After what seemed to be months of delay, Schoolboy Q made his triumphant return to the rap scene with Oxymoron on February 25. Featuring several guest appearances and riddled with gritty and gruesome verses, Oxymoron shows the sinister side of the otherwise laid-back rapper.

Quincy Hanley is no stranger to the danger that is the underworld of rap; he grew up in the infamous South Central Los Angeles neighborhood after living his first three years of life in Texas. For almost a century, South Central has been a breeding ground for gangs and hostile relations, and as a result is producing some of the most vicious and “this-is-my-life” esque rappers. Schoolboy Q’s story doesn’t stray very far from the norm.

From a young age, Hanley was dabbling into troubling habits starting his early assent into the gang banging lifestyle at the ripe age of 12. Living on Hoover Street, he was quickly assimilated into the dangerous lifestyle the street gang St. Hoover 52 Crips provoked. Q made his push into this life by pushing, he was a widespread drug dealer, his drug of choice being Oxycontin but also slinging crack and marijuana. Quincy did extremely well in school regardless of this fact, obtaining a 3.3 GPA in high school and proved to be a star football player for his local college, West Los Angeles University. His senior year, however, proved to be his decline in the academic world but fueled his new passion for the spoken word.

At the young age of 21, Quincy Hanley was arrested for a case he refuses to disclose but a high enough offense to receive a felony charge. He was sentenced to six months jail time, but half of it was served on house arrest. It was this influential moment that pushed him into the rap world that he is finally starting to firmly get a grasp of.

Shortly before this run in with the law, Hanley realized that he needed an outlet for his experiences he’d be through, and to him, the studio was that outlet. Through a few strokes of luck, Q came in contact with Top Dog Entertainment, and this is really where things took off. Mixtapes built the throne that Q is soon to be sitting in, and forging a relationship with fellow new era rapper Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock and Ab-Soul the foundation for a new enterprise that is now TDE was born.

After massive  success with early mixtapes and rigorous touring, Schoolboy Q’s name was becoming a more frequently mentioned in the rap realm. One thing was left to be desired: a professionally mastered, major label full scale album and in 2014, the masses received just that.

Just from a look at the cover art, one can see Q glaring at his audience with his signature bucket hat, and after a glance at the deluxe edition cover of Q adorning a white ski mask with a menacing glare, you get a real sense of what you’re in for when the music plays. Q’s efforts were clearly put into producing this defining album as his hallmark album, which in turn brought some major firepower in terms of guests verses from the likes of label-mates Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock as well as 2Chainz and Tyler, The Creator and even Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon. After a few listens, you can clearly sense the level of effort and certainly polish that came with this album.

The opening track paints the picture of the harsh realities of gang life with the track “Gangsta” where Q isn’t afraid to tell you he’s going to kill your friends, he’s going to be messed up and he won’t feel bad about it either. This is a common theme throughout most of the album, spitting verses on gang life, the crime mentality and what seems to be a lack of compassion for human life. Regardless of how accurate these stories are, they certainly paint a seemingly otherworldly view of urban warfare raging in the streets of America. Paying homage to his gang life, “Hoover Street” pushes back in time, recollecting on events of Q’s childhood when he would roam the streets seemingly in search of trouble. In one line he even goes on to say “everyone of us had a gun in the room” at his grandmother’s house and openly speaks on violence issues with the police saying, “The little Piggy went to the market, the little Piggy carry chrome,” referring to the fact that police are always armed and always prepared to pull the trigger.

In the song “Prescription/Oxymoron” Q gives first hand accounts of a day of prescription drug abuse and in the latter half of the song gives a drug dealers view of the drug. He speaks on the effects of not being able to comprehend everyday life due to his overuse and even utilizes a  sound bites from his daughter in the song of her finding him on the ground asleep and how he can’t even answer phone calls because of his inebriation. Later in the song, the whole vibe of the song switches up with the blaring snare beats with deep piano and room shaking bass overlayed with fast firing bars of recollected drug deals and trying to avoid police while on his dealing runs. The hook then goes on to blair “Just stopped selling crack today, O-X-Y, a moron.” This leads perfectly into the next song on the list, “The Purge” which depicts the gruesome details of collecting money from deals and what happens when the money isn’t there. Q recruited the help of Odd Future frontman Tyler, The Creator who produced the track and offers his talents for the chorus, as well as fellow rapper Kurupt attributing a verse. Q released his street angst with lines “five shots run out, five bodies falling, come put your lights out, I spark your apartment” which really shows the gang grit of Q’s mentality, unafraid to kill you and take everything you have.

This isn’t completely a “rider music” anthem album, with radio hits “Collard Greens” featuring fellow TDE frontman Kendrick Lamar and “Man of the Year” both party jams. These songs seems to hit on the money aspect of gangbanging, rapping about how pretty much anything they desire is right at the tips of their fingers. It’s almost as if he threw a splash of glamour into the album to try to show that gangbanging can be a prosperous affair.

Regardless of the view one has on the troubling streets, this album creates an almost shock horror look at the trials of growing up in the violence ridden neighborhoods of LA. This is a guaranteed must listen for the fans of the spoken word and despite the overwhelming drive of bass and blaring gun sounds riddled in the tracks, the stories told over the top of the tracks are certainly admirable and worth more than a listen, as each time one can catch a little bit more of his stories. As many would come to expect, Oxymoron earned an explicit content label for graphic content and explicit language riddled throughout. Oxymoron is available on iTunes as well as several retail locations.