Another Triumph of Ghetto Engineering

The album was announced on August 4, with a release date set for August 25 by Eagle's label Auto Reverse Records.[1] The announcement came with the lead single, "WFLD 32", featuring Still Rift, Video Dave, and Hannibal Buress under his rap alias Eshu Tune,[1] and produced by Kenny Segal.[2] Eagle also revealed the track list and the cover art, a photograph Eagle took of his mother's hand, and put out a press release saying "In the ghetto we never stop toiling! These songs are all fancy ways of saying 'fuck you' to people that ignore us and 'thank you' to people that care if we live or die!"[1]

The album's title first appeared on a print illustrated by McKay Felt, which was part of an exclusive vinyl release of Eagle's previous album, Component System with the Auto Reverse.[3] Eagle recorded the album in his home studio which he calls Office Space Studios IV.[4]

The album's production has been described as imbued with "a tuneful woozy quality"[5] and being "sample-heavy and hypnotically lethargic."[3] Instrumentals on the album include "WFLD 32"'s "hypnotic horn loop",[1] "I Bled on Stage at First Ave"'s "muffled electric guitar solo"[3] and "thick trip-hop beat",[6] and "We Should Have Made Otherground a Thing" leaning into tropicália.[5]

HipHopDX's Will Schube said the album's central theme was "the hard, often unrewarded work of Black artists everywhere", and called the album "a celebration of rap, of its beauty and brokenness, of those at the top of the game and those gone too soon to ever reach a peak."[7] The Fader's Nadine Smith called the album "an ode to the resilience of the working musician", seeing Eagle "in an even more reflective mood than usual, looking back at the singular and slightly surreal road his career has taken over the last decade, from freestyle cyphers and house shows to Comedy Central and wrestling rings."[6] Yousef Srour of Pitchfork describes the album as "an ode to the music and memories that shaped Eagle's own character and career".[3]

Much of the album sees Eagle tributing fellow rappers and other hip hop figures. "Dave Said These Are the Liner Notes" consists entirely of Eagle shouting out his mentors, mentees, and peers.[7] Other songs include references to Quelle Chris,[6] Wu-Tang Clan,[7] OJ da Juiceman,[7] Thundercat,[3] Dumbfoundead,[3] and Kenny Segal.[3] Other subject matter includes doling out fatherly advice to young people, reminding listeners of their mortality, and references to Chicago's Robert Taylor Homes and their demolition which were also the subject of Eagle's 2017 album Brick Body Kids Still Daydream.[3]

Schube said the album "proves why rap is quite simply the best thing on Earth."[7] Bandcamp Daily's Phillip Mlynar included the album in a list of the best hip hop albums of September 2023, calling the album "simultaneously booksmart and emotive" and saying it "ultimately relays a set of bittersweet memories while never losing grip of being curiously hopeful."[5]

• Open Mike Eagle – vocals, executive producer, cover photo
• Jake Bowman – mixing engineer
• Daddy Kev – mastering engineer
• Mike Parvizi – bass (4)