North Carolina musician Jamil Rashad has been making funky pop indebted to Prince and James Brown under the name Boulevards since the mid-2010s. His upcoming Brother! EP, his first for New West Records imprint Normaltown Records, is a little different than anything he's done before. For it, he worked with Blake Rhein of Durand Jones & the Indications to help him achieve a more earthy, Southern-fried form of funk, and the record also finds him delving into social issues more than ever before.

“Growing up, I would see my father interacting with other African American men, using that word as a greeting," Jamil says of the EP's title. "Brother? Brother, let me talk to you. That’s what they said a lot in the ‘60s and ‘70s, but you don’t hear it as much now. It’s such a great word.” We've got the premiere of Brother!'s title track, which lays down a heavy groove and Jamil says is "about working and hustling every day and not being satisfied about the end result, whether it’s working for yourself or 9-5 corporations. Spending the hours, time, not getting a raise, losing a job, putting a smile on your face at a job you dislike, feeling stuck in life, making money and spending money to support bad habits." Listen to that below.

Brother! is out December 18 and you can pre-order it here.