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...

448 Brad + JusDave - "3.5 Points" [SINGLE]

“Called this last batch Raekwon, came with the purple tape.” Rochester, NY rhyme-dealer 448 Brad returns with a new single / video titled “3.5 Points.” Out now via all digital platforms the JusDave Produced track is a spliff powered heater topped with Brad’s over-the-top tales of hustlin’ life.

“3.5 Points” is the first leak from the 448 Brad & JusDave full-length collaboration, Weekend At Manny’s to drop shortly. Speaking on the project Brad relayed “me and JusDave go back a long time. We’ve collaborated on tracks before, but this is our first time locking in to create a whole album. We recorded Weekend at Manny’s in two days. He made the beats on the spot, I wrote the verses on the spot — nothing forced, it just made sense.”

Listen to “3.5 Points”: Here

Watch official video for “3.5 Points” (shot by Nue Shotit): Here

This is 448 Brad’s first release since last year’s LP Do You Know A Cooler Brad, which was fully powered by Chup The Producer. He also recently appeared on tracks by Pounds and Toneyboi as well as made appearances on Chinatown Sound and The Punchline Academy (SiriusXM).

More Info: https://www.instagram.com/448bradpiff/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/jusdave585/

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Dark Lo "Manhattan" [VIDEO]

Dark Lo and V Don are one of the established configurations in hard East Coast rap: Lo out of Philadelphia with his unrelenting, unfiltered delivery, V Don producing with the cinematic, soul-cored sound he's built a label on. Made of Gold, released in July, was their fifth album together. "Manhattan" is not on it which means this is new material, presumably from whatever they have queued up next. The video landed this week through Serious Soundz, V Don's label. Two minutes nine, and the structure is the interesting part: rather than a hook, the record runs on call-and-response, with a second voice repeating and punctuating each line "Best dad." "Let's go." It gives the verse the feel of a room rather than a booth. The writing is pure Dark Lo, which means two registers running at once. "Crack house I graduated to the meth lab / Daughter hug me say I'm the best dad" is the whole career in a couplet the damage and the domestic life placed side by side without comment. "It made me stronger the less I had" is the thesis, and "You blessed if we ever collab" is the warning. Lo came home in 2025 after serving four years and has been working continuously since. V Don, out of Harlem, has spent the last few years producing full albums for Boldy James, Estee Nack, CRIMEAPPLE and ANKHLEJOHN, and this partnership remains the most durable of them. Covered here repeatedly over the last few months. This one is short, and it's new.

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JJackpot & Sauce Yin "Skull Bustin'" [SINGLE]

"Skull Bustin'" is a new single from JJackpot and Sauce Yin, released this week, running two minutes fifty-two. The release carries three group affiliations Super Villains Association, Animal Planet and D1RTH9USERECORDS. That is very nearly the sum of what's verifiable. There are no production credits, no mix or mastering details, no artwork credit, no location, and no biographical or discographic material available for either artist in the sources I could reach. The submission lists Sauce Yin first and the release credits JJackpot first, and I can't determine which of them leads the record, so both are named. Under three minutes, it's a single without a stated parent project. Worth logging for anyone tracking these crews; not worth pretending there's more to say.

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Writeous Ruler x Boneweso "RULES & REGULATIONS" [VIDEO]

Boneweso has become one of the more reliable names in the current underground production pool stark, purposeful beats that make room for the MC rather than competing with him, and a steady output through his own 23 Incredible Industries imprint. "Rules & Regulations" pairs him with Writeous Ruler, and it first surfaced earlier this year as the lead single from their collaborative album Gold Mind, Silver Tongue. The video is new, shot by Oneeyefilms. The track runs about two and a half minutes and does exactly what a lead single is supposed to: establishes the tone without exhausting the project. Ruler's delivery is commanding and unhurried, and the chemistry reads as a working relationship rather than a booking the two have appeared on each other's records repeatedly, including Boneweso's The Cost of Gold with Codenine, where Ruler takes "Channel 3." The album is billed with features from Estee Nack, BoriRock, The Hidden Character and Codenine, which places it firmly in that Massachusetts–New York axis of the underground that Boneweso operates in. Covered here when the single dropped; this is the visual.

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The Don Avelar x Baz Rui "The Chef's Table" [ALBUM]

 

The Chef's Table came out today: twelve tracks, roughly thirty minutes, written and performed by The Don Avelar and recorded, mixed and produced with Baz Rui. The third name on the release is the label SHMACK!, out of Victorville in California's high desert, which describes itself as an "on the job training hip hop label." The guest list Seven of the twelve tracks carry a feature, and the booking is a mix of local and established: Kahlisol, Lady Lux, Def Soulja, JOE SNAPPED, Flipmode and NVY JONES LKR, plus A-F-R-O on "Masquerade." A-F-R-O is the name most listeners will arrive with, and his placement at track six the longest track on the record alongside "Una Mujer" suggests the album knows where its attention is. The packaging The cover is worth a mention because it's unusual. The layout and design are by Raymon Ruiz DSD, with photography by Caylin Yorba Ruiz and Keshia Murdoch and the original painting is credited to Albert Anker, a nineteenth-century painter, which is not a choice you see often on a rap record from the high desert. Alongside a fifty-second "Have You Tried The Lasagna," it suggests a sense of humour about the whole thing. The tracks are short most between 1:21 and 3:21 and the sequencing moves rather than settling. No mastering credit beyond the recorded-and-mixed line, no separate label. For listeners tracking the Californian underground outside Los Angeles, this is the kind of regional operation that rarely gets written about and usually deserves it.

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Jakebeatz, Micky Gargano & CHILZ "Sotterrain" (feat. DJ Tray) [VIDEO]

"Sotterrain" is the first official video from Bonaparte, an album that has been out since the end of June so the record isn't new, but the visual is, and it's the one the trio chose to lead with. The project is a three-way operation: Jakebeatz produces, Micky Gargano and CHILZ rap, DJ Tray handles the cuts. The description frames it as French and Italian rap meeting Jakebeatz's beats, though it doesn't say which MC works in which language, and I'm not going to guess. Tray's turntable work is credited explicitly, which is the detail worth noting scratch credits are rare enough on contemporary European releases to be worth naming. Manoo shot the video. It runs two minutes thirty-four, through PW Records. Given that this is the first visual from a four-month-old album, the sensible way to listen is as a re-entry point rather than a single. The trio format one producer, two MCs, one DJ is a configuration that European underground rap has been using well for years, and this one is unusually clear about who does what.

