Mathematics, Inspectah Deck & Masta Killa "Knowledge My Wisdom" (feat. Planet Asia & Popa Wu) [SINGLE]

The second single from Black Samson: The Saga Continues, due in early November on DNA Music, and the second time in a row that Mathematics has paired a Wu-Tang voice with an outsider. The first single, "God Body," put Method Man next to AZ. This one puts Inspectah Deck and Masta Killa alongside Planet Asia and Popa Wu two generations of the same tradition, one from inside the Wu and one from the Californian wing that grew up studying it. Mathematics is not a footnote in that story. He designed the Wu-Tang logo, he's been the group's tour DJ, and he has production credits on every Wu-Tang album since the debut. He also produced this album in its entirety, which for a record carrying Method Man, U-God, AZ, Ransom, Cormega, Rome Streetz, Skyzoo, Planet Asia, Grafh, NEMS, Cory Gunz and Che Noir is a significant claim to make one person's sound holding that many voices together. It follows Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman, which came out in the spring of 2025 and, per the release notes, went to the top of the rap chart. The sequel arrives with a guest list that reads less like a roll call than a map: Wu members, East Coast lyricists, Griselda-adjacent names, and Che Noir, whose own album It Takes A Village came out today and who appears here too. Two releases, one day, one shared collaborator list. Popa Wu's presence is worth noting separately the Wu's in-house spiritual voice, less frequently credited than the MCs and always a signal that a record is reaching for something older than a verse.

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Wu-Tang Clan, Lee Young Ji, Jay Park & E SENS "C.R.E.A.M. (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 Remix)" [VIDEO]

One correction before anything else: this is not a Lee Young Ji track. The full credit is Wu-Tang Clan with three of the biggest names in Korean hip-hop Lee Young Ji, Jay Park and E SENS and the video description omits two of them. All three rap in a mix of English and Korean. The remix was overseen by RZA with Martin Wave of Parasol Music, and the reasoning is more considered than most brand partnerships. "This song is special to me because it brought our group to new heights worldwide," RZA said. "At its core, 'C.R.E.A.M.' tells the story of a group of young people coming together, overcoming adversity, and rising from nothing to something. That journey mirrors the arc of our characters in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4." Modern Warfare 4's storyline turns on a confrontation on the Korean Peninsula, which is why the remix is Korean-led rather than simply licensed. The split is neat: the original "C.R.E.A.M." plays over the game's opening cinematic, the remix runs over the end credits. The game launches today. The video, at just under two minutes against a three-and-a-half-minute track, cuts between gameplay and Lee Young Ji rapping around Seoul convenience stores and street corners rather than sets. She won High School Rapper 3 in 2019 and became the first female winner of Show Me the Money in 2022, which is roughly the equivalent of arriving at a Wu-Tang remix with your credentials already in order. E SENS takes the last verse and does the heaviest lifting, and he appears to know exactly what he's doing on a track that is, functionally, an advertisement: "Cash still rules the fuckin' world / C.R.E.A.M. got my money but I ain't sell my soul." That's a genuinely interesting thing to say inside a brand partnership, and it is the reason the remix survives the context.

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Whatafunk feat. Awon "Manifesto" [SINGLE]

 

The title is the argument. "Manifesto" is a statement of principles craft, independence, knowledge of the culture, respect for what came before and it says so in the writing: "When foundations are weak / The house crumbles." There's a line that could be a motto for the whole independent lane: "Underground / even if it's not prosperous." Awon is the voice. Born in Brooklyn, raised in Newport News, Virginia, he has been releasing independently since 2008 and co-founded Don't Sleep Records with Phoniks in 2014. His delivery is smooth but commanding, and his subject here is the usual one, delivered unusually well "My 16s are scarier / My name rings bells in every area," and a closing couplet that lands the whole thing: "It was written I will rise / From the underground / My entrance is their demise." Whatafunk produces from Berlin, working in dusty samples and hard drums with cuts through the middle boom bap, filed under conscious hip-hop and rebel music. At the centre of the track sits a scratched phrase lifted from AZ's "The Come Up," the DJ Premier production from 2005: "I'm from the place where hardcore is beautiful." It's more than a sample. It's the record's thesis, and two decades on it still does the work. Mix and mastering by Lorenzo Chiabotti. This is the second single from Life of an Underground Rebel, and it costs two euros.

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Daniel Son & MANZU BEATZ "VOCI STORICHE: Testimonies Through Rhymes and Beatz" [ALBUM]

Eight tracks, twenty-three minutes, and a title that mixes languages: Voci Storiche is Italian for "historic voices," and the subtitle Testimonies Through Rhymes and Beatz is English. Nothing explains the choice, and this isn't going to invent a reason. What the title does do is set the record up as a set of statements rather than a set of songs, and the tracklist follows: an intro, then six tracks each carrying a guest, then a solo closer. The guests are Snotty, New Villain, AYOO BIGZ, Jalen Frazier, Reek Osama and Jay Royale the last of whom also turns up on Nam Nitty's Crack Baby 4, out today. Six features across eight tracks means Daniel Son is deliberately not carrying the record alone, which is a change of method for someone whose catalogue is largely his own voice over one producer's beats. It comes out on MANZU BEATZ, which holds the phonographic credit and is credited as co-artist, so it's a producer-led imprint rather than a hired-hand arrangement. Daniel Son has been releasing at a rate most people don't attempt Pressure Cooker, the Moonshine mixes, Yenaldooshi, Bite the Bullet, Bush Doctor, Son Tzu & the Wav.God, Gris Gris, BUSHMAN BODEGA, The Estes Method, Nom De Guerre and Shattered Glass among them and the closing track here, "MOONSHINE REZILIENT," carries a title that longtime listeners will recognise from his earlier series. At twenty-three minutes with an intro, it's a compact record for a rapper with this much catalogue.

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Meyhem Lauren "Oceanic Treasures" [VIDEO]

Table For One came out at the start of the month. It's eleven tracks with no guest appearances at all and given that Meyhem Lauren has spent his career trading verses with half the underground, that's the most unusual fact about it. It's also the first release on his own label, White Truffle Records, and it's available exclusively through VYB, the platform, rather than the usual streaming services. The producer list reads like a roll call: Ghost Dave, The Alchemist, DJ Muggs, Ern Dogg, Don D, Daringer, Buckwild, IceRocks, and Real Bad Man the last of whom released a single with Blu in this very column today. Every track has a different hand on it. "Oceanic Treasures," track eight, is Buckwild's, and the video, directed by KWERVO, arrived this week. Buckwild is a fitting choice. Meyhem made a whole album with him before Silk Pyramids and it's the pairing that best suits his subject matter, which here is money, survival, and the specific texture of having made it out. "Back-to-back M's in the garage, kid / Barely escape, we living large, kid / Drop the half a milli in the Coliseum" is the hook, and it's anthemic in the way Meyhem's best hooks are: declaring rather than reflecting. He's funny throughout "Me and Harvey arguing about who got the better gun," "Shorty's shirt looking like she just ate a zeppole" and then plainly serious: "2000 in the foyer. Been my own boss. God bless my employer and my lawyer. Confidant, case destroyer." The rest of the album is built the same way, with track titles like "Win Son," "The Centurion Lounge," "Jerk Turkey Wings" and "Deadstock Pasta" a record about eating well, in every sense, alone. Five hundred vinyl copies exist and ship in December. We covered "Radikon" when the album landed; its video followed a fortnight ago. This is the third visual from it.

