Return to the Sun is a mixtape of my oldest beats and lyrics, created between the ages of 13-19, revisited and polished now at 25. The songs are non-linear, prophetic conversations between my younger self and who I’ve become, questioning, responding, and reflecting on trauma, identity, and healing. Hip-hop was my only tool for regulation throughout my youth. It gave voice to the unheard and power to the unseen. In our culture, the gestation period of adolescence spans from 13 to 26, and it’s taken those 13 years for suffering to mature into medicine. I hope youth may relate and find use in these songs, as I did through making them. By 21, I sold all my music equipment to fund a pilgrimage to the land and mountain where the sun was born (pictured in the album art), a path my ancestors have walked for millennia. Years before I knew of this sacred site, I wrote the song Return to the Sun, which appropriately became the compilation’s title and summary. This mixtape isn’t just a collection of songs. It is a documentary of a 13-year journey, raw and uncut. The split and loss of my spirit and identity, the redemption, and the return to wholeness. — Olin Luck, Return to the Sun