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Spoda & Passport Rav "Ayo Aite" [VIDEO]

Spoda raps out of Long Island. Passport Rav produces, working between New Jersey and Brooklyn. The two met through The Walkers, a New York collective of rappers and producers, and the connection was made by Wavy da Ghawd the Chicago producer whose run of collaborative albums has quietly become one of the more reliable things in the underground. After a few songs together, the feeling was apparently that Rav and Spoda should make a project. That project is called Strong Isl, New Jerz, and "Ayo Aite" is the first single from it. Two minutes forty-three, premiered this week. Beyond that, almost nothing is published: no production credit on the release itself, though Rav is the producer of the pair; no mix or mastering details; no tracklist or release date for the project yet. That's worth saying plainly rather than filling in. What can be assessed is the premise. Regional pairing records work when the two places actually sound like different things, and Long Island and New Jersey/Brooklyn do different tempos, different histories, twenty miles apart. The title names both, which suggests the project knows what it's doing.

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Hybrid the Rapper "Legend of the Goatman" [ALBUM]

 

Hybrid the Rapper records out of Frankfort, Kentucky, and has sixty-four releases behind him a catalogue that includes Soundtrack to a Small Town, Eastside Frankfort and Music Therapy, which tells you something about how he thinks about projects. Legend of the Goatman is seven tracks, about twenty-one minutes, and it came out this week. What's worth noting before the music is how he tags himself: hip-hop, underground hip hop, indie rock, and spoken word poetry. That's an unusual combination for a rapper to claim, and the tracklist bears it out. "Personal Anthem," "Aura," "Clairvoyant," "Dreamlike" these are impressionistic titles rather than battle titles, and the sequencing runs from the declarative opening to the hazy closer without a guest appearance anywhere. The title track sits at six, which is a choice: the concept song is placed late, after the mood has been established, rather than used as a hook to sell the record. No producer, mix or mastering credits are listed, and there's no label attached. At seven tracks and twenty-one minutes it's sized as a single sitting, and the self-description suggests a rapper who is more interested in texture than in proving something. For listeners who work through the American underground outside the coastal cities, Kentucky has a small but real scene and this is a solid entry point.

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Truesounds & Raggo Zulu Rebel "Ghetto Symphony" [VIDEO]

The billing looks like two MCs and isn't. Truesounds is a collective out of Norwich not a rapper at all, but a sound-system operation built on Jamaican riddim tradition, releasing one riddim at a time with a rotating cast of vocalists, in the manner of the dancehall culture it's paying homage to. Their catalogue runs from Capleton and Jah Mason to newer UK voices. Raggo Zulu Rebel is the Bristol MC who, with Motman, makes up the duo Konahriks. They've worked together before "Energy Never Lies" and "War Inna Babylon" in 2025 so this isn't a first meeting. The song "Ghetto Symphony" is Raggo's record, and it's a hard one. He opens by declaring it, then spends three and a half minutes on what a ghetto symphony actually contains: trauma, addiction, the specific textures of a childhood that ended early. "Most I learned to hear everything that they weren't saying" is the sharpest line, and it's followed by the one that gives the record its scale: "From the pulpit to the main stage of Wembley." The chorus reframes the title as a function rather than a boast the music doesn't celebrate the neighbourhood, it calms it: "Post-traumatic stress, traumatized by the memories / calmed them down with the sounds of the ghetto symphony." There's a nod to "Brenda's Got a Baby" in the middle, and a plain piece of memory that lands harder than anything around it: "As kids we was pure, doing chores, playing N64." Chancy shot the video. No production or mix credits listed for the track. For anyone following the UK underground at the point where sound-system culture and boom bap meet, this is worth the three and a half minutes.

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World Be Free x The Diamond Gallery "Diamonds Are Forever" [ALBUM]

World Be Free is Brian Freeland, who has lived in Syracuse, New York since he was three. He took the name from the NBA guard World B. Free born Lloyd Free, changed it in 1981 and then gave it a different meaning: "A lot of rap artists take a name of a gangster or criminal. For me, it's the case of the world being free." He has communications degrees from Howard, and he has spent his career making music in a city that doesn't produce much national coverage. Diamonds Are Forever, credited with The Diamond Gallery, came out this week: ten tracks, twenty-five minutes. Reading the tracklist The titles place it. "Everson Museum (Interlude)" is a thirty-eight second nod to the art museum in his city. "Moh's Scale" is the mineral hardness index, which is the album title taken literally. "Bruv Heart" opens, "Free Puffy" sits at seven, and Symphonie appears twice on "Nothing's Real" and "Nike Shoe Box." The pattern is a rapper working in a specific place and refusing to translate it for a wider audience. There's no regional signposting, no explanation of Syracuse for outsiders just a record that assumes you know where you are. That's rarer than it sounds. Most regional rap either performs its city for tourists or pretends geography doesn't matter. This one does neither. No mix or mastering credits, no label, and no information on The Diamond Gallery the credit appears on the release, but I couldn't identify who or what it is. Twenty-five minutes, out now.

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OldBoy Rhymes x DJ Pain 1 "POLITICAL RAPPER" (feat. Skyzoo & Wordsworth) [VIDEO]

OldBoy Rhymes and DJ Pain 1 are releasing Regime Change on November 2 the day before the US midterms and the timing is the argument. Ten tracks, produced by Pain 1, with Sage Francis, Wordsworth, Skyzoo, Blueprint, Illogic and Rituals of Mine. It's Rhymes' first full-length collaboration with Pain 1, and it arrives through Strange Famous, Sage Francis' label. The lead track is called "Political Rapper," and Rhymes explains the title rather than defending it. He and Sage Francis were once asked by a podcast host whether they were "political rappers." Rather than deflect, he made it a song. His stated reasoning: "My first professionally released song was 'Master Cleanse,' which dropped in February 2024, only 3 months after the genocide in Gaza, when it wasn't popular to take such a position. The naked corruption, war profiteering, Christian nationalism, and overall indifference to human suffering domestically and abroad has only accelerated since then." He also frames the record against his previous album: "My last album 'Curly Head' was almost entirely introspective and personal. So, as runaway greed pushes the US further into decline, I wanted to drop a project that expresses where my head and heart are at politically." His closing line is the one that keeps the record honest: "I definitely don't have the answers, but I do have the words." The track Five minutes, three MCs, no chorus to rest on. Rhymes opens on shell companies and corporate donations and refuses to pick a side "Liberal, conservatives, Democrats, independents, Republicans / News sites lying, independently publishing." Skyzoo takes the second verse and does what he always does, which is make an argument sound effortless: "Congress criminal actors got visual actors captured." Wordsworth closes. What separates this from most protest rap is the refusal to claim special authority. Rhymes has spent, by his own account, more than half his life outside the United States, and he says plainly that he thinks most Americans "have good intentions" while being caught in "late stage capitalism, which prioritizes profit, and near-term shareholder returns, over people." That's a harder and more generous position than the usual denunciation. Regime Change is out November 2. CD pre-orders are open through Strange Famous.