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Imperetiv & G4 JAG "Fly Talk VI" [EP]

Five tracks, fourteen minutes, released on an imprint that carries both their names IM'PERETIV MUSIC & G4 JAG MUSIC. When the label is a joint venture, the record usually is too, and Fly Talk VI behaves like a shared project rather than a feature swap: two credited artists on the front, guests only on two of five tracks. The guests are Mercydaharlemkid on "Better Days" and L-Biz on "Circus," the longest track at three-fifteen. The rest the title track, "Apple Pie" and "Stopped Chillan" is the duo. "Stopped Chillan" has been out as a standalone before, which suggests this EP functions partly as a consolidation of recent work rather than a wholly new set. The title implies a series. Roman numeral six means five predecessors, and those don't turn up on the artist page they may exist as videos or under different spellings. What's documented is a catalogue going back several years: "New York Times," "Bricks," "Nightmares Come True," and notably "Gold Blooded" with Mickey Factz in 2022, an MC who also turns up on Benny From The Sandlot's Alien Invasion this week. Imperetiv has been working with the same circle of names Dystrakted, Ty Farris, MAV for years, which is how most durable independent scenes actually function. No production credits are published. At fourteen minutes with five tracks, it's an EP that knows what it is.

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Pretty Bulli & Castle Money Beats "Bitch and a Half" [VIDEO]

A new video from Pretty Bulli, three minutes nineteen, released through her own channel with Castle Money Beats. The description is one sentence long and notes that the two have collaborated before; beyond that there are no credits, no location, and no statement. Sixteen views at the time of writing. What the track does supply is a voice. Pretty Bulli raps from a position of having been doing this a while "Been active since the youth," and later, "It's layers to me, dog. Complex." There's a verse about being a grown woman in the booth while other people "act out a fable," and a line that works as the record's thesis: "It's that old school [__] right here. A classic cut from different fabric." Castle Money Beats is credited as a co-artist rather than a producer, so the division of labour isn't stated. For a release this unadorned no label, no press, no credits the writing is the only argument available, and it's sharper than the packaging suggests.

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Doza The Drum Dealer, Kaeson Skrilla & D. Goynz "I Thrive" [SINGLE]

Five minutes and three seconds, which is generous for a single and suggests three people with enough to say. "I Thrive" is credited to Doza The Drum Dealer, Kaeson Skrilla and D. Goynz, released through Dozito's Way and filed under East Coast rap. Doza has been releasing since 2017 Narcotechs, Jewelry, Pkurpzn, Death Roll, EVERYTHING MUST GO!, and two volumes of Sandroze this year, with singles including "La Bandera" and "Look At Me." Kaeson Skrilla has a self-titled run going, with GodSKrilla and Godskrilla The Album both landing in 2026. D. Goynz is credited as the third voice; nothing else about them is available from here. Beyond the credits and the running time there isn't much to report honestly. No producer is named, no statement was issued, and the track isn't available to hear at the time of writing so there's no assessment to offer, only the note that a five-minute three-way record is an unusual bet in a landscape built around two-minute singles, and one worth watching for.

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Raz Fresco & BudaMunk "Don't You Know" [VIDEO]

Two minutes ten. Shot by Kansei, edited and directed by Raz Fresco. It's the first visual to surface from BuddhaFunk, the collaborative album Raz Fresco made with BudaMunk and the most interesting thing about it isn't the song, it's where the album lives. BuddhaFunk is available exclusively through The Bakery, BKRSCLB's own platform. Joining is free. That's a distribution decision, and it's the kind more artists are making: instead of releasing into a streaming economy that pays fractions, put the record behind a membership and let the people who want it come to you. Whether it works depends entirely on whether the audience follows, and a free join removes most of the friction. The clip itself is short enough that it barely establishes a verse before it's over. Fresco raps dense and fast "I wrote the book on crook chemistry," a Kennedy reference, a line about his mother not knowing he lives a double life and cuts it before it becomes a statement. BudaMunk's name is on the album credit but nothing about their background can be confirmed from here, so nothing is claimed. For an artist who has spent years working with producers like Futurewave and Daniel Son, a full-length with a single collaborator, released on a platform he controls, is a clear change of method.

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Patty Honcho "The Devil You Know" [ALBUM]

 

Nine tracks, just under twenty-five minutes, ten dollars. Patty Honcho is out of Paterson, New Jersey his own words on his page and the tags on this record read like a mission statement: boom-bap, lyricism, underground hip-hop. The running order is built around two songs with the same title. "93' Charlie Ward, Pt. 1 (SGA)" runs two and a half minutes; "Pt. 2 (Forevermore)" runs nearly five and is the longest thing on the album. The reference, presumably to the year Charlie Ward won the Heisman, splits into two movements with different subtitles, which is a structural decision most twenty-five-minute records don't bother making. Around it sit "Run," which opens, a title track-adjacent pair in "Lions Eat First" and "Cautionary Tale," a thirty-two-second interlude called "Familiar Face," and a bonus track, "She Like," at the end. There's also "St. Kitts & Nevis." What it refers to isn't stated, and this isn't going to guess. No production credits are published, so none are named. That's a recurring gap across this batch and it's worth saying plainly: for a record tagged "lyricism" and "boom-bap," the person who made the beats matters, and their name isn't here. What is here is a tight nine-track album from a New Jersey emcee who says he's going to start using his page more which, on this evidence, he should.

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Real Bad Man & Blu "GOOD DAYS" (feat. TOBi) [SINGLE]

This release is two songs, not one. "Good Days" with TOBi runs four minutes and opens; "Trifecta," with ICECOLDBISHOP and Gabe 'Nandez, runs three and a half and closes. Seven minutes total on Real Bad Man Records. Real Bad Man is not a producer name in the ordinary sense. It's a Los Angeles streetwear line and record label run by Adam Jay Weissman a visual artist and designer who came into hip-hop sideways through the On High Alert mixtape series in 2020, which put him in the same room as Roc Marciano, Blu and Flee Lord. The breakthrough was Real Bad Boldy with Boldy James at the end of that year, and since then the output has been relentless: Killing Nothing, Mood Swings with Smoke DZA, Real Bad Flights with Pink Siifu, Serpent with Kool Keith, Conversational Pieces with Boldy James, and Bad News with Blu in 2023. The house sound is clean, updated boom-bap with jazz in the corners. Blu needs less explaining Inglewood, Below the Heavens with Exile, and a decade and a half of being the most consistently underrated writer on the West Coast. He and Weissman had worked together on one-offs before Bad News, and he described that record as being "for the heads that missed the cipher." TOBi is the different element here. Born in Lagos in 1993 and raised in Ottawa and Brampton, he has won five Juno Awards, including Rap Album and Rap Single of the Year in 2024, and was a Polaris finalist for Panic. He works in R&B, soul and hip-hop at once, which on a Real Bad Man beat with Blu on the verse is a genuinely interesting placement. Also worth noting: Real Bad Man produced "Crystals & Flakes" on Meyhem Lauren's Table For One, out this month. He is having a year.

