Cali rap heavyweights LMNO, MED, and Declaime have joined forces to spit blunted tales, make wack emcees tremble, and showcase their lyrical gifts as the group LMD. And for their debut release, Flying High, theyve called on another longtime collaboratornone other than living production legend Madlibto produce the entire project. He provides his signature mind-bending instrumentals for his rapping cohorts, and the result is an organic, expertly crafted slice of hip-hop.

Flying High is the embodiment of that smoked-out, spiritually inclined boom-bap youd want from this trio, with a few surprises along the way. You may also catch a contact high from a few of these cuts, because you can almost smell the weed smoke on Flying High and The Cypher. There are strong hits of soulful funk on the album, too, like the DJ Romes-assisted Super, as well as smoothed-out burners, like Kool, which features raps from Fly Anakin and scratches from J Rocc.

When they began to create the roots of Flying High in the mid-2010s, the three emcees hit the studio together with the shared belief that they needed to shake up the rap game by restoring the cultures essence. And through plenty of trial and errorand bags of weedLMD was inevitably formed in the way we get to hear them today. To say the wait was worth it would be a massive understatement, because this crew of hip-hop greats has certainly outdone themselves.