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2DOLLA WILL & BLOODBLIXING "2 DOLLA MENU 3 GANGSTA EDITION" [ALBUM]

 

The third 2 Dolla Menu record is out eleven tracks, released this week, with every beat produced and the whole thing mixed and mastered by Bloodblixing. Lync Lone did the cover, and also takes a verse on "Dangerous Stuntman (Zoe Bell)." The concept is in the titles and it hasn't changed since the first volume in 2022: fast food as a framing device for street rap. "Arson Insurance Fraud (McDonald's Burnin')" opens. "Royale Wiff Cheeze," "Officer Big Mac," "Duck Butter." It shouldn't work as often as it does, but the joke is doing real labour it keeps the record from taking itself seriously without letting the writing off the hook. Iceberg Theory is on seven of the eleven tracks, which makes him effectively a co-billed artist rather than a guest. Curbstomp and Yung Regis appear. The longest track is the closer, "TV-MA" at 3:49, and most of the rest sit between 1:26 and 3:08 a record that moves. Bloodblixing runs a deep catalogue under a "Gangsta Edition" banner, forty-eight releases deep, and this is the most developed entry in the 2 Dolla Menu strand. Physical copies are being pressed in three variants, including a signed gold edition at a hundred dollars and ten cents. One caveat worth stating: the two artist pages disagree on geography the production side is tagged New York, the 2 Dolla Will page lists Butte, Montana. I can't resolve it from the credits, so both are noted here.

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Scoob Rock "Ink Bleed" [VIDEO]

"Ink Bleed" is a record about the act of writing, and Scoob Rock builds it out of the physical objects: a rhyme book, a pen, the time it takes to fill a page. "Pages full of thoughts. My ink bleed proof" is the thesis the notebook as evidence rather than draft. The beat is by Drumline and Librim, mixed and mastered by 360 Labz, released through 360Degrees Ent. and 135 Music. Scoob's verse runs two and a half minutes without a conventional hook, stacking short lines "Every bar got a time stamp," "Me versus me but the block in my bloodstream" and closing on the plainest statement in the song: "Write until my ink run dry and my heart stop." The middle section shifts, and this is where it gets more interesting than a craft record. The braggadocio ("the mighty mighty original super duper MC") gives way to something closer to elegy "Mothers are dying by the dozens," and then a verse about two people who crossed paths and drifted apart, "like echoes fading into gray." That turn from self-mythology to loss is what makes two minutes thirty-nine worth the time. Beyond the credits there's very little published: no location, no biography, and no discographic trail I could find in three searches. The record stands on its own.

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MC Eiht "The Story of My Life" [ALBUM]

MC Eiht's The Story of My Life arrives tomorrow twenty tracks, roughly an hour, on Blue Stamp and the fastest way to understand what he's doing is to read the tracklist as a guest list. Conway The Machine. Pete Rock. B-Real. Dave East. Jay Worthy. Brotha Lynch Hung. Glasses Malone. And on the closer, "Tippin," Tha Chill his running mate from Compton's Most Wanted, the group that put Compton on the map alongside N.W.A. with Music to Driveby. Ferhan C produces, and he's produced the singles too: "Everyday" with Conway led the campaign, "8 Lawz" with Glasses Malone opens the record. Eiht has been recording since the late eighties, and when this album was first discussed in the autumn of 2025 he said it "might be the last album." It was originally slated for that October and has taken a year to arrive. The shape of it twenty tracks, a guest on roughly half, and a closing song with the one person who was there at the start reads as a summary rather than a new chapter. Whether it is the last one or not, it's built like an artist taking stock: "Remember Us," "We Been Bacc Here B4," "Hubcity," and a title that says the quiet part out loud. Covered here already through the "8 Lawz" video. The album lands tomorrow.

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Prolific Wone "DANGEROUS" [VIDEO]

Prolific Wone has been running an eight-part film series across two connected albums, which is an unusually patient way to release a record. The first chapters belonged to God En Man, released late last year and produced entirely by Manage. "DANGEROUS" is part seven, and it sits on the companion album of the same name, which is out now. The series is styled after classic espionage cinema chapters rather than singles, each one revealing a piece of a narrative that only makes sense in sequence. Manage produces again, JimmyChiba directs with Wone, and the video was shot in London by apexzero and EOWENGLAND. Nonezeo recorded it, Soda Mousse mastered it, and it's released through i2i Music and Lab79. Who he is Wone is a founding member of End of the Weak, the global hip-hop platform built around the MC Challenge, and half of i2i, the New York group he formed with Vice Verses in the nineties. He's from the Lower East Side. That background matters here, because the writing on "DANGEROUS" is battle-tested rather than abstract dense internal rhyme, no concessions to a hook, and a vocabulary that treats politics and street economy as the same subject: "Repel politicians repulsive repugnant. Paper puppets reptilian all pungent." The chorus "This dangerous situation circumstance / Reposition resurface avoid the telegram target" works as both plot and thesis, which is the whole trick of the series. Previously covered here with "Die Lon," the third chapter. Seven of eight in, the structure is holding.

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Uneeke Kenetic & Mr. Tera "The Last Disciple" [ALBUM]

 

Uneeke Kenetic announces his sophomore album The Last Disciple with a title-track teaser: thirteen tracks, one producer Mr. Tera handles the entire album and a guest list pulled straight from the Wu-Tang family tree. Dom Pachino, founding Killarmy member and the general behind Napalm Recordings, appears on both "Perfect Timing" and "Trust None" and directs the visuals; Trife Diesel, Stapleton's Theodore Unit staple and Ghostface's longtime running partner, joins on "Snake Bites." The snippet carries exactly the Wu-affiliated gravity that billing promises, and the album lands in December on CD and digital through Napalm. The setup repeats a formula the Trenton, New Jersey emcee already ran once: his 2022 debut Lyrical Godfiti was also built entirely on Mr. Tera production, executive-produced by Pachino, with Trife Diesel already in the fold on "Stapleton & Trenton Kids" three words that mapped the whole bridge from Staten Island to Jersey. Kenetic's own foundation runs deeper than the Wu nod: he reps West Trenton and carries his brother's name in his DSRC (Drew Smitty Rhyme Committi) imprint the lyricist who put him on before passing in 1996. Napalm has been Pachino's imprint since 2002, and this corner of the Wu tree has stayed quietly consistent for over two decades. The Last Disciple reads like the next chapter in exactly that lane. Pre-orders run through the label now.

