Here at Stereogum, we haven't done enough to keep up with Boldy James prodigious 2025 output. To be fair, nobody else has, either. It's impossible. The Detroit underground rap legend is currently on the sort of run that put prime Robert Pollard to shame. Thus far in 2025, Boldy James has released six albums, all of them full-length collabs with different producers -- Murder During Drug Traffic with RichGains and Permanent Ink with Royal House in January, Token Of Appreciation with Chuck Strangers in February, Hommage with Antt Beatz in March, Alphabet Highway with V Don in April, Conversational Pieces with Real Bad Man just two weeks ago. (That last one is probably my favorite.) Now, he's got another EP arriving next week. He doesn't stop.
Last year, Boldy James teamed up with a producer named Your Boy Posca for an album called 1LB. Now, Boldy and Posca are back together on a new EP called Magnolia Leflore. It's got five songs and then instrumental versions of those same five songs. On opening track "Nancy Botwin," named after Mary-Louise Parker's character from the show Weeds, Boldy goes into his familiar stoic criminal-memories mutter over a laid-back smooth-jazz loop. It sounds like a Boldy James track, and that's always a good thing. It ain't broke, and he ain't fixing it. Listen below.
The Magnolia Leflore EP is out 5/23 on Near Mint.