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Fliptrix "Do You Wanna See" (feat. Da Flyy Hooligan) [VIDEO]

Two minutes forty-seven, produced by Forest DLG, with the video credited to Jenna-Louise Crooknorth. It's the latest cut from Fliptrix's album Elevation, and it works as a good introduction to what that record is doing. Fliptrix has spent years working with most of the significant names in UK hip-hop, and for Elevation he went looking for people he hadn't worked with. The guest list reflects that: Da Flyy Hooligan here, jungle veteran General Levy on the lead single "ENERGY! ENERGY! ENERGY!," Grime MC Frisco on "Visionaries," Ayah Marar on "Transform," Kamakaze and Coops elsewhere, and a nineteen-strong High Focus posse cut called "Dangerous." The album is out on gold embossed vinyl, CD and a limited cassette, with the label noting that only limited copies remain. The song itself builds on a repeated question "Do you really, really want to see the forest? I don't really know if you do, if I'm being honest" and then answers it: "There you meet demons and all of these dark prospects, deeper than a place you never faced." Da Flyy Hooligan's verse turns the metaphor inside out, swapping the forest for the street: "Do you really really want to see the pavement? Concrete forest where we're acting like some cavemen." One of Fliptrix's lines lands on something more personal an uncle's "life is what you make it," delivered shortly before he was sedated and never explained. Forest DLG's instrumental is unhurried enough to let both voices sit in it, which is the right call for a track whose whole subject is how much you actually want to see.

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Kool Taj The Gr8 "Saturday" [SINGLE]

Three minutes, one track, out on iWrite Music Group. No producer credited, no statement attached the song arrives on its own. Kool Taj The Gr8 is Taj Collins, from Buffalo, New York, in his own words. He has explained the name, and the explanation is worth repeating because it's unusually specific: "The streets been calling me 'Kool Taj' since junior high," he said, "so 'Kool Taj' has always been my moniker, which really had nothing to do with rapping. I added 'The Gr8' as a subtitle because of three things: I'm great at what I do, I'm great at being me, and, most importantly, I represent God Almighty." He describes his style as "traditional boom-bap hip-hop music. I'm edgy, but classy. Street-oriented, but grown and mature." On Buffalo itself he's been candid asked about local influences, he said that between 1989 and 1999 there were groups that came and went, and that the scene improved over time: "I have always been one of them." The catalogue backs up the traditionalist claim. "LLayers" was produced by Pete Rock. Hard Bars & Dope Beats came out two years ago and was issued on limited 12" vinyl by the UK label Tape Kingz Music a vinyl release through a British tape-and-wax operation is not something that happens to someone without a following. He has worked with Tone Spliff and with Jamal Gasol, another Buffalo mainstay, and there are singles titled "Buffalo Blitz," "Wild Style" and "Graffiti Language." What "Saturday" sounds like isn't assessable from here; it landed today and isn't available to hear. What's on record is a rapper who has spent fifteen years describing his work as boom-bap and then producing evidence for it.

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Granuja & Deejohend "Criollo" [VIDEO]

The most useful line in this video's description is a claim about what it isn't. Medellín a Solas the album Granuja and Deejohend made together is a record of instrumentals, and "Criollo" is described as the only track on it with a voice. One song with words on an otherwise wordless album is a deliberate placement, and it explains why the video carries more than ten thousand views in under a week: it's the one place on the record where the duo speaks directly. Granuja is Mateo Montaño, born in Apartadó, Antioquia in 1987 and raised in Medellín. He is one of the most consequential figures in contemporary Colombian hip-hop a rapper and beatmaker who came up through Gordo Sarkasmus and the Moebiuz collective, released his solo debut Círculo Vicioso in 2017, built the Rap y Hierbas series that put other Colombian MCs over his own beats, and made De las Sombras with the British rapper Jam Baxter in 2023. "De Pe a Pa" has passed seventeen million streams. Deejohend is a Medellín producer and DJ whose album Bajo Presión last autumn gathered much of the city's rap scene on one record. What Granuja does with his one vocal track is not celebrate. It's a statement of position: respect for the DJ, a declaration that he gave himself to this like a slave to a sect, and a running distinction between what's real and what isn't "falsos desde lejos, se reconoce al real, el falso se detecta." There's a line for the people inside: "para los libres y los presos en los pabellones." And one that doubles as a thesis for a career built outside the industry: "lo importante es que quede sonando en todo el hemisferio" what matters is that it keeps sounding across the whole hemisphere. Directed by Juanes Builes and Builesmith, shot by trigo_, digitised by Nativo. The album came out about a week before this.

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Coyote x Rucci "All Dogs Go To Heaven" [SINGLE]

First thing worth clearing up: Coyote is two people. The Los Angeles duo is made up of Mexican-American brothers LadiesLoveGuapo and Ricky Blanco, and they've put out five albums since 2022 Thicker than Water, L.Aliens, yoteLAndia and its LOST TAPES companion, and Machetes & Micheladas, which Statik Selektah produced in its entirety and which landed earlier this year. They cite Wu-Tang Clan and DMX as reference points, have a co-sign from The Game, toured Europe and the UK for 42 dates, and got Shaquille O'Neal into the video for "3 Lokos." For an act with no major label behind it, that is a working career. This is a single with Rucci, released on their own Coyote For Hire imprint. Nothing about it is credited beyond that no producer is listed, no album is named, and the track isn't available to hear at the time of writing, so there's nothing to say about how it sounds. What can be said is that the title borrows from a 1989 animated film about a dog who cons his way back from heaven to settle a score, which for a duo built on punchlines and storytelling is a promising frame. Machetes & Micheladas set a high bar for them; whatever this is, it's coming off the back of a record where every beat came from one of the most reliable producers in the independent lane.