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Ghostface Killah x Bane Capital "Amigos da Dundas" [SINGLE]

"Amigos da Dundas" is Ghostface Killah over Bane Capital production, packed into roughly ninety seconds a single that states its business and leaves. Out now through Bane Capital Productions, it's the fourth single lifted from Terminal 2, the duo's upcoming LP, which arrives next month with features from AKAI SOLO, Papo2004 and ANKHLEJOHN. The title nods at the duo's hometown grid Dundas, one of Toronto's cross-town strips and the Wu-Tang connection behind the record runs through Raekwon: Bane Capital first linked with the Chef on "Alley Larks" back in 2022, and this reads like the natural next step of that bridge. For Bane Capital a Ghanaian-Canadian production duo, active since 2021, with credits reaching from Toronto's own TOBi to Rapsody, Phoenix Pagliacci and Chuuwee the Ghostface co-sign caps a run that already includes Good Product, their LP with Koncept Jack$on (Raekwon, MED, Fly Anakin, Rome Streetz and ANKHLEJOHN all pulling up), joint singles with Blu and MED, Estee Nack and AKAI SOLO, a 2021 Season 0 catalogue of four self-produced albums, and a New Era cap collection. In five years they've turned themselves into one of the country's most reliable producer camps the kind of operation that makes Toronto a mandatory stop on the underground map. Ghostface's half of the equation needs no summary here: Park Hill to Ironman, Supreme Clientele, Fishscale the stream-of-consciousness style that rewired what a rap verse could hold. NPR once called him "maybe the hardest, most intense" MC in a group full of them. For this one, the press notes promise vintage GFK over what they call "boom-bap futurism." Ninety seconds to find out.

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Bloo Azul & The Standouts "Troo Bloo 2" [ALBUM]

 

Bloo Azul & The Standouts open Troo Bloo 2 with the concept spelled out: "The first chapter was about self-recognition. The second is about self-revelation." The first chapter arrived in 2023 as the six-track Troo Bloo EP; the sequel stretches the idea to ten songs, all produced by the Standouts, with Spanish Ran Azul's partner on Déjà Bloo and MF Bloo Deluxe on mix and master duty. Tree Mason is the lone guest, on "Nicks in Five." The tracklist reads like a wall of gallery plaques on its own: "Mr Sinister," "Watchdogs," "Apocalypto," "Freedom Land," "Raiders of the Lost Art," "Van Gogh." And the album slots into one of the Bronx's most quietly reliable operations Azul has spent recent years building a collab-album series with a rotating bench of producers (Spanish Ran, Sherman, Good Food, Pep57) plus a running partnership with Passport Rav that hit 83rd Strike earlier this year. Self-revelation, delivered at that pace, is less a theme than a method.

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Copywrite x Xkwisit x Mista Pigz x Ab The Audicrat "Gutter Trash" [SINGLE]

"Gutter Trash" is a two-minute, twelve-second single carrying four names, and every name brings its own scene. Copywrite anchors it the Columbus, Ohio lyricist whose MHz crew with RJD2 and the late Camu Tao remains foundational underground history. Xkwisit holds down Albany, New York, where he runs T.I.M. (Thoughts In Motion) with Timbo King and has already logged a full duo project with Mista Pigz. Mista Pigz an HHHEADZ regular at this point is the Capital District's most persistent underground voice. And Ab The Audicrat, the Albany producer/engineer behind years of Xkwisit records, covers the boards side. Released through the Thoughts In Motion imprint, the single works as a summit between the 518 and Columbus on paper. Two minutes is barely enough time for introductions which is exactly the point of a billing like this.

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Eto "The Worker" [VIDEO]

There is no distributor standing between you and Eto's new album People, Places & Things "no streams, no distro," as the Rochester, New York emcee put it himself. The record sells directly: Cash App, PayPal, straight from the man. "The Worker," his new visual produced by Vinny Idol and shot by D Gomez Films, is the latest push from it. The credits explain the confidence. AZ and Raekwon headline the feature sheet, with Nyce Da Future, Jai Black, Reno RX, Thvnos, Klicko, Tiki Torch, Blizz From Juice and $outhside Mac behind them; the boards are handled by Eto himself alongside Vinny Idol, V Don, Thvnos Beats, Chup, Christiannity, Fonk Starr, Vice Versa and Bars Dept. Vinny Idol, for the record, is a Bronx producer whose resume reaches from G-Unit mixtape cuts to Styles P and LOX albums a "The Worker" credit that doubles as lineage. Eto's own two-decade run, from Rochester mixtapes to records with The Alchemist, Daringer and Statik Selektah, needs no introduction to anyone reading this. A record with that guest list, sold hand to hand, is its own statement about who the music is for.

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Planet Asia x Local Astronauts "F.A.F.O." [SINGLE]

"F.A.F.O." is the new Planet Asia x Local Astronauts single, three minutes and change, out now via Local Astronauts and Gold Chain Music and the billing carries the history. The pairing's last full-length, No Retirement, ran thirteen tracks built entirely on Local Astronauts production, with the guest list held short and deliberate: Jay Worthy, T.F., Montage One, Jay Nice. Planet Asia Fresno, California since the Cali Agents days has spent his recent run locking in with single production camps, and the Local Astronauts connection has proven one of the sturdiest. An acronym for a title does its own trash-talking. Whether F.A.F.O. opens a next chapter or stands alone, it keeps the partnership alive and with Asia, the safe assumption is never that something is a one-off.

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Chaka Boy "North Division (DJ Pack)" [SINGLE]

 

Chaka Boy's "North Division" arrives as a five-track DJ pack original, remix, both instrumentals, an acapella the third single pulled from A Canadian Werewolf in Alaska, his werewolf-concept album on Hand'Solo Records. Written and performed by Chaka Boy, produced by The Dirty Sample, mastered by Dorc. With the previous two singles rolled out the same way, the format is less a rollout choice at this point than a signature. The label's notes frame "North Division" as a defiant, artist-first statement loyalty, protecting the inner circle, the craft treated like religion over a Dirty Sample beat they liken to a slow-burn western score: hushed, cold, the calm before the shootout. The album itself lands at the end of the month as an official Cassette Week release, with the tape carrying the instrumentals on its B-side a format decision that doubles as a remix invitation. The bigger picture deserves a line, too: Hand'Solo, the Toronto institution holding down Canadian underground rap since 1996, is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year. A Canadian Werewolf in Alaska arriving in that season feels less like scheduling than like a statement from the roster.

