There’s an assumption among the hip-hop body politic that Bishop Nehru has serious dirt on MF DOOM. Nothing dumbfounds like pondering on why the esteemed supervillain once selected this particular rapper to serve as his protegee.

That’s not to say Nehru is without qualities – as a teenager, he sounded comfortable embracing classic 1990s New York sounds. But the 2014 joint record NehruvianDOOM was a disappointment and the rapper has since struggled to justify the early hype. Now we have My Disregarded Thoughts, his most ambitious album to date, but one ravaged by misguided experimentation and corny moments.

Some moments catch the attention: Little Suzy Be Okay follows the hardships of a young homeless girl that gestures heavily towards 2Pac's Brendas Got a Baby. The slick boom-bap production of Too Lost, served up by the legendary DJ Premier, is a throwback to Nehru's early retro revivalism. And DOOM does show up to bless the project over a luxuriant jazz sample on Meathead. But too often, Nehru finds himself wandering down the wrong sonic corridors. The drum-free, saxophone-laden WhyDoesTheNightSkyTalk2Me is a dull-as-dishwater Kendrick Lamar impression.

Nehru doesn’t always rap particularly well either, dropping his usually looping flow for a silly half-crooned deliver on All of My Years. At just 23-years-old, time is on his side, but making good on the hype that nabbed DOOM’s attention at this point is hard to envision.