Saturday, May 9, 2026
Kakarot & Bare Beats "Starfish Lullabies" [VIDEO]
All City Anthom & The Architect "Unbalanced Equations" [ALBUM]

This album connects two generations of South Bay hip-hop in a way that carries real weight. The Architect is Gary Herd, one half of Homeliss Derilex – the Milpitas-formed duo whose early 90s work was so singular that Peanut Butter Wolf, then based in San Jose himself, made them the second release on Stones Throw Records when he founded it in 1996, with their Cash Money 12-inch. Herd has remained productive across the decades that followed, working under his own label and imprint, building collaborative albums with a rotating cast of MCs, and developing a reputation as a producer whose obscure sample instincts and gritty drum work have outlasted trends without requiring reinvention. All City Anthom brings the contemporary South Bay MC perspective – San Jose and Milpitas, an area whose hip-hop history is genuine but rarely amplified beyond its own geography. Unbalanced Equations is eleven tracks of picture-painting bars over loops that feel lifted from a very specific vinyl crate: obscure, textured, not trying to be anything other than functional and felt. Features include Noose, DJ Traps, Butch Swim, Thatfool AL, and Fathom Flows, each appearing briefly without disrupting the album's tone.
Dezert Eagle "Gold Flowers" [VIDEO]
Omega El CTM "Grotesco" ft. Jeff Turner & DJ Akrylik (prod. Cheterioways) [VIDEO]
JOHNNYTRA$H & Jazzy Lion Man "Kill 2 Eat" [EP]

Jazzy Lion Man has built one of the more prolific and self-sufficient catalogs in the American underground – a Delaware-based producer who operates at an output level that would be unsustainable without genuine consistency of quality, treating the album format as a continuous log rather than a periodic statement event. Kill 2 Eat pairs him with JOHNNYTRA$H, an MC who has appeared in his extended circle across recent releases including the Just Trying To Get By project, making this collab a formalization of a working relationship already in motion. Nine tracks, direct and economical, rooted in the kind of MPC-textured abstract hip-hop that trades in feel, grain, and mood rather than pop architecture. The Kill 2 Eat title positions the project in a corner of the underground that values rawness and survival-mode energy over comfort – a framing consistent with both artists' broader aesthetic. Independent, no overhead.
Big Twins "Grime Out" (prod. DJ Woool) [VIDEO]
Dave East "Brick By Brick" (EASTMIX) [VIDEO]
D-Stallone & Arkin "Par Excellence" [ALBUM]

Par Excellence is the first official collaborative album from D-Stallone and Arkin, eleven tracks presenting a producer-MC partnership built for the long form. Arkin handles all production, and the project description situates the work somewhere between tonal range and thematic coherence – a balance that's harder to achieve than it sounds on a debut full-length. Features arrive from Triipout Wood and D. Goynz, both appearing briefly without distracting from the core duo. The album title positions the project with confidence, inviting comparison to what they see as their best possible work. For a debut joint album this kind of self-assurance is either earned or premature – the production and lyrical substance together will determine which. Independent release, direct to Bandcamp.
RHYMRCKA "The Introduction" [VIDEO]
SoulFu "Calculated Risk" (prod. Lethal Needle) [VIDEO]
Tha 4orce "March On" [SINGLE]

March On arrives as a 20th anniversary marker for Tha 4orce's Mind The Gap Anthems V2, and the London-based producer-artist brings the weight of that occasion without making it feel commemorative in a heavy-handed way. The track is co-produced with Nash, with Pete Cherry adding live bass – an organic element that enriches the sound and keeps it from feeling overly digital or template-driven. Thematically, March On is about exactly what the title suggests: keeping forward momentum through loss, change, and the difficulty of uncertain periods. Tha 4orce has built Mind The Gap Recordings as a label precisely on this kind of independence – a long-term body of work built outside commercial frameworks, sustained by craft and conviction. The live instrumentation element is worth noting; not many independent UK hip-hop artists are still routing their records through that kind of organic production approach, and it gives March On a warmth that distinguishes it from harder-edged contemporaries.
De La Soul "A Quick 16 for Mama" ft. Killer Mike [VIDEO]
Norman Sann "The Monsters They Made" [ALBUM][VIDEO]