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Al-Doe x Spanish Ran "The People's Gallery" [SINGLE]

"The People's Gallery" is the newest entry in one of the underground's most consistent two-man series: Al-Doe on the mic, Spanish Ran on the boards. The partnership has been running since 2019 Doña Blanca, two rounds of Michelin Stars, The People In Hell Are Jealous, Holy City Zoo, and this year's Rock, Paper, Scissors and the new single keeps it to the core: two and a half minutes, billed to just the two of them, out now on The Church. The series has its own internal logic. Every previous chapter was written by Al-Doe and produced, mixed and mastered by Spanish Ran, largely cut in-house, with guest spots reserved for when they matter Ab-Soul on Holy City Zoo, Fabolous on Rock, Paper, Scissors. A single arriving without a feature, seven years into a run this steady, reads as the duo trusting the core collaboration to carry it. They've earned that bet.

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Spoda x Passport Rav "Strong Isl, New Jerz" [ALBUM]

The title of Spoda x Passport Rav's joint album does the map work before a single bar drops: Strong Isl, New Jerz. Nine tracks, twenty-four minutes, out now Spoda repping Bay Shore out on Long Island, Rav born in Jersey and based in Brooklyn, two catalogs meeting in the middle. The guests stay close to the respective camps: David Jame$ on "It's Me Again," Rim on "Twisted," Bub Rock on "In Time," with "Ayo Aite" already out ahead of the album. Both bring history to the table. Rav spent earlier this year on 83rd Strike, his third duo album with Bronx rapper Bloo Azul; Spoda's run stretches from Don Spoda to last year's When The Smoke Clears. Nothing here clears the four-minute mark the record gets in, makes its point and gets out, which is its own kind of statement.

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Estee Nack x Al.Divino "TYB/Bushido" & Al.Divino "GetRichOrLse" [VIDEOS]

Estee Nack x al.divino close out the day with two new clips: "TYB/Bushido," a four-and-a-half-minute joint cut, and "GetRichOrLse," divino flying solo over his own production, lensed by gh0stk1tchen. Both landed on divino's Jackpot Records channel, and neither arrives with a project attached for now they read as loosies from one of the most quietly prolific duos in East Coast underground rap. The resume backs the billing. Nack, of Tragic Allies, and divino have been trading full-lengths since Triple Black Diamonds nine joint albums in four years by 2020, with C.C.E. keeping the run alive last year a partnership rooted in Lynn, Massachusetts and built on what the two call "the splash," their own term for the improvised, jazz-minded way records leave their lab. Nack has gone as far as crediting divino with teaching him "how to rap." "GetRichOrLse" runs a tight two minutes on divino's own beat; "TYB/Bushido" takes its time at four-plus. Two speeds, one chemistry, zero rollout ceremony the way this camp has always moved.

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Moemaw Naedon x Soul Slime Records “The Smashed Pumpkin” [ALBUM]

 

Moemaw Naedon and Soul Slime Records present “The Smashed Pumpkin” 

Fresh off of his last instrumental release “Yinztroducing…” with fellow producer C.Scott; Moemaw returns just in time for the season with a full-on concept album that reflects his admiration for B-Roll Horror VHS tapes, off the grid vinyl records and analog media alike. He was able to pull all the production source material exclusively from his own collection of analog media, drum machine and synthesizers.

Atmospheric groans from creatures of the night, sinister laughs from castle windows, swarms of bats, cackles and creaks, all layered carefully over gritty hard hitting drums and heavy bass lines. This may be THE quintessential Halloween-beats album. Each track flows naturally into the next, unlocking a new journey of the imagination each time.

The Smashed Pumpkin is out now on all streaming platforms - https://lnk.to/tkyuhs0M

Plus limited edition copies on Vinyl LP - https://moemawnaedon.bandcamp.com/album/the-smashed-pumpkin

For more information on Moemaw Naedon:
https://linktr.ee/Moemawnaedon
https://www.instagram.com/moemawnaedon/
https://www.facebook.com/moemawnaedon
https://x.com/moemawnaedon
https://www.tiktok.com/@moemaw_naedon

Flames Dot Malik x DVNTBEATS x Pastelle Records "Two Face" [ALBUM]

Flames Dot Malik raps out of Rochester, New York and records for Benny the Butcher's Black Soprano Family. Two Face, released today, is a thirteen-track album produced by DVNTBEATS with Pastelle Records a Chicago label with DVNTBEATS as its in-house producer taking a third billing alongside the artist and the beats. That's an unusual triangle: a Rochester MC, a Chicago label and the producer between them. The format is the decision Thirteen tracks in twenty-three minutes. Almost nothing crosses the two-minute mark; the opener "Joe" runs 1:22, "Vietnam" 1:21, "Wrist In The Jar" 1:32. This is not an album of verses with room to breathe, it's a run of statements, and at that density the sequencing has to do the work that individual songs usually do. Guests are used sparingly Hunnaloe on "Magic," DJ Lucas on "To Whom It May Concern," Panamera P on "Wrist In The Jar" and the rest is Malik alone. Context Malik has been prolific across two lanes: BSF records with the extended Butcher network The Fix 2 in August carried Benny, Fuego Base, Estee Nack and Che Noir and a parallel run with Pastelle and DVNTBEATS, including Scarface last November. Two Face sits firmly in the second lane, and it's worth noting that one of its strongest tracks, "Mirrors & Smoke," already came out as a single with a video in September. Anyone who followed that one knows what the album sounds like. No mix or mastering credits are listed. For listeners who like their rap concentrated rather than sprawling, twenty-three minutes that refuse to pad is a better offer than most hour-long records.

