KXNG CROOKED sees that we are in a time where music needs to serve as a voice of commentary about current events. He is taking matters into his own hands with the Good vs. Evil album, which the Slaughterhouse member announces exclusively through HipHopDX.

“I feel like the project is much needed,” KXNG CROOKED says in an exclusive interview. “I think we need to have some more conversations than Hip Hop. Some more political conversations, some more conversations about police, the relationship between the community and the police, more conversations about politicians and their pandering and what they will really do and conversations about laws that are really just designed to attack the inner city and the minorities. I think it’s time to start having those conversations. So this album is for the grown up people and I think it’s going to shake a few things up because it’s raw and edgy. It’s unapologetic.”

Good vs. Evil is a “fictional story that mirrors reality,” the rapper formerly known as Crooked I says. It is to have guest celebrities provide narration to the story, which follows a “rebel leader in a parallel world.” The project will serve as a voice in the midst of a society where Donald Trump is running to be president and the nation just suffered its deadliest mass shooting in its history.

The LP, which comes after KXNG CROOKED’s Statik Kxng collaboration with Statik Selektah, is in mixing and mastering and is scheduled for release in late August. This should also be around the same time that his American Idol-esque competition, One Shot airs nationwide on BET. He says that the sense of purpose this album carries is what he looks for when analyzing other rappers. The Long Beach MC says that the sense of purpose that this album carries is what he looks for when analyzing other rappers.

“I remember when music reflected what was going on,” he says. “Now you can have people protesting a Hilary Clinton rally or burning a flag outside of a Trump rally and then walk across the street to a rap concert talking about money and hoes. It doesn’t match. If you’re not talking about the times nowhere in your music, then you’re not a real artist to me.”