On Friday 25th March 2022, Black Country emcee Robert released Orange is the New Black, on Antelope Records, a poignant alt-rap debut which began life behind bars. With features including Jason Williamson (Sleaford Mods), Slug (Atmosphere), Rag N Bone Man, Jman, Soweto Kinch and Tommy Jules. the nine-track LP spans low-slung hip hop to simmering acoustics, and weaves together raw reflections on life in and after prison.

The first bars of Orange is the New Black were penned in HMP Channings Wood where Robert was serving his third sentence in just under two decades. A visit from his son gave him the impetus to break the cycle of reoffending, and writing became a means for processing his guilt and trauma.

With nothing but a cold cell and a blank notepad for company, Robert began writing bars as a way to process his feelings. Friend and confidante Beat Butcha (Eminem, Dckwrth, Isiah Rashad) sent him a beat tape, over which the confessional lyrics to single “Porridge” were written. “The words spilled out of me. I didn’t write them – they just appeared as a mirror to my feelings. I was lost, and guilty for all the pain I had put my family through. Writing was all I had in jail. Nothing else mattered.”

Produced by The Purist (Action Bronson, MF DOOM, Freddie Gibbs) and Sonnyjim (Conway, Roc Marciano, Da$H) the resultant record takes its sound from the sprawling psych and punk records Robert grew up with, inflected with a heartfelt love of sample-based music. It opens with the gritty blues of “Kelly Had a Seizure” – where a fluent verse from veteran rapper Kool Keith contrasts Robert’s tense retelling of decadence and debauchery on the streets of West Bromwich. The album’s centrepiece “Daddy was a Bastard” is perhaps the record’s most vulnerable moment, with its 70s rock refrain (“I’m trying hard to say / But I can’t say what I want to”) anchoring Robert’s writing on the loss of a much-admired father. Closer “Becky”, which samples a softly-spoken folk vocalist on its hook , is the album’s only love song, a beatless, tender apology for a string of missteps, and a gentle plea for forgiveness.

The album takes its title from two places – the prison-based HBO series of the same name, and, more obscurely, the life of controversial Indian spiritual leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, aka Osho. Robert found Osho’s work in the prison library, and it struck a chord with him, helping him to find stillness in a world of violence and chaos. Ranjeesh is immortalised on penultimate track “The Bhagwhan”, a slice of driving psychedelia featuring UK emcee Kosyne.

Connect with Robert on Instagram: @remeber_robert