Inside I’ll See Myself Out: How Almighty VA Built an Album About Loss and Sobriety
A Norfolk Rapper’s Confessional Emo Rap Record About Grief, Sobriety and Closing a Chapter
Almighty VA recorded his album I’ll See Myself Out in a studio he built in his own basement. All 13 tracks keep that closeness, setting confessional emo rap verses over dark, heavy US trap production. The album came out on November 23, 2025, and it sees the Norfolk artist tell the truth about a hard year. Then, as the title promises, he shows himself out.
Almighty VA’s music is in the playlist below, including “Walk With Me”, the song at the centre of this album. Every article about the act is gathered on the Almighty VA profile. I’ll See Myself Out came to this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Give it a listen, then read on for the story behind the record.
A Year of Loss and Sobriety Became the Almighty VA Album Recorded in a Basement Studio in Norfolk
The story of I’ll See Myself Out starts with a year most people would rather keep off the record. Akt Music reviewed the album in December 2025 and shared the piece on Threads. Its review describes what Almighty VA was carrying at the time. He had lost his brother to suicide and fought to get free of alcohol dependency. A betrayal came on top of both. Instead of dressing those events up, he wrote them down plainly and built the songs around them.
Music Evolution reached a similar conclusion in its own review that month. It frames the album as a deliberate way to close one chapter of his life and move forward. That is also why the title works. After all, I’ll See Myself Out is what someone says when they leave a room on their own terms. The record carries that same quiet resolve from its opener, “Most High”, to its closer, “Blood When I Leave”.
The setting shaped the sound as much as the subject did. He made the album at home, in a basement studio he put together himself. As a result, Akt Music hears that room in the verses, which it calls close and deliberate. Both reviews also name Joe Budden as a guiding influence. That lineage is easy to follow, because each verse is a place to admit things rather than boast.
Thirteen Tracks of Heavy Trap Production and Confessional Verses With a Deliberately Short Guest List
At about 40 minutes, I’ll See Myself Out suits a single sitting. Two of its songs came out before the album did. Almighty VA released “Highs & Lows” and “Maybe I Might” as singles in May 2025.
The centre of the record is “Walk With Me”, featuring S.H.A.D.O.W and Passive The Rapper. Here Almighty VA narrates his brother’s final moments from his own point of view. That is a heavy creative risk for any writer, and it gives the album its most direct passage about grief. Later on, “Dark Clouds” with Rogue Jepson and “Vivitrol” turn to sobriety, relapse and shame. In fact, Vivitrol is the brand name of a medication for alcohol and opioid dependence. The title alone shows how literally he chose to write about recovery.
The guest list is short by design. According to Akt Music, Almighty VA kept features to a minimum because an earlier project had lost its direction. This time he wanted every collaborator to serve the story. In practice that means six guests across five songs. Besides the three above, Milli joins “Nobody Knows”, MaLi joins “Running Away” and Pair-A-Dyce joins “Slide”. At five and a half minutes, “Nobody Knows” is also the longest song here. Meanwhile, “Stillwater (Interlude)” offers a short pause in the first half.
Musically, the record pairs heavy, trap-influenced US rap production with a dark, brooding tone. On top of it sits an introspective vocal delivery, which suits songs this personal.
From the NewMusic.News Curator Team: “What earned I’ll See Myself Out a place on our desk is its restraint. Grief and recovery tempt a writer to say everything at once. Yet Almighty VA keeps most of these songs under four minutes and lets one honest detail carry each verse.”
Why the Almighty VA Album Speaks to Emo Rap Listeners Who Want Honesty Before Polish
Listeners who grew up on Joe Budden’s Mood Muzik mixtapes will find this album familiar in the best sense. Those tapes turned family pain and depression into plain-spoken rap. Fans of Kid Cudi should listen too. His debut, Man on the Moon: The End of Day, paired moody, spacious production with lyrics about loneliness. It also helped open the door for emo rap. Almighty VA sits in that tradition, although he brings the heavier trap low end of current US hip-hop.
This is an album for people already living in emo rap and underground US hip-hop. They want the beats dark and the writing honest. It is also for anyone who has watched someone they love struggle. And it speaks to anyone choosing sobriety one day at a time, because the record treats both subjects with care.
Start with “Walk With Me” for the emotional core. Then go back to the top and play the album in order. If these subjects sit close to home, the US 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline takes calls and texts.
You can also stream I’ll See Myself Out on Apple Music. Follow Almighty VA across platforms: Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Audiomack, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.
