This world will never end,” a tiny voice sings on “Regicide,” which opens Tomorrow Kings’ long-awaited sophomore album, Salt. The vocals belong to Ava, the young daughter of Rob Moman, better known as rapper Collasoul Structure. The Avalon Park resident recalls, “When I heard her singing, I was like, ‘Let me record this! This may show up later.’ ”

Salt has been a long time coming — and not just for Ava, whose contribution was captured six years ago, when she was 4. It’s the first unified release in 12 years for the Chicago-born hip-hop collective, and it weaves progressive-minded lyrics with melodic hooks set against jazzy brass and industrialized beats. Tackling past and present injustices is very much front of mind, most significantly on “Red Summer,” which draws parallels between the city’s deadly race riot of 1919 and the Black Lives Matter uprisings in 2020. 

The album has a more mature feel than the group’s 2013 roughhouse debut, NRTM (we’ll let you Google what that stands for). Since then, the nine original members have scattered but recorded prolifically via smaller collabs and solo projects. Now a six-headed rap hydra — Collasoul Structure, I.B. Fokuz, Skech185, Malakh El, Gilead7, and IL. Subliminal — Tomorrow Kings reunited onstage last November at Subterranean for their first show in a decade. (They will perform again on December 18 at Schubas.)

Pieced together from independent recordings initially shared by email during the pandemic, Salt delivers a stream of castigation and cautious optimism with precision. “During the NRTM era, I was the only one who was a father,” says Dominic Pettis, a.k.a. I.B. Fokuz, who’s now 38, as is Moman. “We was rippin’ the streets, 5 o’clock in the morning, being reckless. Now we have families, we got households.” The new perspective reminded them of their important role in documenting the Black experience. Notes Pettis: “Salt is very true for the time.”

Salt drops November 7.