Absolutely thrilled to follow up my release party by sharing this gorgeous, life-affirming banger of a tune I made with the brothers Thorn, Bradley (Notion) and Craig (Cee), and Digital Junkie, who did the crispy scratch chorus. Another victory for the Sons of Boombap crew, and for The Movement Fam, and most assuredly for me, stealin’ this jam by singing like Nate Dogg and talm bout getting zooted an’ blasting the Sugababes. Them Aussie c—ts do the damn thang up proper too – I particularly like Nosh Dawg’s verse, which is simple but lands with oomph, and I dig Cee’s positivity on the second verse too. Bright, bouncy, soulful, optimistic, fun rap music. Give it a listen! #RhinoSalute!

Track List:

1. We Will No Longer Retreat Into Darkness
2. Establishing Shot (ft. Big Rube)
3. Blue Suit Pimpin’
4. Stay Up
5. Resplendent (ft. D-Sisive & Prince Po)
6. Every Atom
7. How Ya Like That (ft. Ultra Magnus & Donny Yonder)
8. Front Row Seat (ft. Carlos Ford)
9. Wolves In The Cellar (ft. Adam Bomb)
10. The One You Need
11. The Shit That Will Fuck You Up (ft. Myka 9)
12. Sons of the Boulevard (ft. OG Big Mike & Illvibe)
13. Basically Jesus (ft. Jesse Dangerously, I Am Joseph, More Or Les & Cam James)
14. ‘Til The Lights Go Out (ft. Big Rube & Witchdoctor)
15. Wonderful Thing (ft. The Divine Sweetness Singers)
16. The Royal We

Defckon produced tracks 2 and 11
Remot produced tracks 3, 6, 8, 14, and 16
Digs produced tracks 4, 9, and 13
MisterE produced track 5
Red Dot produced track 7
Measuring Man produced track 10
Tokyo Cigar produced track 12
Michael Nosratolláh Ferguson produced track 15

The Divine Sweetness Singers are Nancy Dinnigan, Alina Akiba Gershuny-Jadduroy, Madelyne Maingot, Kathryn Merriam, Rachel Alicia Nadira Naipaul, Esther Townshend, Jennie Worden, Dorona Mia Zierler, and Zell “Papa Rhino” Goodbaum!
Divine Sweetness Singers choir conducted by Marie-Josée “MJ” Cyr
Divine Sweetness Singers recorded by Michael Nosratolláh Ferguson at the Toronto Baha’i Centre

Notion recorded Rhino’s vocals on 1, 2, 7, 11, 12 and 14, and mixed 1, 2, 7, 9, 11 and 12 at IllNote Studios, Scarborough
Measuring Man recorded Rhino’s vocals on 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15 and 16, and mixed 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15 and 16 at Silverbirch Productions, Toronto

Album mastered by Andy Krehm at Silverbirch Mastering, Toronto

Photograph by Steve Kean

Art Design by Andy P. Quinlan

O YE FRIENDS! It is I, the splendiferous Mighty Rhino, and I am so very proud to announce the release of the first official single from my second album, We Will No Longer Retreat Into Darkness! “Resplendent” is a face-melting buss-ya-shit-open banger supreme, featuring one of my best-ever verses, stellar support from Toronto’s own D-Sisive and the legendary Prince Po of East Coast titans Organized Konfusion, and a beat from MisterE of the Backburner crew that’s so clutch I caint eane *say* to you how fuckin’ mint the thang is! D-Sisive, a two-time Juno nominee and the leading light of Canada’s hip-hop avant-garde, supplies me with a vivid and unforgettable high-art masterwork of a verse, a short story in a 16, an’ the grand man Po brings his illustrious, time-honoured superscientifical style to the table, cracking jokes and kicking flavour with a special OG’s élan all his own. An’ as for me, I damn near steal my own show, thundering around like a rabid elephant (or indeed my own namesake) and shouting out Wilson Pickett, Big Pun, Dennis Farina, Sam & Dave, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Bill Withers, and Drake in an action-packed, stunningly glorious 16. I am so proud of this earth-shattering, atom-smashing song! I can’t wait to rock and shock the party and your eardrums with the wonderful, beautiful, explosive, instant classic single “Resplendent”!

Just finished my first thorough listen to the superb new album by my dear friend and Hand Solo Records labelmate Jesse Dangerously! It’s Jesse’s first full-length project since 2011’s remarkable Humble & Brilliant, and this time he’s part of a rapper/producer duo with another deeply gifted Nova Scotia motherfucker, the wonderful Ambition! They’ve called themselves The Library Steps, in tribute to their early rap stomping grounds. On first listen, this album contains at least three of Jesse’s best-ever songs – “Well Wishers” with his cousin illGil, the gorgeous and moving “Lush Karma”, and the stirring cri de coeur “GJHS (Genocide Junior High School)”, which excoriates the nightmarish historical villain Edward Cornwallis and the British colonial authorities for their campaigns of terrorism against the Mi’kmaq in K’jipuktuk. Jesse has always been a more stalwart leftist and more informed and committed intersectional feminist than I am, and here again he displays his razor-sharp anticolonial political acuity in a very intentionally discomfiting and challenging song.

And I would be remiss not to point out that I joined the Backburner boys – Jesse, Timbuktu, Chokeules, Wordburglar, More Or Les, and an on-fire Savilion, excellent as always – for a hoedown posse cut over a classic Boot Camp Clik/Mobb Deep-style downcast dark-skies beat, albeit enlivened by some beautiful saxophone playing from Emmanuel Kwame Aouad.

I, John Khan the Don, Long John Fontaine, the Royal Falcon, the Light of Ozu, the Rashomon Bandit, none other than Mr. Motherfuckin’ Mighty Rhino, am honoured, delighted, chuffed to present you all with what is, next to “Company Policy”, arguably my finest hour on wax to date, my second album’s stirring, atom-smashing, galvanizing, electrifying, finna-run-right-the-fuck-outta-adjectives closer, “The Royal We”! Two minutes and twenty-four seconds of a raw, overpowering tour de force, 32 razor-sharp, devastating bars that take the “Mission Statement” formula and shoot it up at the stars, contemplating beauty, glory, truth, and ultimately the heavenly realms of God Himself. “The Royal We” is filth and joy, open blasphemy alongside the heights of reverence, Al-Hallaj cookin’ with the Based God; if I dare say so myself, it is a wonderful and mesmerizing and unforgettable rap song, and it deserves to be heard. #RhinoSalute. Much love to you all!

Hello Friends! I had a good day on my birthday, but the party ain’t over yet, my people! Oh no! I have uploaded no fewer than three songs from my smash hit second album, We Will No Longer Retreat Into Darkness, and they is now on the Cloud of Sound for your listening pleasure. Holy shit, wow! I’m so excited! I’m so happy you can hear:

-the gleefully ribald sex romp “The One You Need”, in which producer The Measuring Man executes the most perfect sample-flip of all time on one of my favourite soul songs, 1970s Chairmen of the Board smash “Since the Days of Pigtails”, and which features hip-hop’s only Steve Reich joke ever.