Melly Mike TIME4WAR Review: The Credits Tell the Real Story

By Cole Ashby, October 30, 2026

The short answer

Melly Mike's TIME4WAR is a tidy introduction still leaning on its 2024 hit. It runs eight songs and 17:45 on Apple Music, out October 30, 2026, on Epic, with no features. Three of the eight were out before release day. Five are new. My verdict: it is a capable business card, not yet a statement, and the most telling thing about it sits in the credits rather than the press copy.

A debut, with a footnote

Epic's release calls it "Melly Mike's debut Epic Records EP." That last part matters. Apple Music also carries Selfish Nightmares and Selfish Nightmares 2, two EPs from 2025 under his own Melly Mike Music line. So this is a first for the label, not a first for the artist.

The route to Epic is well documented. AllMusic describes a Minneapolis rapper who "spent time in the U.S. Army and was named Soldier of the Year multiple times." Per Epic's release, "Melly spent six years in service and earned Soldier of the Year honors twice." Then came "Young Black & Rich." Billboard's chart shows it entering Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs at No. 50 for the week of July 19, 2025, and Billboard's Xander Zellner tied that debut to the TikTok "aura farming" trend. Complex ranked "Aura Farming Kid" among the best viral moments of 2025. In August 2025, Kompas reported he was named a world ambassador for Pacu Jalur, the Riau boat race where the clip began. Rolling Out dates the Epic signing to 2025.

That is a lot of story for a 17-minute record to carry. Here is what the record does with it.

Two records, one sleeve

Epic's release lists no producers. Apple Music's song credits list all of them, and they split the EP cleanly in two.

Seven tracks share a finishing crew: mixing by Teezio and mastering by Ohad Nissim, per Apple's credits. Six of those also name Ezekiel Lewis as executive producer. "Young Black & Rich" shares none of it. Its Apple credits name Rollie as producer, Markey on mixing and mastering, and Melly Mike himself as recording engineer. Billboard's chart page carries the same producer.

In other words, the song that got him signed was one he recorded himself, with Rollie producing and Markey mixing and mastering, and the label built a new frame around it. That is normal business. It also explains why the EP can feel, to me, like a set of auditions around a finished hit.

Melly Mike, "Young Black & Rich"

Producers, track by track

The production spread is wide for eight songs. "Cut Throat" lists Madness and Kendall Roark Bailey. "Pride B4 The Fall" stacks four producers: Derek "206derek" Anderson, Money Jezus, ArtBySeven and Bailey again. HellRage handles both Epic singles, "All I Need" and "Turnin Your Back". Fya Man produced "Ain't Sweet," Pliznaya, _bytyas and Claz share "F**ked Up," and Bugz Ronin closes things on "I'm So Glad." Every track credits Michael Hunter as writer.

The HellRage pair is the closest thing here to a signature. Apple dates "All I Need" to September 1 and "Turnin Your Back" to October 2, and Epic's release frames the latter as Melly addressing "those who disappeared when it mattered and those who reappeared once it paid off." Those two, plus the viral single, account for a little over 40 percent of the runtime.

Sequencing and runtime

Only one track passes three minutes by Apple's clock: "All I Need" at 3:16. "Cut Throat" comes next at 2:49. The shortest is "Pride B4 The Fall" at 1:27. Four songs land under two minutes, and a fifth stops right at 2:00. That is the shape of a record built for short attention, and in my view that helps and hurts. Nothing overstays. Nothing gets room to build either.

The placement of "Young Black & Rich" at track six is the smartest call on the sheet. It keeps the hit away from the front, so the new material has to introduce him. "Cut Throat" opens, and Epic's release says it "sets that tone from the jump." The release's thesis is that TIME4WAR "lives up to its name, confronting the people who switched sides while reflecting on the version of himself who once accepted less."

What he says it's about

Melly's own framing, from Epic's release: "To me, TIME4WAR is about having something worth fighting for. The biggest battles aren't always against other people. They're the ones you face within yourself when taking risks without knowing how things will turn out. I want people to hear this project and remember that where you start doesn't determine how far you can go."

That is an honest pitch and a familiar one. The underground has seen artists build a following without leaning on a viral moment, and others carry a TikTok hit into a real career. Melly is attempting the second path with major label backing. AllMusic already credits him with "a distinctive take on rage rap." This EP is where he needed to prove the take travels beyond one song.

Melly Mike, TIME4WAR

Does it earn the label debut?

Partly. The credits show care: one mix engineer, one mastering engineer and one executive producer giving the new songs a common finish. The sequencing protects the new work. What the sheet cannot show yet is a second song with the pull of the first. For an artist with this much backstory, 17 minutes is a modest ask of the listener, and he keeps it modest.

Verdict: A short, well-organized label debut that still leans on the 2024 song that made it possible.

Start with: "Turnin Your Back".