Rosco P Coldchain's history reads like a cautionary tale that somehow loops back into a testament. North Philadelphia, early 2000s — Pharrell signed him to Star Trak after a chance encounter at a video shoot, two memorable verses on Clipse's Lord Willin' and Hell Hath No Fury followed, and a debut album with Alchemist, DJ Premier, Timbaland, and Kanye West production sat finished and shelved when Arista folded. A few years later, he was incarcerated in connection with a fatal shooting and did 14 years. He buried his uncle, his best friend, and his younger brother while inside. When he came home in 2023, he started recording immediately. Play With Something Safe — produced entirely by Montreal's Nicholas Craven — is the first of those post-release records that sounds fully settled rather than rushed. Craven's drumless, soul-heavy loops don't compete with the narrative, they support it, and Rosco writes about the life he lived the way someone writes when there's nothing left to perform. "Magnesium Chloride," the fourth video cut from the album, brings Malcolm Kamal alongside for a track mixed and mastered by Roberto Viglione and shot by Kogan. Craven's track record — Boldy James, Mach-Hommy, Roc Marciano, Westside Gunn — means his beat selection here lands exactly where it needs to. This is an album about survival told by someone with receipts.
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