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Bruiser Wolf & Conductor Williams "Ain't Got Time" [VIDEO]

A minute forty-four. Directed by Diego. That's tight enough that the song is over before most hooks have finished establishing themselves, and Bruiser Wolf uses the space the way you'd expect one idea, repeated: "I got money, I ain't got time / Most [__] with time ain't got money." The rest is detail work around it, some of it very funny: "She was afraid of doggy style, not no more / She got a BBL to shock absorb." It ends on a spoken skit about a bet, which is a strange and good way to close a track this short. Conductor Williams makes the beat, and his route to this is the most unusual in mainstream production. He spent twenty years working on the BNSF railway a real train engineer before moving into music full time, and now has credits for Drake, Tyler, the Creator, J. Cole and Leon Thomas. His producer tag, "Conductor, we have a problem," is one of the few you can identify without being told. According to the release notes he wakes at four in the morning to pray and study religious texts, which is either the most rock-and-roll thing in the press release or the least, depending on your view of the industry. Wolf is a Detroit rapper whose delivery is genuinely hard to place against anyone else he has worked with Danny Brown, Harry Fraud, F1lthy, Payroll Giovanni and Babytron without ever sounding like a guest on somebody else's record. Both of them also turn up on Che Noir's It Takes A Village, out today: Williams on the interlude and on "Wasted Time," Wolf on "Magic." Two releases, one week, and neither feels like a favour.

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Philosophy Cole & BlakMaul "Next Friday" [ALBUM]

You can read the whole concept off the tracklist, which is the strongest thing about it. Next Friday runs eleven tracks in the order of a working day: "Nightmares," "The Alarm Clock," "The Commute," "Clocking In," "Lunchtime," "Dealing with stupidity," "Clocking Out," "Going Home," then "Electric Relaxation 2," "Severance Package" and "Reset." The last three are the interesting ones after going home comes a Tribe Called Quest reference, then a severance package, then a reset. The day doesn't end at the door; it ends in a loop. The whole thing runs about thirty-three minutes, which means no single stage of the day gets more than three and a half. The title borrows from the Ice Cube film, and the record treats its subject with the same deadpan. BlakMaul is the half with the documented history. He's from Bridgeport, Connecticut, started as a local DJ, and became a mixtape fixture in Sumter, South Carolina in the late nineties under the alias Money Mike the Blak Maulponopoly known for turntablism and an ear for what worked on the street. The tags on this record point where you'd expect given that background: hip-hop, jazz, neo-soul, soul. No production credits are published, so none are named. What's on the page is the running order and a concept that holds from the first track to the last which, for a record about the working day, is the appropriate kind of discipline.

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Killah Dilla & SAFRON BEATS "No Sleep (Freestyle)" [SINGLE]

A two-and-a-half-minute freestyle, self-released under both names the copyright line reads Killah Dilla & SAFRON BEATS, with no label in between. That's the whole of it: one track, no features, no campaign attached. Killah Dilla has been releasing steadily for seven years now, at a rate that suggests he doesn't spend much time deciding whether to put something out. Buffalo Dill, Vol. 1 in 2019, Born to Dill in 2022, Written Prescription, EVERYTHING MUST GO!, The Last Two, Jay Killa and Armadilla most years carrying more than one project. The collaborations lean Canadian: Daniel Son on "Filthy Hand Soap," Raz Fresco on "Income Facts," a joint project with producer Jay The Assassin. Beyond that, nothing about where he's based can be confirmed from here, so nothing is claimed. The title does the describing. A freestyle called "No Sleep" over a SAFRON BEATS track the credit lists both artists rather than a producer credit, so the division of labour isn't stated anywhere. What it is, is another entry in a catalogue built on volume and consistency rather than rollout.

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Bruze Bronzn "TENNISARM" (with Universe & Med Reel) [VIDEO]

"TENNISARM" is the fourth of twelve singles that Bruze Bronzn is releasing ahead of GAFFATAPE III twenty-six tracks, scheduled for February next year. That is an unusual way to build an album, and it's clearly deliberate: one single at a time, each with its own video, over a run long enough that the record will have been listened to in pieces long before it arrives whole. The credit block and the video title don't quite agree with each other, and it's worth saying so rather than smoothing it over. The title credits the track to Bruze Bronzn, Universe and Med Reel, with "produced by Med Reel." The credits field says: instrumental by Derek Simpson, raps and lyrics by Bruze Bronzn and Tobzen, mastered by Caid, visuals and video by Bruze Bronzn. Whether Med Reel and Derek Simpson are the same person under two names, or whether the title credits a different role than the credits do, isn't resolvable from here. Both names are given. The song itself is a complaint about what German hip-hop has become, and it's sharper than the format suggests. "Wo sind die echten? Wo sind die?" runs through it like a hook where are the real ones. There's a verse about rappers selling their soul, one about how everything turns to paper, and a line that sticks: "Der Teufel macht der Träge mit den Noten, Bruder." Egos "so riesig wie Kathedralen." Bruze shot and cut the video himself, and runs his own shop alongside the music the whole apparatus is self-built, which is consistent with a twenty-six-track album being released twelve singles at a time by someone who isn't waiting for permission.

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Armani Caesar x Benny the Butcher "Sephora In Ibiza" [SINGLE]

Two Buffalo rappers, one track, and a credit line that reads Armani Caesar Publishing and Griselda Records. No producer is listed, so none is named here. Armani Caesar Joclynn Clyburn, born in Buffalo in 1989 has the more unusual route of the two. She was rapping by twelve, recording over downloaded instrumentals, and got her start at sixteen at Buff City Studios, the room run by the late DJ Shay. Shay gave her her stage name and was, at the same studio, developing Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine and Benny the Butcher. She was in a group with them before any of them were who they became. A decade later, in 2020, she became the first woman signed to Griselda, and The Liz landed with a 7.2 from Pitchfork. The Liz 2 followed in 2022. Benny the Butcher needs less introduction: Jeremie Pennick, Buffalo, half of the Griselda core and, by most accounts, its sharpest writer. This isn't their first record together. "Simply Done," from The Liz, was produced by DJ Premier and remains one of the label's cleanest singles. Six years on, the pairing is no longer a novelty it's two people from the same studio working again because it works. The title puts a cosmetics retailer next to a Spanish island, which reads like a joke about luxury and travel rather than a statement about either. What the song sounds like is not something this can assess yet; it arrived today and isn't available to hear. What can be said is that Armani has spent six years building a catalogue that does not depend on Griselda's co-sign Paula Deen with Westside Gunn, Diana with Kodak Black, Shmoke with A$AP Ferg, and The Liz Symphony earlier this year and a Benny feature in 2026 lands differently than one would have in 2020.