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Los Chicos Criollos & RUEN "GunPowda NoseBumpz" (feat. Daniel Son) [VIDEO]

Los Chicos Criollos Kingdom Kome, an American MC, and Che Uno out of Toronto, operating out of Miami have put a video to "GunPowda NoseBumpz," and the reason it matters now is the date attached: Merca Musica, the duo's first album produced entirely by RUEN, arrives on November 10 through Walking With Enoch Music. That's the piece of information this release finally settles. The track itself is one of two singles put out ahead of it, and it carries Daniel Son, whom Kingdom Kome describes as "Che's people" a Toronto connection rather than a booking. RUEN produces, and the beat is built for two MCs switching between English and Spanish mid-verse: "Kingdom Come Latino Americano de la selva," Kome raps, and later "Every bar kicked like kung fu. War room cadence." The hook does what the title promises "doing nose bumps of gunpowder" and the whole thing sits in the rugged, unpolished register the duo has worked in since the Brujos tapes. The album title is the best part of the concept. Roughly translating as street slang for dope music, it lets Kome make the joke explicitly: "we are trafficking this pure uncut and unfiltered product, which is our music." Two MCs with shared Argentine roots calling their own distribution network a smuggling operation is funnier than most album concepts manage. The previous single, "Olmedo Y Porcel" named for the Argentine comedy duo was shot at a café in Toronto. No director is credited for this one.

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The Premonist "RETURN OF SPOOKYMAN" [EP]

 

The Premonist produces out of Phoenix, is part of the Ugli Business collective, and came up as a member and producer of The Society of Invisibles. RETURN OF SPOOKYMAN is six tracks and just under eleven minutes closer to a mini-album than a full record and he produced, mixed and arranged all of it himself. The shape is deliberate: a seventeen-second intro, four songs, a sixty-seven second outro. Sunn Sunn and Judgement appear twice, on "PEDIGREE" and "MARCH OF GRIEF"; 2UGLi takes "EVERYTHING IS UGLY" and returns for "ELVIRA" alongside Blizz From Juice. That's a tight cast for eleven minutes, and nobody gets a wasted bar. Reading the titles "March Of Grief," "Elvira," "Everything Is Ugly" and knowing the Ugli Business affiliation, this sits in horror-adjacent underground rap, though nothing in the credits says so outright. The one-minute closing statement and the fact that the record refuses to pass fifteen minutes suggest a project built as a mood piece rather than a statement. No mastering credit beyond the producer's own mix, no artwork credit, no label. Eighty releases into a catalogue that includes Violent Messiahs and Meet The Cannon Makers, The Premonist has stopped making records that explain themselves. This one is short, self-contained, and better for it.

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Lord Juco & Jamal Gasol "Book Of Revelations" [VIDEO]

Casino Niagara is four tracks and ten minutes and two seconds Book Of Revelations, Das Ruger, Child Support, Holly Robinson with production by The Standouts and Sayzee. There's no fat on it, and the scale is the point: a short collaboration between two MCs rather than a full-length padded out with interludes. Lord Juco raps out of Toronto and has a deep catalogue behind him White Walls, Raised Right, Two Birds working in a lane that runs through Asun Eastwood, Daniel Son and Estee Nack. "Book Of Revelations" opens the EP, and the video, directed by Manolo 3rd Eye, is the new element here. The verse is compact and apocalyptic in the way the title promises, but it's the small details that land it: "I do this for my people like Huey Newton," "Money and violence keep the chains moving," and then the record's sharpest turn "Y'all normalizing devil shit. That's Pazuzu," invoking the Mesopotamian wind demon rather than anything from the Christian canon, which is a better reference than the title suggests. Juco closes on "You either evolve or die. Most of you won't survive." No mix or mastering credits listed. Already covered here as a project when it dropped; this is the visual, and the opener is the right one to have picked.

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Emerg_Da_Mc "7 Laws" (Prod. TMB The Master Of Beats) [ALBUM]

 

Emerg_Da_Mc records out of Atlanta and has well over a hundred releases on his own page, most of them full-length projects made with a rotating cast of producers BK Bonez, Bobo Production, Kiza G Beats, Wilderness and now TMB The Master Of Beats. At that rate, cataloguing stops being useful and you start looking at what the titles are reaching for. 7 Laws is eight tracks and about nineteen minutes, released at the end of last week. The running order gives you the framework: "Center Thyself," "Find Kingship," "Come Home," "Raise Your Hands," with "GhxstFace Pt.2" featuring DjG1 and King Bobo taking two spots. The tagging on his own page reads conscious rap, god hop, boom bap and psychedelic, which is a self-description rather than a genre ruling but tells you where the intent sits. What's honest to say is that I can't tell you what the seven laws are. There's no lyric sheet published, no transcript, no statement the title track runs 2:46 and the content isn't recoverable from the credits. That's a gap, and it's better named than filled. What the structure does show is an artist working in short forms with a devotional throughline: two tracks under two minutes, nothing over three and a half, and a title sequence that reads like instruction rather than entertainment. For listeners who work through the Atlanta underground outside the industry pipeline, this is a prolific and consistent name.

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Son of Tony "Foresight (Heirowayne Mix)" [VIDEO]

Son of Tony has already paired "Foresight" with "Black House" in a black-and-white video from the forthcoming More Than I Was project, with production split between Standoutmusik and Heirowayne. This is the song on its own the Heirowayne mix, in colour, two minutes eighteen, shot again by Scorcese Tiz. The separation suits it. Heard alone, the verse reads as a single sustained meditation on foresight and its cost. "I possess foresight and I'm with the force like frigid temperatures," he opens, and then spends the rest of the record on what foresight is actually for: funerals. "There's ghosts in every hood. Try some of them die young. Memorials everywhere and teddy bears don't describe them." The detail work is doing the lifting medics who arrive too late, balloons and candles that don't answer anything. "So what's balloons and candles when you zipped up by a vandal?" The closing movement is the sharpest part, because it turns the title into an accusation about witnessing: they'll read about it in the paper, he says, written in black and white the phrase doing double duty and by then it's already happened. Then: "Phones got recorders." That's the whole modern condition in three words. No label or mix credits listed, and More Than I Was still has no date. The hashtags point to Buffalo; a sampled voice at the top of the track mentions San Antonio, and I can't resolve which one is home.

