Gold Mouf (Deluxe)

With his earnest everyman lyricism, Charlotte rapper Lute sounded like the second coming of J. Cole on his 2017 debut, *West 1996, Pt. 2*. (Cole wasn’t one to argue—after hearing the project, he signed Lute to his Dreamville imprint.) But on his sophomore album, *Gold Mouf*, Lute builds a bridge to another generation of North Carolina hip-hop. The record is executive produced by Big Pooh of Little Brother, the influential indie-rap group from Durham, and sequenced by Pooh’s bandmate Phonte, both of whom make rare appearances on the romantic ode “Amen.” The album, which also features labelmates JID and Ari Lennox, finds Lute reflecting on newfound fame (“Changes”) and fatherhood (“Life”), while the six bonus tracks on this deluxe edition play like his victory lap, albeit one as modest as his writing. As he raps on “Like Wine”: “We been eatin\' just not in your face/I ain\'t the type.”