Atlanta-based rapper Kilo was just 17 when he started his career, and his novel MCing approach distinguished him. While other Atlanta rappers imitated either the party- and car-centric rhymes of Miami Bass or dropped their accents to affect a Rakim-like monotone, Kilo developed a freewheeling, defiantly Southern style that would profoundly influence the development of the Atlanta underground in the ‘90s. Kilo’s first two records—America Has a Problem and A-Town Rush—were full of bracingly original rhymes but featured beats that were somewhat derivative of Miami Bass or New York boom bap. Kilo’s third album, Bluntly Speaking, boasts innovative production work that finally starts to rival his rhymes in terms of inventiveness and sheer originality. All of Bluntly Speaking is exceptional, but the album could be ranked a classic simply on the basis of “Tick Tock”: an eerie disquisition on the passage of time with a striking metaphysical bent that anticipates the soul-searching rhymes of Atlanta legends like OutKast and Goodie Mob.