Tokyo-born Oakland rapper Lyrics Born’s new album Vision Board is a trip. Like you brewed up some mushroom tea (now decriminalized in Oakland!) and tried climbing Mount Everest in your alligator boots type of trip. You can take for granted that humor will take center stage on any Lyrics Born album, or that it’ll be fun and funky, but Vision Board adds an imaginative and psychedelic twist to the usual winning formula. Due to pandemic confinement and the sad turn America took towards anti-Asian hate, Tom Shimura turned inward and transported himself artistically and creatively out into the universe, “like a self-imposed dissociation.” It’s an exhilarating set of detailed sonic explorations, an edible in music form.
