Senseless takes things in stride on ‘Good Luck, I Hear You’

Good Luck, I Hear You wasn’t supposed to be the next Senseless album.

For years, the Columbus rapper has chipped away on a different record called In Lieu of Flowers, which he said is rooted in part on the finite nature of existence and the need to celebrate those closest to us in the limited time we have here on Earth. “And maybe it’s also about killing off the old parts of you,” continued Senseless, born Jacob Engle. “The stuff that’s just taking up the space you need to grow.”

The songs populating Good Luck, I Hear You, out today (Friday, Nov. 14) via Soulspazm, tread comparatively playful ground, serving as something of an extended exhale amid the ongoing In Lieu of Flowers sessions. Witness “The Owww,” a song inspired by an exclamation frequently offered by producer, friend, and mentor Bombay. “When he likes something, he’ll send an email back that just says owwwww!” said Senseless, who will celebrate his new album with a listening party at the Oracle on Friday, Nov. 21. “So, I just wanted to write something about believing in the owwww. It’s just something simple and fun, and it makes me laugh.”

This is a free-spirited lesson that the rapper has learned to apply to his pursuit of music, allowing that a decade into his creative existence he’s finally reached a point where he’s given up on the idea that “if I do this one thing, then this will happen,” as he explained it. “I don’t have this expectation or this quid pro quo, transactional thing. … I’m doing it for me more now than ever. And maybe that was the struggle before, because at one point in my life maybe I didn’t love myself enough to say, ‘Hey, you’re allowed to do this for you.’”

The tracks on Senseless’ latest reflect this new sense of ease, with the rapper giving the songs additional space to breathe rather than packing each beat with syllable-dense wordplay. As “Greatness Right” kicks off, his flow practically reclines before gradually accelerating against the track’s patient, molasses thick beat. Then there’s “Buck Fifty,” where the emcee adopts a relaxed, near-conversational tone as he lingers on the importance of living in the now. Similar themes surface in the soulful, piano-laced “Airplane,” with Senseless rapping about the need to embrace each moment before we’re returned to the dirt.

Elsewhere, the rapper wrangles with his sense of identity (“Who Am I”), breezes through sun-kissed vibe sessions (“Everything Is Cool”), and navigates the end of a relationship with maturity and mutual respect intact. “The hurt was not in our plans,” he sighs on “Loner.” “What we found was a comfort and soft place to land.”

“Listening to albums like Living on Land or A Bunch of Nonsense or any of that earlier stuff … that kid hadn’t had his heart broken yet. You know what I mean?” Senseless said. “It’s like every day you look at yourself in the mirror, and you don’t notice the changes until you see that one person who’s known you your whole life and they’re like, ‘Wow, you’ve grown so much.’ … But even more than that, I think there was a part of me that was maybe afraid to be the silly person I know I like to be. It was like, man, if I’m silly about it, then no one is going to take me seriously. And really, it’s like, who gives a shit? I think I’m enjoying it more now than I ever have, and I think I’m more thankful for it.”

Senseless traced the development of this more carefree attitude to freedom afforded by working in the home studio he built in his Franklin Park apartment early in Covid. Half-jokingly dubbed Infinite Takes, the space has allowed the rapper to write and record in the moment, with daily sessions lessening the weight he once ascribed to the song making process.

“And now, there are songs I make that I know aren’t going to be on any record,” said Senseless, who acknowledged that the tracks that would eventually become Good Luck, I Hear You emerged at a time he was working absent expectation and in the spirit of play. “We were almost in that flow state, you know what I mean? Where it felt like we were just cutting up in traffic, but in a way that wasn’t putting anyone in danger.”

Of course, none of this has lessened Senseless’ drive, and he already has a name and concept in mind for the project that will follow In Lieu of Flowers (tentatively titled We Are Not a Car Crash). It has however evolved his ambitions, the rapper describing himself as content with continuing to create art that resonates with the people who happen upon it regardless of the scale. “There used to be that dream, like, aw, man, I’m gonna get on,” he said. “And now it’s like, I’ll keep going back to my little apartment in Franklin Park, writing raps and making songs. Then I’ll go see how my mom is doing with the dog or call my pops. And if people give a shit enough to listen to it, fuck, that’s cool, man. I’ll be doing it anyway.”