Norman Sann is a Houston-based rapper, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who operates almost entirely self-sufficiently – writing, producing, and recording most of his material independently, with J Patz as a recurring production collaborator. The Monsters They Made is a 14-track mixtape made available early to his community ahead of its wider rollout. The project title frames what Sann has been doing across his catalog: examining the environment, the pressures, and the systems that produce both the person and the performer. His production sensibility reaches beyond boom bap into a broader nostalgic territory that draws on church music, soul, and organic instrumentation, and his delivery ranges from technically focused rapping to melodic hooks depending on what the track demands. How Do I Move Forward, the lead visual produced by Noire, is a clear entry point – introspective, grounded, undecorated. For a Texas artist whose rise came partly through social media, the music itself is more rooted and traditional than the platform might suggest.
Vocab Slick "Golden Brush" (prod. Surebert) [VIDEO]
Ben Shorr "From The Inside" ft. Ghost Dog (prod. Madrock) [VIDEO]
Säge, The 64th Wonder "Meal Ticket 5" [EP]

Sage The 64th Wonder has built a quietly significant catalog out of Chicago without much noise – a rapper-producer who self-releases at his own rhythm and maintains near-total control over how his work reaches the audience, including limiting public streaming previews to protect the creative integrity of the full projects. Meal Ticket 5 is the latest in that ongoing series, seven tracks running tight and efficient with SolarFive as the sole feature. The Meal Ticket series has operated as a recurring format within a larger discography that also includes the Sagewav instrumental runs, Supreme Order of Slump projects, and collaborative work – a body of work that rewards sustained attention over casual grazing. The Chicago underground has produced artists who work this way – deliberate, independent, indifferent to the cycle – and Sage represents that ethos clearly.
Rahiem Supreme "Microdosing" [VIDEO]
Nowaah The Flood "Sunbeams" (prod. Get Large) [VIDEO]
Friday, May 8, 2026
Meeco & DJ Access feat. Benny The Butcher & Rick Hyde "Boss Thing"
“Boss Thing” is a heavyweight collaboration by established producer team Meeco and DJ Access, featuring Benny the Butcher and Rick Hyde.
Benny the Butcher is one of the most respected voices in modern rap, known for his sharp lyricism, acclaimed releases, and key role in the rise of Griselda Records. Rick Hyde, a standout artist from Black Soprano Family, brings gritty charisma and undeniable presence to the track.
Centered around the theme of success, confidence, and boss mentality, the song delivers raw street energy and elite bars throughout, providing real hip-hop authenticity.
G Fam Black x SPGBamm "Loud Sounds In Dark Rooms" [ALBUM]

Loud Sounds In Dark Rooms is the project Butcha marked as today's highlight, and the reasoning is clear once you engage with it. G Fam Black out of Brockton, Massachusetts — a city with its own specific Northeast street history that's distinct from Boston's more glamorized scene — operates with an intensity and lyrical seriousness that demands attention. SPGBamm's production across all ten tracks has the atmospheric density the title promises: these are beats built for a certain kind of listening, dark and layered, creating the rooms the album describes. The feature roster reflects a considered curation: Tali Rodriguez brings her established underground presence, B1 the Architect adds his architectural precision, Kingdom Kome carries the weight of his catalog, P-Ro contributes from his New England base, and Mad1ne rounds out a guest list that is entirely underground and entirely credible. Crack Sizzlack's mix and mastering keeps the energy tight across the runtime. G Fam Black designed the artwork himself — a detail that speaks to the self-contained nature of this operation. Ten tracks, no filler, a focused statement from an artist who has clearly been building toward this.
Termanology & Royal Flush "Legendary Blocks" (feat. TEK & UFO Fev) [VIDEO]
Taiyamo Denku & Urban Legend "Before The Display Vol. 1" [ALBUM]

Taiyamo Denku is a Milwaukee institution — a 22-year veteran MC with a catalog dense enough to have placed tracks alongside KRS-One, Kool G Rap, Busta Rhymes, and Jadakiss, and a collaborative history with Urban Legend that stretches across multiple projects beginning at least with the Milwaukee Monstaz era. Before The Display Vol. 1 is presented as throwback material — archive recordings given a proper release — which explains the "various producers" credit and the sense of variety across the seven tracks. Urban Legend, connected through the Cypha Den Music network, has been Denku's primary creative partner for years, and the rapport between them is audible in the ease of their exchanges. The feature roster on this volume is credible: Marv Won, Reef The Lost Cauze, and Ron Noodles are all established underground figures who bring real weight to the collaboration, not just name recognition. J. Miller handles production in Denku's own Milwaukee studio, keeping the operation local. The cassette plus T-Shirt bundle signals a physical-first distribution ethos that aligns with the project's throwback identity. Vol. 1 suggests there is more archive material to come.
DJ Crypt "Hardcore" (feat. Raid Kyu & DJ Robert Smith) from TALES FROM THE CRYPT [VIDEO]
OT The Real "Villain" [ALBUM]
MRKBH x Rico James "Lingchi" (from RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES PART 3) [VIDEO]
BloodShed Redd "When Adults Swim" [EP]

