It’s been more than a minute since we’ve heard from Nipsey Hussle. But the Los Angeles representative and former XXL Freshman is back, focused and spitting with intent on his The Marathon Continues mixtape.

From the jump, Nipsey dives right in, reminding listeners why they fucked with him in the first place on opening tracks “Road To Riches” and “Who Detached Us.”

The latter has Hussle introspectively spitting, “I ain’t no Christian, I ain’t no Catholic/But I believe that God gonna shine his light on anyone who never had shit/I need some answers to these questions that I’m asking/We used to be connected, who detached us? We used to be respected, now they laughing/We’ve turned into possessions with no passion/How we go from the best to less than average?/We used to be connected, who detached us?”

The track also brilliantly samples an incredibly moving speech about death by late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Quite a way to fade out a track.

Nipsey keeps the heat coming, slicing through the meat of this mixtape, before finishing up strong on “Tha Mansion” and “Outro.”

The former has the lanky MC, with a resemblance to Snoop Dogg, slickly declaring, “Money first, women second and you hoes is last/Because I don’t want to fuck if I know I can/And yeah you gotta butt, but your soul is wack/Coke bottle, but the soda’s flat/Style like the plastic on a sofa set/And run and tell your homegirls I told you that.”

Overall, the 14-track offering with limited features definitely does its share of reintroducing fans with Nipsey’s nasty skill set and should have listeners still craving his long-awaited debut. The Marathon Continues. —Mark Lelinwalla

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