To catch up listeners who missed his two independent albums, Grieves opens his Rhymesayers debut with “Light Speed,” a four-minute origin story: Troubled punk kid discovers hip-hop, cleans himself up, and makes a small name for himself touring, only to return home to a bad breakup that sends him spiraling back into addiction. Tales of broken families, corrupted childhoods, and self-destructive vices are Rhymesayers’ stock in trade, so it’s easy to see why the Minneapolis label took in the nomadic Seattle rapper. But Grieves is a much mellower presence than labelmates like Slug and Brother Ali. Where those rappers sometimes compensate for their sensitive subject matter with sour humor or snarled, chest-thumping indignation, Grieves raps softly, with a conversational nonchalance that downplays the complexity of his rhyme schemes, and he sings his own choruses in a resigned voice that makes his songs feel that much more naked.