When Adults Swim lands as a four-track statement from BloodShed Redd, its title inverting the Adult Swim network association to position the work as something more serious, more deliberate — when adults swim, they mean business. The EP includes a video for "Can't Call It," suggesting at least partial visual infrastructure to support the release. Without an extensive prior discography trail in the available metadata, this functions as a direct document: four tracks carrying the weight of a focused creative session. The tone, signaled by the album title and the song sequencing, points toward street-oriented, lyrically committed rap that doesn't position itself within any particular collective or scene framework but stands on its own terms. That kind of independence, without institutional backing or network infrastructure, is its own form of credibility in the underground.
Legit & HostileProd "Dreamz On Reset" (feat. DJ Uncle Fester) Remix [VIDEO]
Lil Dee "Bloody Noses" [EP]
Megapowers (J-Bux & Jimmy Zo) "Bendix" (from BERGIN HUNT AND FISH) [VIDEO]
JFliz x DJ Lump "Spaced Out" (from SPLOOFS & NAG CHAMPA) [SINGLE]

JFliz and DJ Lump have been building toward Sploofs & Nag Champa, which drops next week on all platforms. "Spaced Out" is the project's second single, and it delivers exactly what the album title promises: a late-night, slow-burn sensibility where the production doesn't push, it settles. DJ Lump handles all beats, cuts, and the sonic environment throughout, with mix and mastering credits going to Hilltop Productions and Tali Rodriguez — the latter a recurring name in the underground collaborative economy. JFliz' writing leans introspective and honest, his delivery unhurried and comfortable within the spacious production. There's no bravado performance here, no structural showmanship — the MC seems to trust the atmosphere to carry the emotional weight, and on "Spaced Out" that trust is earned. The Sploofs & Nag Champa project describes itself as music for when the world gets quiet, and this single is a credible advance proof of concept. Keep an eye on the full album next week.
Pee.Tzu "Human Cheat Code" (prod. Tony Tone) [VIDEO]
AZ "Doe Or Die III" [ALBUM]
Verb T "Alien Concept" (prod. Vic Grimes) from TO LOVE A PHANTOM [VIDEO]
Slowpace "The Hard Times EP" [EP]

The Hard Times EP from Milwaukee's Slowpace and Sime Gezus is exactly as advertised: four tracks, just over ten minutes of runtime, a clear aesthetic commitment, and an announcement that 7-inch vinyl is forthcoming for those who want something to hold. Sime Gezus handles production throughout, his beats carrying a raw, sample-based approach that suits the EP's no-frills ethos. JD Ultra Slick provides scratches, adding texture without overloading the space. Slowpace's delivery is understated — the focus is on the writing rather than performance spectacle. The closing track, "Kool G. Rap," names its own reference point without apology, and in doing so tells you exactly where this project is coming from and who it's made for. Beat Behemoth handled recording, mixing, and mastering, keeping the entire operation within the Milwaukee circle. The limited 7-inch format for a four-track EP is a statement about how these artists understand the relationship between music and physical media — a choice that belongs to an older tradition of treating the small format as the legitimate one.
CRIMEAPPLE "Fireworks" (prod. LOMAN) from BEEMER ON BROADWAY [VIDEO]
Q-Unique & DJ Rhettmatic "Comic Con Nerd Sh*t" (feat. Pharoahe Monch) [SINGLE]
Orion & DJ Proof "Keep It 1Hunnit" (feat. King Tetrus) [VIDEO]
Cookin Soul & Estee Nack "AL-ANDALUS" [ALBUM]

