Ajai

There’s a moment on the low-key, exquisitely detailed collaboration between Chicago MC Serengeti and producer Kenny Segal in which Ajai—an young Indian man smitten with rare streetwear—blows a night in Paris with his wife by obsessing over how he might get a stain out of a pair of sneakers (“Romantic Paris”). But such are Ajai’s fixations—the dude can’t help himself. By the time he misses his flight because he can’t settle on an outfit (“You look fine, Ajai!” his wife calls through the bathroom door—painful), you probably saw it coming (“Ajai Finale”). And while the subject is fashion, Ajai’s metaphorical journey—should we grant him hero status—cuts a swath through questions of consumerism, self-expression, and the hilariously misguided ways we try to belong. Segal, whose work with Billy Woods and R.A.P. Ferreira has been some of the more exciting underground hip-hop of the 2010s, seems to get Ajai intuitively: The beats are internal, knotty, a jazzy inner monologue by a guy whose attention always cycles back to the same sorry spot. It’s a funny, possibly therapeutic listen for anyone who’s ever blown an afternoon (or a paycheck) scouring the internet for that object of their desire. And if you know what the words “Balenciaga Triple S” or “Doernbecher 8s” mean, even better.

The absurdly detailed new album from the Chicago rapper delves into the compulsions of its titular sneakerhead character over rich production from Kenny Segal.