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A-F-R-O "Den of Thieves" [VIDEO]

Three minutes ten, a description that contains nothing but social links, and at least three different voices on the track. "Den of Thieves" is a posse cut, and the credits for the other voices aren't published so none are named here. The one name that is on it belongs to James Gutierrez, who has been recording as A-F-R-O since he was thirteen. He was born in Gardena, California in 1997, is Black and Mexican, spent time in foster homes and was adopted at five. He found hip-hop at nine through Eric B. & Rakim's "Microphone Fiend," and his entry into it was about as old-school as it gets: in 2014, at sixteen, he entered R.A. the Rugged Man's "Definition of a Rap Flow" contest judged alongside Kweli, Murs and Vinnie Paz and, in R.A.'s words, "won the contest before it even ended." The name is an initialism: All Flows Reach Out. What that pedigree produces is audible in the writing here. "I know servant is my name, but that doesn't mean I'll serve you / eight bars of evidence that I am relevant." "Dear Watson, is the sentiment. It doesn't take a Sherlock to determine my impressive gifts." And one that reads like a statement of intent from someone who has spent a decade being told he's the future of a sound that predates him: "I always come correct except politically." The second and third voices match the pace one of them running an extended internal-rhyme sequence that lands on "Me and Fro, we be tracking them, grabbing them, kidnapping them, then dismantling them." Whoever they are, they were chosen to keep up rather than to fill space. We covered A-F-R-O's joint album with MotionPlus here earlier this year. This one has no producer credited and no statement attached, which for a rapper whose whole reputation was built on proving it off the top is entirely in character.

Transparency Note: Content & research created independently by HHHEADZ. AI tools are strictly used for translation and language refinement.

Rellz Tha Postman "Written in the Stars" [ALBUM]

Nine tracks. Fifteen and a half minutes. That's not a sketch that's the album, and the discipline is the point. Rellz Tha Postman, who also records as Tha Cyborg, works out of Baltimore via the Flyah Ent. imprint, and Written in the Stars is built almost entirely from one-to-two-minute pieces: "Shake off the Fleas" at 1:25, "Both Ways" at 1:22, the title track at just over a minute. Only "Miss Green" and "12 O'clock" clear two minutes. His own description of the record leans on jazz, funk and soul infusions over classic hip-hop foundations, with "motivational lyricism and divine knowledge" as the stated intent an album meant to lift rather than document. Four of the nine tracks carry guests, all of them drawn from what the release calls Flock members: Moe Ager on "Blueberry and Bubba," Da Ha on "Miss Green," and both Eddie Vega and Christobal The Vision on "12 O'clock." A crew record, in other words, where the features are family rather than strategy. The sequencing moves like a suite "Righteous" opens it, the title track sits at the centre, and "All Roads Lead Home" closes. At this length a record can't afford a weak bar, and the brevity reads as deliberate: get in, say it, get out. It's available on a pay-what-you-want basis, which for a fifteen-minute album is a fair invitation.

Transparency Note: Content & research created independently by HHHEADZ. AI tools are strictly used for translation and language refinement.

Nam Nitty "CRACK BABY 4 : MICHELE'S BABY BOY" [ALBUM]

Three installments in, Nam Nitty has a format. Crack Baby arrived in 2020, Crack Baby Too three years later, CRACK BABY III in 2024 and now the fourth, ten tracks and thirty-five minutes, out on his own Secret Sosiety Entertainment. He is the CEO, and on the earlier volumes he was also the entire production desk: "produced entirely by Nam Nitty," mixed, arranged, executive produced. He has been described as emcee, producer, videographer and fashion designer in the same breath, which in his case isn't a press flourish so much as a job description for running an independent label. The guest list shows what that independence buys. Ten tracks, nearly every one carrying a feature, and the same names circling back: Tone Spliff twice, Voice Watkins twice, John Jigg$ a member of the Mxnxpxly Family alongside Rockwelz and M.O.U.F., the crew Nitty came up in and now runs plus Jay Royale, Mondo Slade, Maxx Bond, Splash631, Pretty P, The Usual Suspects, Nat Burn and The Bad Seed. One outlier, and a notable one: the closer, "Out Da Mudd," brings in ethemadassassin, the Los Angeles-by-way-of-North-Carolina veteran who was also in this column's last batch. The running order is straight street-rap architecture "Nuttin Into Summin" opens at four-plus minutes, "Da S.O.S. Band" and "Da Vultures" carry the weight in the middle, and the shortest tracks sit around three minutes. Nobody is padding. For a series that started before most independent rap infrastructure existed in its current form, four volumes and a roster that keeps returning is a working model, not nostalgia.

Transparency Note: Content & research created independently by HHHEADZ. AI tools are strictly used for translation and language refinement.

KPZ x Chaotic Turtle "DRIPPERY" [ALBUM]

Seven tracks, twenty-two minutes, and one of the cleanest credit blocks you'll see on an independent release: all beats by Chaotic Turtle, arranged and mixed by KPZ, mastered by Kevin Holevar. Beatmaker, arranger, mastering engineer three names, three jobs, no ambiguity about who did what. DRIPPERY runs as a rapper-and-producer record with a rotating cast. Rick Ruger on "Only Worthy Challenger," Raymo on "Puzzled," BAMbam the Voodoo Chi7d on "Oh No!," Ant G on "Ain't Going Back," Dope Da Vinci on "Double Up." Two of the seven tracks are solo. Nothing runs past four minutes. It comes through Last Laugh Records, a label operation out of Sterling Heights, Michigan the page carries separate sections for its artists, its catalogue, its merch and its community, which is the structure of a small roster rather than a single act. That's also why there isn't a biography attached: the label account speaks for the release, not for the people. Between the title track, "Miss Karma" and "Double Up," the shape is classic producer-album logic establish the sound, take it somewhere, hand the last word to a guest. At around twenty-two minutes there's no room for anything else, which is the point.

Transparency Note: Content & research created independently by HHHEADZ. AI tools are strictly used for translation and language refinement.

Che Noir “It Takes A Village” [ALBUM]

Che Noir's It Takes A Village is out now twelve tracks, thirty-two minutes and the video for "Blood Bath" landed with it. Same day, which is how a record with this much of a statement behind it should arrive. The title is literal. Che became a first-time mother in the run-up to this project, and she relocated from Buffalo to Atlanta in the same period. In her own words: "It Takes A Village is a reflection of growth, parenthood, and the people who help shape who we become. I wanted to make an album that still embodies the raw lyricism and gritty hip-hop sound I come from, while speaking to something bigger than myself." So she built the village in the credits. Black Thought on "Fame & Fiction." Bruiser Wolf on "Magic." Ransom on "Wasted Time." And on the boards: Havoc on two, Mathematics, Conductor Williams on two, Nottz, Chuck Strangers, and a scattering of others Bopman, DJ Design, Playa Haze, Kage Green. That is a producer list that does not assemble itself for someone without a reputation. Che has been quietly building one since The Thrill of the Hunt 2, through As God Intended, Food For Thought, The Last Remnants, Desired Crowns and No Validation never a breakout, always a step. The evidence that this isn't a rebrand sits in "Blood Bath," which is not about motherhood in any soft sense. It is a hard record that arrives at it sideways: "My daughter sleep like a princess cuz her mother built the bed," and then, a few bars later, the reason that line carries weight "My words draw on the image of black fathers in prison / Raise their daughter from visit and they fall with the system. Won't get to see your daughter blossom from a virgin to a woman." The song connects the two things the album is about: who raises a child, and who is missing when they're raised. A Guy Named Purple produces it. That's the credit on the video.