AL-ANDALUS is a producer-MC pairing that makes complete sense once you hear it but wouldn't have been obvious on paper. Cookin Soul — born in Valencia, based in Amsterdam, Latin Grammy winner for his work on Mala RodrÃguez's Bruja, and the producer behind 25-plus vinyl LPs spanning Conway the Machine, Tha God Fahim, and a years-long collaborative run with Ankhlejohn — brings the kind of dusty, soul-drenched boom bap that demands a particular type of lyricist. Estee Nack, a first-generation Dominican-American from Lynn, Massachusetts, is exactly that lyricist. His approach since his 2015 debut 14 Forms has been consistent: granular narcotics accounting, operational specificity over mythology, street realism delivered with the confidence of someone who has earned his credibility in the underground through prolific output and collaborations with Sadhugold, Giallo Point, V Don, and Conductor Williams before the Griselda co-sign arrived with Nacksaw Jim Duggan. AL-ANDALUS keeps things strictly between the two architects, with brief appearances from Yung Beef — Cookin's longtime collaborator from the Los Papasitos project — Lil Supa, and Planet Asia. The production shifts register across the eleven tracks without losing coherence, and Nack fills every pocket Cookin Soul leaves open with bars that reward a third listen. This is the kind of international underground collaboration that defines what the current moment does best.
Benny The Butcher & Fuego Base "The Fighting Irish" (from ASHES IN THE SAFE) [VIDEO]
El Gant, Maticulous & Brother Ali "Wordle" [SINGLE]
Planet Asia "Hung Jewelry" (feat. Shah Leezy) [VIDEO]
WordChemist x Mr. J "Midnight Aura EP" [EP]

WordChemist has been operating deep in the Florida underground for over a decade, but his creative home has always been the tight-knit Orlando Ozone circuit alongside Shinobi Stalin, DJ Stranger, and the broader Beer Money UNLTD network. The Midnight Aura EP places him alongside producer Mr. J across five tracks that commit to a single aesthetic and hold it without deviation: dry, raw boom bap where the drums knock and the bars carry the full weight. DJ Stranger's contributions on "Alchemy" and "Legion of Doom" function exactly as turntablism should in this format — punctuation, not decoration — and Shinobi Stalin's appearance on "Prisma" reinforces the family logic of the project. WordChemist's technical command is the constant throughout, his rhyme construction thoughtful and unhurried. A cassette press is forthcoming for the physical adherents. This is craft-first underground work that asks nothing from you except attention.
Thursday, May 7, 2026
GAWDS "No Condolences" [VIDEO]
Baltimore quartet GAWDS are offering “No Condolences” on their new single (with accompanying video). Darkly personal and raw, the track is perhaps the most emotional in the group’s extensive catalog. The track is bolstered by L3’s (singer/emcee) vocal melodies as well as additional bars from the group’s other two emcees Regulus and Pinpoint.
Speaking on the track L3 and Regulus said “it depicts the harsh reality of leaving a loved one. It’s one of our most personal tracks and it doesn’t get more direct than this.”
Watch official video for "No Condolences" here: https://youtu.be/DFV0sHO5AVE?si=nLewBF21bGOHhGbJ
Listen to “No Condolences” here: https://youtu.be/ou1inZS_iEw?si=2tGj7tcwQvPgJqTm

“No Condolences” appears on the group’s recent album The Care Package. While the quartet are long known for their prowess in the Boom-Bap arena, this project incorporates R&B and Soul sensibilities upon the existing foundation. In addition, the group has a lot more personal issues to air out within the album including divorce, family issues and of course ethering backstabbers and suckers.
Mostly a family affair, album guests include Baltimore Brethren including Clif Love, Briana La Barz, Pete The Dark Truth, Richard Cranium and Kardo The Don. However, the album also welcomes two San Antonio, Texas artists Spy MC and Blazy Green that the group built with last summer while on tour. As Regulus recalls “the track ‘Change Up’ feat Spy MC was written and recorded right after we got off the plane. The recording session was from 1am-4am.”
More Info: https://www.instagram.com/gawds_410/
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
UllNevaNo x Philth Spector "Stephon Barbury" [ALBUM]

UllNevaNo has been operating Baltimore's underground with quiet persistence for over a decade – his concept-driven catalog, which includes Kev Brown and Evidence instrumentals mixtapes and albums with producers like MANHE (Shammgod, 2018), has always prioritized craft over visibility. On Stephon Barbury, he connects with Philth Spector, a Philadelphia producer and co-founder of that city's Flip-A-Beat Club chapter whose methodology is rooted in meticulous crate archaeology – he has spent years working chronologically through the Philadelphia International Records catalog as a discipline in sample literacy. The alliance works because both parties share the same foundational principles: no shortcuts, no filler, drums that breathe and samples that ache. Lead single "Yellow Jackets," complete with surgical cuts from Maryland's own DJ IllMEASURED, channels the aggressive multi-MC energy of Wu-Tang's "Triumph" and frames UllNevaNo's position in the culture plainly – his time and pen come at a premium. "Flowers Given" operates on a different frequency, pulling the listener inward with a reflective look at Baltimore roots, old friendships, and the debts you carry from early days in the scene. The project title itself speaks a larger language: Stephon Marbury, like UllNevaNo, represents the kind of talent that operates on fundamentals when spectacle would have been easier. This album is eleven tracks of exactly that.
Vstylez x NaztyWrk "My Prime" [VIDEO]
Cookin Soul & Estee Nack "Telex Free Trap" (feat. Yung Beef) [VIDEO]
ANKHLEJOHN x V Don "No Specifics" [VIDEO]
Siberian Bear Suits (Charles Herron x Chuck Chan) "Siberian Bear Suits" [ALBUM]

