influences, from Eminem to Juice WRLD to Mac Miller, and you can hear traces of all of them without the album ever feeling like an impression. His approach of building the beat first and letting the feeling of the instrumental guide the lyrics makes a real difference. The songs have a natural emotional flow to them that a lot of rapper-first, producer-second projects tend to miss.

This is a promising release that earns its runtime. If you want to understand the full picture, go back and check out his earlier work too. Follow Apollo1 to keep up with whatever he has coming next this year.