Nobody Planning To Leave is the new album from Curly Castro and PremRock aka ShrapKnel, fully produced by Controller 7. Featuring Open Mike Eagle, Onry Ozzborn, Lungs, Breezly Brewin, D-Styles (of the legendary Beat Junkies), and ELUCID, title represents a duality. Both a boastful claim and also a resigned recognition. Sometimes you’re planting your flag and sometimes you’re acknowledging that it’s all ultimately out of your control. With the exception of a few cases, nobody plans to leave. Nobody plans to abandon their passion either. Usually the slow grind of necessity chooses that for you. What started as a few DMs between Castro and Controller 7 in 2021 slowly morphed into a fully fleshed opus.

Close your eyes and imagine De La Soul is Dead if the Plugs were steeped in the murky tea of the early aughts independent scene. It’s a propulsive, cohesive listen, that finds the rappers forging new ground both sonically and stylistically. The first ShrapKnel LP was wind, a self-titled sheer force that awoke the masses to the New. The second album was fire, forged in a Metal Lung, seasoned by smoke and libation alike. This third offering is earth, rooted in our influences, from soil-turned-vines-turned blades that scale the highest of structures.