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Polo Baby Flako "TAMAGOTCHI" (feat. RJ Payne) [SINGLE]

Polo Baby Flako works out of Kissimmee in Central Florida, describes his sound as gritty boom-bap-influenced street music, and also shoots video which is worth knowing, because it means the visual side of this operation is being handled by the artist rather than a hired crew. "TAMAGOTCHI" is his new single, produced by Ty of Dirty Bakerz, with RJ Payne on the feature. Two things make it worth more than a mention. First, the producer: Ty of Dirty Bakerz is a new name and the record is built to put him forward rather than bury him, which is rarer than it should be on a single with a name guest attached. Second, the guest RJ Payne has been recording across several generations of this music, and Polo stepping into that company rather than trading sideways is a deliberate choice. Polo's working method, described in an interview late last year, is to record verses in one take with no punch-ins and let the beat determine the cadence and the emotion. That approach produces a particular kind of record committed, slightly rough at the edges, never second-guessed and it's audible in how the verse sits. Two minutes forty, and it's the first single from a forthcoming EP called Half A Dozen, scheduled for early November. No mix credits or label listed. For listeners tracking the Florida underground outside the Miami orbit, this is a name to log.

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Motman & Raggo Zulu Rebel "Konahriks Time Goes On" [VIDEO]

Motman and Raggo Zulu Rebel have been working as a duo since 2021 under the name Konahriks, and the title of this new one puts the group name out front, which is either a signal or just a title. Either way it's the first Konahriks material since Everyday Blues in 2023. Both artists come out of Bristol Motman from the south west of England, based in the city, releasing through Runt Life Records and the producer is Micall Parknsun, who has built five albums with Motman on his own: The 3rd Tier, The Fourth Quarter, Plead The Fifth, Revenge Of The SiXth and Sunburn, which came out in the spring. That's a ten-year working rhythm, and it shows in how unforced this sounds. The hook is a contradiction held in place: "Felt so right but it's still so wrong / No matter what they try to say, life goes on." Motman's verse sits inside it "Sometimes I feel like an insane clown on a spiral slide," and then the old proverb, bent slightly: "the road to hell's paved with good intentions." Raggo takes the back half and lands the record's best couplet: "Been a long way from doing free events / Now I'm trying to get paid for my speech." Dfacer shot the video. Two minutes forty-two. No mix credits listed, and no confirmation yet whether this is a one-off or the front of a new Konahriks project worth watching either way.

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Elgee da Beatdetonator "GRIM NIGHT" [ALBUM]

 

Elgee da Beatdetonator produces out of the Netherlands, and GRIM NIGHT has been out since the start of the month nine tracks, just under twenty-five minutes, and built as a producer record rather than an artist album. That distinction matters, because the guest list is the point. G Fam Black takes "Savage 24/7." Greybeard gets "And You Don't Stop" and is credited with cuts as well as writing, which is the only explicit turntable credit on the record. "Rude Awakening" stacks four voices Assa, Chron Burgundy, Mic Dyson and Benzo. FunkySparrow appears three times, on "Blink of an Eye," "Marked for Death" and "Embrace." Gamblez tha Lucky Bastard, L.E.O., Mista Sweet, Mister Personal and the Siversmiths fill out the rest. Fifteen releases into his own catalogue, Elgee has clearly spent that time building the address book. The sequencing is tight: a forty-nine second "Night experience" as an opening statement, then eight tracks that stay between 2:48 and 3:20 and never sprawl. Each guest gets a single feature, no repeat pairings except FunkySparrow, and the record moves rather than settling. No mix or mastering credits are listed, and there's no label attached. For listeners who follow the transatlantic underground circuit the American MCs working with European producers, which has quietly become one of the healthier scenes of the last few years this is a well-assembled entry.

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Blaze Gee "DARKSIDE" [VIDEO]

Blaze Gee comes out of Springfield, Massachusetts by the look of the tags boom bap, street music, and the rest and "DARKSIDE" is a new video shot by Lavish Life Films over a Jamar Johnson beat. It runs under two minutes, and that's the honest scale of it. The verse is a straight piece of street economy with no hook cushion: "My first four bricks of sniff cut them all in half / Then gave eight [] five and I saw the math." It's craft talk the arithmetic of cutting product, the standard he holds himself to ("If the coke ain't locking correct, then it's not me") and then it turns, which is where the record earns its two minutes. "The laws we living by daily and the oaths we took / Glad I don't got [] to hide, I'm a open book." And the line that closes the thought: "I lost it all, discipline is what it taught me." That's a rarer move than it sounds. Most street records either celebrate or mourn; this one does the accounting. "Writing rhymes only time that I'm telling truth" sits in the middle of it as the justification. No label, no mix credits, no biographical material available on the artist three separate searches turned up nothing, so this stays close to the record. Almost two minutes, and worth them.

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Audio Messiah & KHEYZINE "CHATGOD" [EP]

 

KHEYZINE is a French beatmaker working out of Bordeaux, and CHATGOD is his new six-track EP with Audio Messiah, an emcee from the Pen Lordz camp. KHEYZINE produced and arranged the whole thing and did the cover; BOSSY mixed and mastered. It arrived today, and it runs about sixteen and a half minutes. The title track shares its name with the project, and the running order makes the argument before you hear a bar. "Rage Against The Machines" opens. "A.I (Allah's Intelligence)" sits at three. "ChatGod" closes. Read together, the titles put machine intelligence and divine intelligence on opposite sides of the same question, with the pun on A.I. doing double duty artificial or Allah's, depending on which track you're on. That's my reading of the sequencing rather than a stated concept, but it's hard to hear it any other way. Four of the six tracks carry Pen Lordz features, and the duo's Fam Ross and Arsinel are named on the release. The two tracks without them "Black And White" at 2:13 and "Body Problem" at 1:16 are the shortest on the record, which suggests interludes rather than full songs, though the credits don't say. Six euros sixty-six, which is a deliberate number for a record about faith and machinery. For listeners who follow the Pen Lordz orbit, this is a producer-led entry point with a real idea behind it.

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Taj Austin "GODBODY FOLKLORE" (Prod. by Jake One) [VIDEO]

Taj Austin is one of four MCs in Coast Contra, the Los Angeles group he formed with his twin brother Ras Austin alongside RioLoz and Eric Jamal a crew that made its name on straight-ahead rap craft rather than a gimmick. Since early October he's been running his own parallel series, "Saturday Rap Cafe," releasing one piece a week with no stated end point. This is the third instalment and the producer is Jake One, which is the reason it lands. Jake One builds warm and unhurried, and Austin uses the minute he's given to compress rather than stretch: "I peep the economics in the words / Let's break them down like phonics" is a thesis about reading language as a transaction, and the verse moves from there through grace, gumbo and rice to "smooth as James Brown estate." It's dense, devotional without being preachy, and it fits inside sixty-eight seconds without feeling clipped. The two that came before it "Just Blue" with Rzu, then "Thank Yall Niggas" with Khrysis established the format as a producer showcase more than a theme. Jake One is the biggest name yet, and the pairing suggests Austin is calling in people he wants rather than beats he can get. No camera or edit credits are listed. Short, deliberate, and worth the minute.