Charles Herron and Chuck Chan have been building their collaborative identity through a series of singles and sessions before committing it fully to album form with Siberian Bear Suits. Chuck Chan's affiliation with the DITC.com infrastructure places this squarely within an extended lineage of crate-based New York underground hip-hop – his recent collaborative LP with Staten Island's Squeegie Oblong was released through Apple Dizzle and DITC.com, and his production approach reflects the dusty-drums-and-vocal-chops tradition that DITC built its reputation on. Herron provides the primary lyrical voice, and the interplay between the two creates the kind of mutual accountability that marks the best MC-producer partnerships. The CD bonus EP "The Gulag" extends the project with seven additional tracks for committed listeners. The cast of supporting voices – Kil Ripkin, Dynas aka The AlumNY, Boogz Tha Architect, General BackPain, among others – forms a tight underground network rather than a cameo parade, each voice adding weight without diluting the project's identity.
AZ "Uniqueness" [VIDEO]
Benny the Butcher & Fuego Base "Big Shirley" [VIDEO]
Rogue Gallery (Columbo Black) "Next 12 Summers" [ALBUM]

Columbo Black has been building a catalog of considerable density with minimal external attention, which is arguably how he prefers it. Born in Hollywood and raised in Compton, his work combines a West Coast sensibility with a lyrical approach that values precision, wit, and philosophical grounding over trap-era conventions. Next 12 Summers, at 52 tracks, is an ambitious statement of sustained creative output – each track averaging around 90 seconds to two minutes, the album functioning more like a collection of sharp portraits than a traditional long-player. His 2024 project Rouge Gallery (note the intentional spelling) demonstrated similar ambitions with a 33-track structure. The title's time horizon is the key statement: this is an artist thinking in cycles, not in singles. The Compton origin is audible throughout – a ground-level realism that doesn't romanticize its source but doesn't apologize for it either.
Nowaah The Flood "Iron Decree" [ALBUM]

Nowaah The Flood's output is, by any measurable standard, extraordinary: eleven studio albums in 2024 alone, each maintaining a specific identity while building on a larger thematic architecture that mixes street realism with biblical imagery and philosophical weight. Iron Decree, a nine-track project, demonstrates the depth of his production relationships – Stu Bangas, whose boom bap-forward approach has found a natural home in Flood's catalog through multiple prior collaborative albums, leads alongside The Mali Empire, who anchors three tracks here and brings a cinematic quality that complements Flood's storytelling. Names like The Custodian of Records, Circa 97, and Stinky J round out a roster of underground producers who have built real rapport with this MC over multiple projects. Flood's gift is for narrative specificity – he raps about people, events, and places with enough detail to make the world feel populated and real, without reducing it to cliché. Iron Decree operates in that same mode.
Lil Supa "Lince" / "Jungle" ft. Big Noyd [VIDEO]
Benny Watts & Fuego Base "Band Chasing" [VIDEO]
Wych Hazle x Watkinz Da General "Microphonology 2" [ALBUM]

Wych Hazle occupies a specific and largely unoccupied corner of underground hip-hop – a Tucson-based MC, fiction writer, and cultural visionary whose approach he has described as thematic avant-garde boom bap, and whose catalog refuses to repeat itself from project to project. His collaboration with North Carolina producer Watkinz Da General, who developed his craft in the Raleigh housing project environment before building out his Gift of Life Studios operation, traces back to the original Microphonology EP and the mixtape that followed. The sequel deepens the framework. Hazle's stated influences run from Rakim and Kool G Rap through Nas to Divine Styler – the last name is instructive, pointing toward the kind of left-of-field conceptual ambition that drives Microphonology 2 beyond genre convention. Watkinz's ASR-X production provides the sonic architecture: dense, textured, rooted in boom bap but not flattened by it. The Inspiration credit to Dr. James Allen and executive production under the BLKWIZFLIX banner signal that this is a complete creative ecosystem operating entirely outside the mainstream pipeline.



