Brooklyn, New York emcee Ja’king the Divine retuning a year & a half after his 3rd album Parables of the Sower with his 5th EP. Introducing himself off his first 3 EPs Growing Pains as well as The Marvelous R7ght Wrist & Pray for New York, his last one Paint Chips came in April 2021 & he released his full-length debut Delusions of Grandeur 4 months later. The sophomore effort 手术: Black Sun Tzu the next summer would receive significant acclaim giving him wider exposure within the underground, raising the stakes for Children of the Scorned.

“Minstrel Show” is a soulful boom bap kickstarter talking about this shit being as different as it is whereas “Negro Spiritual” continues the soul sampling thrown in with kicks & snares refusing to lose or give up. “Aim at the Embassy” gives off a tenser boom bap vibe flexing that he’ll disgrace the American flag for the sole purpose of choking a skinhead & “A Shape of Things to Come” hops over another soul sample talking about change on the rise.

Moving on from there, “Idiom” warns over strings that he’ll decapitate anyone who tempers with his crown while “Public Enemy” strips the drums completely talking about striking the eardrums with a death note & warning that he’ll sign treaties to blow your whole vicinity. “Ward of the State” soulfully cautioning that we’re nearing the end while “Bambi Redd” jazzily demonstrates how word made a powerful man. After the “Youngnturnt” interlude, “Killer’s of the Flower Moon” ends with a flute asking what’s an artist with no torch or soul.

Children of the Scorned on the contrary to 手术: Black Sun Tzu speaks directly towards the black diaspora & the angst among the youth culture in America. He details some of his own battles with love, trust, alienation, self deprivation, discipline, addiction, frustration with our culture & the wavering will to carry on the weight of the world as a black man with trauma in a scathing society backed by production that balances boom bap & drumless including samples of both jazz & soul music.

Score: 8/10