“There’s two things you can’t escape, n***a, that’s death & taxes,” Boldy James recites on his B-side single with Nicholas Craven of the same name prior to their 2022 joint album, Fair Exchange, No Robbery. Despite Craven’s downtempo soul beat and a touch of Midwestern hospitality, Boldy James is fatalistic. Death and taxes - expected but never anticipated, these are the only guarantees in life. But even so, Boldy always prefers taxes.