THE LIGHT-EMITTING DIAMOND CUTTER SCRIPTURES: ALBUM REVIEW

The fence-building nihilist returns over yonder: “Him with the filthy fits, Black orpheus.” The captain of the Ruby Yacht manages to fit an encyclopedia and thesis paper in the 28 minute run-time of what is his second brilliant body of work in a year. 

R.A.P Ferreira, a.k.a Milo, a.k.a Scallops Hotel, a.k.a one half of Nostrum Grocers, a.k.a Rory Allen Philip Ferreira is a master of his craft. Blending the most bizarre sentence structures into his syllable-siphoned, partitive-packed rhymes all over beats that transport you into a world of fiction. 

R.A.P Ferreira is a poet beyond comprehension based in Kenosha, Wisconsin, but has traveled all over the map. Originating in such a small rural town plays a pivotal role in Ferreira’s path to becoming a musician. Having small-town origins and a deep passion and appreciation for poetry and philosophy is what’s pooled Ferreira with acts such as Open Mike Eagle, Armand Hammer, and Busdriver — all of whom whose relationships evolved from being a fan to full-blown collaborations. 

From backpack rap fanboy, Ferreira has matured drastically over the years, rapping against the current of popular trends, record label pressures, and being stagnant, evolving into a forerunner of operating on your time, in your own fashion. From creating his own record label, Ruby Yacht, and still packaging and shipping out records from his own home, he has stayed consistent in all virtues. 

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​The Light-Emitting Diamond Cutter Scriptures continues Ferreira’s consistency in lyrical versatility and presentation, proving to be another dense, but rewarding listen from the poet. 

Ferreira is capable of creating dense paragraphs of phrases that yearn to be dissected while being bumped at the highest volume your speaker will allow. Ferreira is a wordsmith beyond palatable parallels in paragraphs with lyrics deserving to be deconstructed and studied in graduate-level settings much as a Genius page. 

His previous two bodies of work demonstrate his personal mantra turned adlib. “RAP Ferreira and I will rap foreverrr.” “I will rap forever,” and that’s exactly what Ferreira does on this project. He raps his ass off. He raps as if he’s got something to prove to an audience that is still dissecting the opener to an album from last year. 

There’s a lot of content to dissect here, with many lines provoking a deep Google search. 

“There are poets looking to get on the Forbes list, I’ll be gorgeous and homeless rummaging, stealing from your fortress” is deeply anti-capitalist in nature, forefronting Ferreira's passion for poetry and crafting his own art rather than capitalizing his music for more digestible ears. 

I love this line with a passion. This bar, along with too many handfuls of other quotables, keeps me up at night. There is more to digest and analyze in this album than I’ll ever know, and I find solace in understanding that I'll never truly understand it. 

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​the Light-Emitting Diamond Cutter Scriptures isn’t a strong conceptual album with a clear composition, but comes off more as Ferreira showing off his phonetic prowess. 

There's one component to his previous two albums that I just didn’t see present here: the body composition. 2020’s Purple Moonlight Pages was a larger audience's introduction to R.A.P Ferreira as it served as a farewell to Ferreira’s Milo moniker. Soundtracked by The Jefferson Park Boys, the album’s dynamic opener lays consistent with a grandiose and cinematic feeling throughout the album until the closer, Ferreira covering Pharoah Sanders, brings it all to a blissful conclusion. Followed is 2021’s Bob’s Son, a project shaped and dedicated by famed beat poet Bob Kaufman. This album doesn’t have the same sense of identity nor singular concept. It really comes off as Ferreira showing off his versatility, but that doesn’t hold the project back. 

The production on this project is a lot more low-key than previous ones. It’s very calm but melancholic in nature, providing the perfect vehicle to carry Ferreira’s flow. Songs such as “Brother Mouzone Library Card” are hypnotic with the drums and the keys tastefully swaying on top. “Gemulit Hashadim” makes you want to sit backward in a chair, cartoonishly stroking your chin hair, pondering on what really defines the scope of art. 

That’s really what sets apart Ferreira from many of his contemporaries. It’s the deeper aspect of creating something so unhinged and dedicated to himself in how he sees his poetry. He doesn’t come off as a rapper much nowadays — this album creates an experience and paints of the sorcerer. Black and aged, busting too many rhymes in a Wegmans yet leaving reminders and scriptures for a younger generation of poets; tinkering with run-on sentences and never-ending journeys in three minute tracks, creating something that no one can ever come close to recreating.