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E Murda x Reke x Jotabit "El Mejor" [SINGLE]

Three names, and the one worth knowing about is Reke. Gustavo Ferrín, born in Caracas in 1983 and raised in Catia-Gramoven, is one of the foundational figures of Venezuelan hip-hop he came up through Guerrilla Seca and Subterráneo Records in the late nineties, released his solo debut El astronauta in 2010, founded the Una Sangre social project, and eventually emigrated to Europe as the country collapsed. Eleven albums deep, he is not a guest verse you book for reach. On the other side is E Murda, an American rapper whose credits run through the Griselda and Black Soprano Family orbit "Stuntman" with Conway the Machine, "Stay True" with Benny the Butcher, and 2nd Degree Murda last year. The two have worked together before, on "3030 Rifle" with Maverick Magadino in 2024. "El Mejor" runs two minutes fifty-five and is filed as Latin rap. Beyond the three-way credit there's very little published: no producer named, no mix details, no artwork credit, and nothing verifiable on Jotabit at all, who appears to be the third voice. What makes it worth a listen anyway is the collision. A Caracas veteran who spent two decades documenting a country's collapse and an American street rapper from the Benny the Butcher extended network are not obvious collaborators, and the track exists because of a relationship rather than a placement. Title aside "the best" this is a handshake record, and those are usually more interesting than the boast.

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Rap Noir "The Professional" [SINGLE]

 

Rap Noir is Black Hoodie and UnJust, and it's worth saying who that is: Black Hoodie is Tajai from Souls of Mischief and Hieroglyphics, working under an alias, and UnJust produces Chosen Few, First Light, and a long run of records besides. Since 2018 the project has been built as film noir rather than rap: Tajai narrates "tales of crime, vice and passion" instead of starring in them, and he's described the persona as sitting somewhere between Rod Serling and the Crypt Keeper the voice that introduces the story, not the one who commits it. The hitman monologue "The Professional" is exactly that, and it's the most disciplined thing in the catalogue. The hook is an instruction: "I get that call? You gotta go / If don't nobody know, don't nobody know / This ain't your amateur hour, I'm a professional / Have a seat, welcome to the murder show." Then the details that make it work "My office? A box with a cot and a weapon wall / Small kitchen, no children, no bitches, just a couple old benches." A contractor describing his workspace, and the banality is the point. The closing couplet is the sharpest in the whole piece: "I ain't paranoid I'm cautious / I ain't cheap murder costs / I ain't sloppy, I take pride in mine / I'm never late I be right on time." UnJust builds underneath with room for the voice to sit forward, and Tajai doesn't raise the volume once. The release itself It's the second single from the forthcoming WORK/RELEASE EP, and the rollout is genuinely unusual: the project pairs each single with its own customised Carhartt jacket colourway, made with the Osaka design outfit Viva La Mort. This is the second one gravel duck, "Viva La Rap Noir" crest limited to a hundred, four hundred dollars, made to order. The single ships with two versions of the same track, the second labelled "Final Master Mix." That's a strange and interesting way to release music in 2026, and it fits a project that has always treated itself as a film rather than a discography.

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Spectacular RGM "Freestyle 6" [VIDEO]

The "F Series" is a run of freestyles from Spectacular RGM, described in the release note as a super group, and this is the sixth instalment. It runs fifty-eight seconds. That is very nearly all the verifiable information attached to it. There are no production credits, no line-up listed, no press page, and no biographical material on the group itself the video surfaced through the channel of Ja'Preme Magnetic, a Washington, D.C. artist who also records as Patagonia Preme and has a deep catalogue of EPs behind him. Whether Spectacular RGM is his project or orbits it isn't stated anywhere I can confirm. Under a minute, a freestyle is a statement of intent rather than a record, and assessing it as more than that would be dishonest. What can be said: the series is being built deliberately, numbered and released one at a time, and number six is out now. For anyone tracking the D.C. underground, the name to watch is the one on the channel.

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Tone Chop & Frost Gamble "Missing Links Vol. 2" [EP]

 

Most artists announce an album and then record it. Tone Chop and Frost Gamble are doing the opposite: Missing Links is the material they recorded over years and never put out. The duo's own framing is blunt "we have recorded far more music than we've released" and the series exists because leaving it unreleased seemed worse than releasing it late. Some of these tracks are close to a decade old. Others were cut in the years leading up to Beautiful Foundations. The second volume arrives this week, five tracks and about fifteen minutes, with DJ Looks featured on "Trampled On." Volume one came out in September; volume three is scheduled for late November. Why this is more interesting than an outtakes dump The premise sounds like a vault-clearing exercise, and usually that means a folder of leftovers. What makes this one worth attention is the shape of the partnership. Frost Gamble produces out of Winnipeg; Tone Chop raps out of Binghamton, upstate New York. They have spent more than a decade working across an international border as a two-person unit, and the backlog is a structural consequence of that arrangement rather than a sign of indecision you accumulate sessions faster than you can place them when the whole operation is two people. The line on the release page is the one to hold onto: "Great music doesn't always arrive on the original schedule." That's an artist defending work that missed its moment, and it's a better argument than pretending the timing was deliberate. No mix or mastering credits are listed. For listeners who've followed the duo since Beautiful Foundations, this is the best kind of archival release not demos, but finished records that simply never had a home.

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QB Rap P "QBC Stomach" [VIDEO]

"QBC Stomach" has a video now, three months after the album it comes from. qbc bklyn queenz day a joint record credited to qb rap p and bash came out in the middle of August: fourteen tracks, most of them produced by Rap P himself, skits placed between the songs like a tape rather than an album. The track is number three, and the album version runs four twelve against the video's three. The hook does the work and it's a good one: "Eyes be too big for they stomach." Rap P takes the idiom about ordering more than you can eat and points it at rappers who have taken on more than they can carry "Rap cats don't keep it a hundred," over and over, until it stops being a boast and starts being an indictment. The second half of the verse turns reflective: "I left the childish games alone and start living / I put down the drugs … Invested in property, conscious decisions. / I love hip hop but the love is missing." That last line is the one worth sitting with, because it's the only moment where the record stops prosecuting other people and admits something. Rap P's delivery is clipped and conversational, and he's working in the register where the point is the argument rather than the flow. No director credit is listed for the video. Rap P records out of New York, and this is a solid entry point to an album that didn't get much of a press cycle in August.

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