Simplicity is genius. Great artists can make the ostensibly impossible seem effortless. It's in this rarefied air where you'll find Detroit's Apollo Brown, constantly conjuring fresh innovations out of a tried-and-true formula. For the last decade, the Mello Music Group artist has singularly re-defined and expanded the foundation of what boom bap production can sound like in the 21st Century.

Apollo Brown triumphantly upholds the head-nodding, screwface-inducing, soul-replenishing lineage of Primo and Pete Rock, J Dilla and Large Professor, Mobb Deep and DJ Muggs. He makes music for old and young heads – bone bruising beats that summon visceral images of back alley brawls in '81, pool hall melees, and metropolitan griminess. An East Coast sound with a midwestern mentality, channeling the marrow-freezing chill of the wind fleeing Lake Michigan.

2010's The Reset was an introduction to Apollo Brown's production: Reworked tracks, fresh verses, new production, new hooks, and new features (Oddisee, Tranquil, Hassaan Mackey, Buff1, Magestik Legend, Diamond District, John Robinson, Kenn Starr, Rapper Big Pooh, Black Milk, and Stik Figa), recombined to create an entirely new album that captures the haunting street soul of Detroit. Apollo's credo is simple: "Everything I make, I try to make it my favorite album of all time."