The sequel to 2018’s Crop Circle finds Nines at a crossroads. Reframing his focus away from the life he’s held up across a string of lauded mixtapes and three slick-talking LPs to date, the Harlesden rapper spins the block for the final time on Crop Circle 2. “I made some of this album before I went away to prison [in 2021], so there's songs here, like my single [“Tony Soprano 2”], that might not reflect exactly how different my lifestyle is now,” he tells Apple Music’s Dotty Charles. “But I can’t be in the hood nowadays. I’ve had to change my life. Yeah, I’m not a hood G anymore. But I’ll always be a hood G.” Tone-setting opener “Intro” reveals a mind occupied with past regrets. Over a glistening sample-flip of 2005 mixtape cut “Twas Meant 2 Be” from So Solid Crew’s Swiss, he admits, “Quitting when you’re ahead ain’t the same as quitting/Wish I realised that before I came to prison.” By the “Outro”, Nines reluctantly kisses goodbye to the game. Before then, however, he honours his street legacy in style—tapping features from M Huncho (“Nothing Like Me”), Potter Payper (referencing vintage Biggie Smalls on “What’s Beef”) and Wretch 32 (dropping a standout hook on “Highly Blessed”). “I’ve always wanted to make a Crop Circle sequel,” says Nines. “But for my last album [2020’s Crabs in a Bucket], I didn’t think the time was right. I was stabbed [in 2019], and I just felt like the hood wasn’t me anymore, hence the title of that album. I felt I needed to express that. But ‘Crop Circle’ has always been the brand and the direction that I wanted to go in. I’m the face of the stoners, man.”