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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