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AMXXR x Pete Rock "What You Gonna Do" [SINGLE]

AMXXR and Pete Rock - What You Gonna Do

Pete Rock Introduces the Inaugural Artist on Tru Soul Records, AMXXR, with the Debut Single “What You Gonna Do” From His Upcoming Album DopeBoySoul.

Arriving Friday 23rd October, the Pete Rock–produced single is the debut of the first artist signed to Tru Soul Records.

Pete Rock has helped shape the sound of hip-hop. Now, the legendary producer presents AMXXR with “What You Gonna Do,” the first single from AMXXR’s forthcoming album, “DopeBoySoul". The project pairs Pete Rock’s signature soul with a voice grounded in survival, faith and reinvention.

“‘What You Gonna Do’ is about seeing the blessing in the pressure, trusting God’s timing and becoming better than your last version,” AMXXR explains. “Peace Beloved!”

Having previously toured with Pete Rock and Slum Village, AMXXR will join them again November 5 at Brooklyn Bowl in Philadelphia, bringing that magic to the stage ahead of DopeBoySoul on 4th December 2026.

What You Gonna Do is out now - https://ffm.to/what-you-gonna-do 

Produced by Pete Rock | Tru Soul Records

For more information on AMXXR:
https://www.amxxr.com/music 
https://www.instagram.com/a.m.x.x.r/
https://www.youtube.com/@AMXXRTV

https://www.instagram.com/realpeterock/
https://x.com/PeteRock
https://www.facebook.com/realpeterock 
https://linktr.ee/TruSoulRecords

 

Sayzee feat. Asun Eastwood "STATIC" [VIDEO]

"YFRWN" stands for Your Favorite Rappers Worst Nightmare, and Sayzee has been running it since 2010 the series is named after Freddy Krueger, which tells you the intended temperature. The eleventh instalment came out last week: eighteen tracks, about forty-five minutes, and every single credit on it is his own. "Produced. Recorded. Mixed. Mastered. Illustrated. by Sayzee." That's not a boast in a bio; it's the credits field. It also shouldn't exist, strictly speaking. When the tenth chapter arrived in 2024 it was released in two halves A-Side and B-Side, a fortnight apart and the announcement called it the final chapter of the series. Two years later, chapter eleven is here. When we covered "Troubles" from it in the autumn, the note said fourteen tracks. The record runs eighteen. "STATIC" is track two, and it carries the album's best-placed guest. Asun Eastwood was born in Belize City and came to Toronto at the age of two; his debut album featured Conway the Machine and Skyzoo, and since 2023 he has been opening shows for Ghostface Killah, Styles P, Sheek Louch, Kool G Rap, Smif-N-Wessun, M.O.P. and Conway. He is, in other words, exactly the right voice for a record that positions itself as the thing your favourite rapper has nightmares about. The video is by Tyler Rousell, and the song is dense with the kind of construction Sayzee has been doing since the mixtape days "32s for the price of 16. I had two for sale. Running discounts," and "Nonfiction black helicopter. I got ill habits." The hook is a statement of continuity more than a chorus: "You know this [__] is still static." He wrote in one of the earlier Dragon Ball-themed projects that he freestyled his entire self-titled album, no written bars at all, and the writing here has that same pressure rhymes arriving faster than they get tidied. The rest of the guest list reads like a roll-call of this column's regulars: Tona, Lord Juco, Shottie, Money Mogly, Jamal Gasol, DNTE, LeZeppo, Action Figure 973. Sayzee was working out of St. Catharines when the first volume landed sixteen years ago; the page says Toronto now. The series outlived its own finale.

Transparency Note: Content & research created independently by HHHEADZ. AI tools are strictly used for translation and language refinement.

Hard Crew "Flow Ases!no" [VIDEO]

Hard Crew is not a rapper with a backing track. It's a band out of Bogotá, founded in 2013, built on fast tempos and aggressive delivery and willing to pull merengue house and dembow into the same set without treating either as a novelty. The most useful line in the credits for this video is the one that looks like a guest credit but isn't: "Instrumental por Naick B." Naick B is Nicolás Bernal Mosquera, one of the group's two vocalists and its in-house beatmaker. The production stays inside the band. The rest of the credits are more detailed than most videos at this level get. Visual production by HC Records, music by Hard Sound Records, direction by Henry Cavanzo, who also cut and coloured it, assistant direction by Daniel Escobar, Jenn Castillo on lighting as well as appearing in the cast, and thanks to a theatre. A five-name cast list. That's a crew, not a phone camera. That structure explains the group's trajectory. Hard Crew made its debut at Hip Hop al Parque last year, and got there by placing second in the district selection an audition process, not an invitation which earned a prime-time slot ahead of the headliner. Reporting from the festival describes a line-up of two vocalists, two backing vocalists, a DJ, a bassist and a promoter, rehearsing two or three hours a day, with the DJ and the guitarist both talking about the message. Albums have followed steadily: Desde El Sur, Como Suena last summer, A Blanco y Negro in the autumn, and three singles so far this year, including one with members credited individually rather than as the band. The track itself leans on accent as an argument "Just with my accent, I already dominate this," goes one verse, alongside "This is our kingdom and that's why I guard it" and another voice describes trying to "make it sound like the old school, a bit more powerful." That combination, nineties cadence under a Caribbean rhythm, is exactly what the group has been described as doing since it started. We ran "Como Nos Toque" from this camp earlier in the autumn. Same apparatus, same beatmaker, another video shot with a full cast.

Transparency Note: Content & research created independently by HHHEADZ. AI tools are strictly used for translation and language refinement.

Benny From The Sandlot & Stotty p "B.O.D" [ALBUM]

 

Five tracks, a little over thirteen minutes, and a release date at the end of the month which means this one is a pre-order, and nothing here has been heard yet. What's worth writing down is the partnership, because it's the second one and it didn't happen by design. Benny From The Sandlot works out of Hampton, Virginia. Stotty P is Canadian. Their first joint album, Bullpen, came out last September, and by both accounts it started with a single track. "I think we did one track, and it snowballed from there," Stotty said at the time. "After the first couple of songs, I think it was intended to be a shorter project, but we just kept it going." Benny's version is about adjustment rather than planning: "We really didn't approach this with a sound in mind; it kind of just happened organically. The more I worked with Stotty, the more familiar my ear became with his beat styles, and I just tried to feed off his energy and keep up." He also described the difficulty plainly "The real challenge was keeping up with him as an artist." Since then they haven't stopped working together. There's a four-way album with Mic Hoffa and Square 2 God, another collective record that ran here in the spring, and a Stotty P track featuring Benny released last month. Two emcees in different countries, releasing at a pace most local pairs don't manage. The tracklist is short and unadorned "Stay Awake," "Lowdown Rotten Dirty," "Culture," the title track, "Swan Song" with no guest features listed and, at this point, no production credits published, so none are named here. There's a listening party scheduled for release night. Benny's catalogue is full of baseball titles 9th Inning, Bullpen, Hit Stick and this one joins the run without explaining itself, which is consistent. We'll have the assessment when the record is actually out.

