With his sprawling XL debut No Mountains in Manhattan, Wiki seemed primed to break out of the NYC underground he had spent so long toiling in, but the years that followed would prove tumultuous. He formed the indie rap supergroup Secret Circle with Lil Ugly Mane and Antwon but disbanded it in disgust after Antwon was accused of sexual assault, shelving years of work in the process. And he left XL Recordings—the British label that signed him to his first record deal with his group Ratking—releasing his last song for them (“Cheat Code”) in February.

So while Oofie is Wiki’s second full length, it finds the 26-year-old MC weary, reflective, and somewhat mature. The gap-toothed hoodrat who used to revel in drunken debauchery now favors nights at home with his girl and their cats. He sounds almost contrite recounting the night in Stockholm when, hyped off a DMX song, he punched a window out in a club and spent a night in jail (“Dame Aquí”).

His last LP was a high-water mark, distilling concepts he’d been exploring his whole career into a clear and forceful statement. But he’d become disillusioned with life at the label that launched Adele’s career and counts Radiohead and Sigur Ros among its roster, telling DJ Booth he felt like “a small fish in a big sea.” Rather than shop for a new label, he went independent, availing himself of his old label’s basement studio as he got to work returning to basics, which for Wiki means beats and bars, as raw as possible.

If NMIM was Wiki’s magnum opus, Oofie is just some rap songs. It’s less ambitious but just as focused, with tight, diaristic raps and vignettes and grimy production. His departure from XL seems to have been amicable; Much of the album was recorded at XL’s studio in Manhattan by the label’s in-house producer Alex Epton, but Brooklyn’s Tony Seltzer makes frequent appearances (“Pesto,” “4 Clove Club,” “Back Then,” and “Dame Aquí”), as does the drummer Michul Kuun, who performs as NAH. The muddy production is sparse but never simplistic, often disguising nuance that reveals itself on repeated listens, like the security alarm on “Downfall,” or the tamboura lurking in the shadow of a squeaky trumpet on “Freaks.”

Lyrically, Wiki seems to hint at a mid-life crisis, which sounds strange until you realize he’s been recording since he was in high school. He laments how critical acclaim doesn’t always equal a massive audience (“Reviews strong, not enough views on the songs,” he raps on “Pesto”), and notes on “Promises” that he can’t afford to rest on his laurels (“I still ain't made enough for my ass just to stay indoors”). New York City is still a main character, but he’s not so much crowing about the city’s supremacy as he is artfully exploring its mundane details with a microscope, the minutiae that makes it unique, the signifiers of what makes it his home as well as his muse. The sentiment is clearest on “Back Then,” in which he resists the urge to romanticize its past at the expense of its future, joining Queens’ Lansky Jones in reminiscing on both the good (“We knew the delis that sold you brew”) and bad (“You never got ass then/You was always sad then”).

If there’s any disappointment to Oofie, it’s that it finds Wiki running in place, flexing his considerable lyrical chops without extending himself. In a way, it’s a step back from his debut, though that step is clearly intentional—an attempt to shake off the pressures of a label while he figures out his next steps. The record would likely feel stronger if sequenced with some of the loosies he’s dropped in 2019, namely the filthy Madlib production “Eggs” or “Fee Fi Fo Fum.” But that would seem almost beside the point. If the album has any concept, it’s one of perspective; those songs are in the past, and Wiki’s gaze is firmly planted forward. Because as strong as it is, Oofie still feels transitional, a waystation for a rapper still plotting his next move.