Transparency Note: Content & research created independently by HHHEADZ. AI tools are strictly used for translation and language refinement.

Misa & Nicholas Craven "Civilisé, Pt. III" [VIDEO]

The video is new; the song isn't. "Civilisé, Pt. III" came out in the spring, opened the Sibérie EP a few weeks later, and gets its clip now a long runway for a three-minute track, which tells you something about how deliberately this project has been built. The credits are worth reading closely, because they're unusually complete for an underground release. Written by Misa. Produced by Nicholas Craven. Mixed and mastered by Roberto Viglione, who did the same job on Craven's Boldy James album this summer. Cover by Misa and Craven together. Directed by xtrm_mood. Nobody is hiding behind a collective name. What makes the pairing work is history rather than strategy. Before any of the releases that brought Craven international attention, he and Misa were in a group together Mastasoundz, with Craven recording as Da Godfatha', alongside Big Fish, Jahmac 10 and Ryzzlah. That's a decade-old working relationship showing up on a record, and you can hear the shared vocabulary in it. Misa was born Sami Saidi in Algiers in 1995 and left at the age of five for Paris, where he found French rap, and later Canada. His own label describes that as a triple formation Franco-Canadian and Algerian and Quebec reporting places his upbringing in the Hull sector of Gatineau, across the river from where Craven was born. He has said he raps for what survives: "Si je fais du rap, c'est pour l'indélibilité." The writing on this track is inward rather than boastful "Je suis la scène de crime, j'ai rappé sans auditoire" (I am the crime scene, I rapped with no audience) and it lands its politics plainly: "Les rois de ce monde ont pas d'humanité. Les lois de ce monde ont pas d'utilité." Craven spent this year releasing at a rate most producers don't attempt six projects, from a Boldy James record to a Rosco P. Coldchain album to this. Sibérie is the one where he works in French with a writer he's known since they were teenagers making mixtapes in Gatineau. We covered "Dame De Fer" from this EP when it arrived. This is the opening track, finally getting its images.

Transparency Note: Content & research created independently by HHHEADZ. AI tools are strictly used for translation and language refinement.

Blacko "THE GOODNESS" [VIDEO]

A new video from Blacko, running just under three minutes and arriving with no description, no credits and no stated location. What there is: the track, the artist's own channel, and a run of prior releases that says more about the direction than any note would. Blacko has spent this year putting out singles with titles drawn from organised-crime history and street shorthand "Roy Demayo," after the Gambino crew's most notorious killer; "Big Meech BMF (can't be stopped)"; "Black M.F"; "Memphis chick pressure," which landed at the start of the month. We ran the "Roy Demayo" video here in February and called it what it is: a dark anthem built on mafia aesthetics, delivered with the precision of someone who has been doing this a while. The visual for it is by some distance the most-viewed thing on the channel, which suggests that register is what his audience came for. "THE GOODNESS" continues the run. Beyond that there is very little to report honestly: no producer is credited, no label is named, and no statement accompanies the upload. For an artist operating entirely independently, that absence is itself the posture the work goes up, the titles do the talking, and the next one follows within weeks.

Transparency Note: Content & research created independently by HHHEADZ. AI tools are strictly used for translation and language refinement.

ethemadassassin x Cee One "Eye Over Everything" [SINGLE]

Two versions, one song: the original at a little over two minutes, a remix at nearly three. That's the whole release a single and its remix, out now on a joint imprint credit. No production credit is published for either version, so none is named here. The name on the front is worth unpacking, because ethemadassassin has explained it. It came from a college friend called Wunsun Ra: "Ra used to say i was on some assassin shit, one shot kill type of thing… and nobody knew me, they just knew I was lethal," E told an interviewer. "The mad part just comes from people saying I always looked angry. So Ra put that together with my first initial, E." All lowercase, no spaces, on what he calls "some hip hop shit." He is a Los Angeles MC by way of North Carolina his own framing of the distance is "3000 miles" and he has been releasing since 2004, across nine albums and two EPs by his own count, plus three records as half of the duo Veteran Assassins. His description of his sound is "bar heavy, bare bones, East Coast boom bap street music," and the catalogue backs it up: Handz Of Stone in 2022, its sequel Sparring Practice early the following year, the Bear Handz series, Carter N Newton: The Field Report, and last year's The Wave Letterman Show with D.R.U.G.S. Beats. The title sequence Handz, Bear Handz, Carter N Newton is part of the joke, and part of the discipline. What "Eye Over Everything" adds to that catalogue can't be assessed from here; the track isn't available to hear at the time of writing. What can be said is that a two-track single with a remix attached is the format of an independent artist keeping the release cadence up between albums, and E has kept that cadence for twenty years.

Transparency Note: Content & research created independently by HHHEADZ. AI tools are strictly used for translation and language refinement.

1999 WRITE THE FUTURE & Souls of Mischief "Road Runnin" (feat. Jay Worthy) [VIDEO]

The most useful fact about "Road Runnin" is in the credits: produced by A-Plus. That's one of the four Souls of Mischief making the beat for his own group, which is a different thing from a group hiring outside production thirty-plus years into a career. The song is a car record, and it sounds like one "100 spokes and the paint clear coat hydroplaning percussion tidal waves and potholes" is a verse written by someone thinking about motion. Jay Worthy takes the hook and he takes it from the position of a visitor, which is the right instinct. "Road Runnin, you could say the map is my playground," he raps, and then places himself: "Slidin' in the Long Sleeve, hit Souls when I'm in The Town." The Town is Oakland. "Hiero, aye what's hatnin' though" is him addressing the family by its abbreviation. He doesn't pretend to be from there; he says he comes through and links up. That's worth more than an adopted accent would be. The video is a driving shoot with real stunt drivers four of them credited from Motovisions directed by The BAKARI Company and shot and cut by Aaron Brown, with a separate operator for the car work. The credits list a stunt team by first names, which tells you the cars were actually moving. Where the song turns is in the second Souls verse, past the car talk: "I ain't worried 'bout 12, ridin' past them bastards / They're mad at blackness and bad to black kids / That's why so many feel like they have to pack sticks." Nearly thirty-five years after 93 'til Infinity, the group still sounds like four people who rehearse together, and still uses the record to say something plain. The EP this comes from is already out, and it continues a partnership that started on the 88rising collective's 2024 album a record whose guest list ran from Ghostface Killah and De La Soul to BADBADNOTGOOD. "Road Runnin" is the third video from it. A translucent orange-and-green vinyl edition exists but doesn't ship until the end of the year, so plan accordingly.

Transparency Note: Content & research created independently by HHHEADZ. AI tools are strictly used for translation and language refinement.

Bizarre x Nolaj, Jclassic, D Noe, Lokye, Tru Klassick & Dango Forlaine "BLINKING LIGHT" [VIDEO]

Six MCs, six and a half minutes, and a description that reads, in full: "detroit underground." That's the whole pitch. The song comes through the channel of Bizarre D12's Bizarre and it opens with a voice rather than a verse: "Yeah, this is Nick Speed and we about to show you how the [__] Detroit is, man. How dirty it get." Nick Speed introducing a Detroit posse cut is the right framing, because Speed is one of the city's connective figures. He signed to G-Unit as an in-house producer in the mid-2000s, ran Libido Sounds with Elzhi, has production credits for 50 Cent, Danny Brown, Big Sean and Quavo, and co-curated the D-Cyphered exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts. He won a Detroit Music Award for it. When he says "how dirty it get," he's vouching. Of the six names on the track, four can be placed. Dango Forlaine who also records as Swan has been releasing steadily out of Detroit since his debut EP in 2018, with a run of producer-led projects including The Master, Mazmanadium and Airodyenamek; he appeared here earlier this year on "Kool & The Gang" with Chris Jose and Bozack Morris. Lokye is Brian H. Newman, a New York-born painter who runs the Granny's Chandelier gallery in Hamtramck, raps, and records and masters himself in what he calls the Detroit Goon Cave. Tru Klassick is Taylor Michael out of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, recording since 2006 first as T-Mic whose Mastah Chief and Halo Effect sit in a boom-bap and soul lineage. Nolaj is Jalon Perryman, Detroit-born and now Los Angeles-based, whose name is his first name backwards and is pronounced like "knowledge"; he built his audience through a weekly Nolaj Mondays series. The other two names can't be nailed down from here. Jclassic turns up on a Detroit producer's album as a featured verse. D Noe turns up nowhere that can be confirmed. What the verses themselves do is report rather than perform. "Came up off the fish scale shavings got imported. Get my own money. I ain't never need endorsements" is a statement of independence. "Raised in the early 90s, north side of the D" places the speaker. And there's a refrain running through the back half about wanting the city's sound back "we need our style back," "classic like when the vinyl touched the needle." For a track with no label, no listed producer and two words of description, that's a clear enough thesis: six voices arguing that Detroit's way of doing this is worth defending.

Transparency Note: Content & research created independently by HHHEADZ. AI tools are strictly used for translation and language refinement.

Benny From The Sandlot "Alien Invasion" [ALBUM]

 

Benny From The Sandlot "Alien Invasion" [ALBUM]

Six tracks, a little over sixteen minutes, and a guest list that tells you exactly where Benny From The Sandlot sits. Mickey Factz takes two of them the opener-adjacent "Beatdown" and the closer "Spilt Liquor" and Factz is the kind of name that anchors a record like this: Bronx, XXL's 2009 freshman class, co-founder of Pendulum Ink, once part of Lupe Fiasco's All City Chess Club. For an independent album out of Hampton, Virginia, that's a real get. The rest of the roster is regional and international at once. Square 2 God is a Virginia mainstay and Benny's most frequent partner the two have a joint album, a joint EP and a four-way record behind them. TurkTurk works out of the same city as a producer, rapper and beatmaker. And "Clinic" brings in micwise, who raps out of Trinidad and Tobago and describes himself as his country's lyricist. That's a deliberately wide spread for a sixteen-minute record: one national name, two locals, one Caribbean voice. The sequencing is tight nothing over three and a half minutes, five of six tracks in the two-to-three-minute range which is the same instinct Benny has shown across a catalogue built on baseball titles: 9th Inning, Bullpen, Hit Stick, now Alien Invasion. Short projects, quick turnaround, no filler. His earlier EP ran six tracks too, and Bullpen, his joint album with the Canadian Stotty P, came out of what he described as a single track that snowballed. One thing this release doesn't offer: production credits. None are published, so none are named here. What's audible from the tracklist alone is a record that puts its collaborators front and centre and gets out before it overstays the same discipline that has kept Benny releasing steadily since last spring.

Transparency Note: Content & research created independently by HHHEADZ. AI tools are strictly used for translation and language refinement.

The Yutes "Rebellious Souls" [SINGLE]

 

NEW YORK, NY, Jamaican-American duo The Yutes return with their new single, “Rebellious Souls,” via Babygrande Records. Drawing on the infectious energy of dancehall, reggae, and hip-hop, the brothers continue carving out their own space by blending their Jamaican roots with their upbringing in the United States.

Comprised of biological brothers Chris and Santris Palmer, The Yutes were raised in Kingston, Jamaica, by their father, legendary Jamaican dancehall artist Mr. Lexx, before moving to the United States to pursue their own music careers. Their experience between Jamaica and the U.S. has shaped their sound, which moves naturally across genres and connects the traditions of Jamaican music with contemporary hip-hop and global sounds.

“Rebellious Souls” continues that evolution, reflecting the duo’s ability to draw from both sides of their background while creating music that stands apart from conventional genre boundaries. Following a recent trip back to their hometown of Kingston, The Yutes have been staying active and continuing to build on their sound with new music.

The Yutes have also collaborated with artists including Tarrus Riley, Jah Vinci, Masicka, Govana, and Curren$y, while performing internationally as the duo continues to expand its audience. They opened for Popcaan on his 2023 European “God Is He” tour and for Stove God Cooks during his 2024 North American “Let Him Cook” tour.

With more than 5.5 million Spotify streams across their featured top tracks and a growing presence across streaming platforms and YouTube, The Yutes are entering a new chapter with “Rebellious Souls.”

Produced by Gonzalezlab 

“Rebellious Souls” is out now via Babygrande Records - https://stem.ffm.to/rebellioussouls 

For more information on The Yutes:
https://linktr.ee/theyutes
https://www.instagram.com/yutesmusic
https://www.facebook.com/yutesmusic/
https://x.com/yutesmusic

https://babygrande.com
https://www.instagram.com/babygranderecords

 

DJ EASY - Easy Listening Vol. 40 (Legends Edition hosted by Masta Ace) [Mixtape]

 

DJ EASY is back with the latest part of his Easy Listening Mixtape Series . It's the LEGENDS EDITION hosted by none other than the legendary MASTA ACE from Brooklyn/New York. The mixtape features only songs from legends of the Golden Age of Hip Hop who are still releasing music today such as Onyx, Method Man, AZ, Scarface, Ghostface Killah, Kool G Rap, Pudgee, El Da Sensei, MC Shan, KRS-One, Smif-N-Wessun, Buckshot, Billy Danze, Lil Fame, Big Daddy Kane, Jadakiss, Saukrates, Common, Craig G, Treach (of Naughty By Nature), Guru, Edo G, Keith Murray, Rakim, Kurupt, Masta Killa, Snoop Dogg, Redman and many more. Enjoy...