June’s spotlight on the best new hip-hop releases to hit Bandcamp includes a poetic Brooklyn MC’s unearthed sonic sketches; a Los Angeles lyricist’s nostalgia-steeped laments; and a Portland rapper’s humanist agenda. We also dig into a conceptual project based around a defunct shopping mall.
2Mex
Hang On Alex
Los Angeles lyricist 2Mex‘s latest LP sets the worldview of the Visionaries member over a series of productions that strike a warm, soul-centric note. Opening in unabashedly nostalgic fashion, “Where Do You Come From?” finds the MC recalling younger days spent collecting Dodgers baseball cards, listening to Tone Loc and Young MC, and shoplifting cassettes. “What you know about that rasta Bart sweater?/ In high school trying to be a trendsetter,” raps 2Mex over the song’s graceful, sun-dappled strings. “L.A. Underground” celebrates the MC’s home city, inviting Will.i.am to reminisce and revisit his pre-pop roots, while the carefree charm of “KMD Mr. Hood Vibes” nods to Zev Love X (aka MF Doom), Subroc, and Onyx The Birthstone Kid’s early ’90s debut.
Da Beatminerz
Stifled Creativity
The latest release from the revered Brooklyn production team of Mr. Walt and DJ Evil Dee upholds their penchant for crafting the sort of deliberately bleak and menacing sonics that soundtracked the Boot Camp Click collective back in the early ’90s. A lofty roster of guest MCs that pass through their latest album, Stifled Creativity; highlights include Mickey Factz flowing over the reggae-tinged “Champion,” KRS-One bringing his booming voice and boom-bap manifesto to the stripped-down “Seckle,” and Smif-N-Wessun’s General Steele teaming with MOP’s Lil Fame for the lurching call to arms “B-Ville Pioneers.” Adding a poignant tone to proceedings, late-project cut “My Year” includes a posthumous verse from De La Soul‘s Trugoy that flashes back to the group’s breakthrough days opening for LL Cool J’s 1989 tour.
DA BUZE BRUVAZ
TRIGGA TWINZ
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
The DA BUZE BRUVAZ shenanigans continue with typically on the seven-track TRIGGA TWINZ. The duo of Clever One and HIM LO remain focused on getting into liquor-laden misadventures that result in countless brawny threats, relayed over mercurial mid-tempo beats and sullen snatches of keys. Crucial cut “Sniper Tower” employs a chugging backdrop and cascading guitar to backdrop lyrics in which the MCs prosper from scams and decorate foes with duct tape before stashing the bodies in a river.
Donte Thomas
an APPLE a day
Portland MC Donte Thomas‘s an APPLE a day explores the challenges that present themselves while navigating everyday life. Blessed with a genial lilt, Thomas relays lyrics with a conversational charm and proves equally nimble flowing over the cherubic boom-bap of the Kaelin-Ellis-crafted “WE ALL” as blessing the sweeping motivational call-to-action “GOTTA GET UP.” Penultimate track “CRASHING DOWN” welcomes Blu3 Boy and Chris Patrick into the mix to rally against artists who use a flimsy badge of “authenticity” as a marketing tactic.
Freshman Woes
A Tribe Called Fresh
Vinyl LP
Back in 2021, Freshman Woes dropped THANK YOU RAP GODS, a project that boasted a deliberately oversized roster of guest MCs. Inspired by both the music and the iconography of A Tribe Called Quest, the South Carolina beatsmith’s latest five-track EP doesn’t deviate too far from its predecessor, with a lyrical roster headed up by Myka-9, AJ Suede, and Fashawn, who bless the producer’s blend of punching drums and bluesy guitar. On album standout “Poets, Politricks & Propaganda (10” Mix),” Myka-9 scorns oppressive societal structures with a shout-out to the revolutionary instincts of Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti.
maassai
DECON$TRUCT!ON
Fresh off mic duties as one-half of H31R, alongside beatmaker JWords, Brooklyn wordsmith maassai unearths a series of unmixed sonic sketches recorded at various points over the last three years. The album beat work from Nakama, iblss, and Brown Buddha as well as maassai herself, with swaths of soothing synths underlaid with drums that frequently flirt with glitchier rhythms. Lyrically, maassai swings from abstract wanderlust to cocksure braggadocio; the broody bass-driven “art of war” depicts the MC hopping around New York City on subway trains, before ending with a soul-searching vignette: “Get off, walk to Atlantic, look who I ran into/ Myself in a puddle/ My reflection in everything, so I’m questioning everything/ Perception is everything/ A lesson in everything/ A weapon in everything.”
Muja & Dub Sonata
Break The Stereo
Compact Disc (CD), Vinyl LP, T-Shirt/Shirt
Break The Stereo brings together the talents of Minneapolis MC Muja and New York City beatmaker Dub Sonata on a boisterous project that showcases the lyricist’s straight-talking style. “Redbone Blues” rags on the idea of judging artistic success by digital metrics—including the barb “She collects vinyl but doesn’t own a turntable”—with a guest appearance from Atmosphere‘s Slug. The title track gives original Queensbridge thug poet Tragedy Khadafi a platform to vent on issues like climate change, while Tone Spliff and Bobby J From Rockaway trade verses on “Wicked.” And “Put It Inna Book” pairs a haunting sax riff with jagged drums as Muja rattles off a litany of societal ills and personal peeves.
Oddisee
And Yet Still
There’s a soul-centric sophistication to the music of Washington, D.C. producer and MC Oddisee. Across the six-song And Yet Still, Oddisee’s crate-digging instincts are paired with live keys, bass, and guitar from Ralph Real, Dennis Turner, and Oliver St. Louis, respectively. On “Had To Improve,” the MC’s motivational mantra “one thing to survive, another to thrive” is cushioned by jazz-fusion synth lines; the optimistic “Give Way” brings in rock and spoken word; and “World On Fire” pairs empathetic state-of-the-world reportage with an extended jazz coda. Most daring of all, “Thankful For” is fueled by a tricksy syncopated Moroccan-influenced drum pattern that Oddisee embraces with lyrical confidence.
Previous Industries
Service Merchandise
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
On Service Merchandise, revisiting memories connected to a now-defunct shopping mall acts as an emotional prompt for MCs Open Mike Eagle, Video Dave, and STILL RIFT to relay nostalgic lyrics about heartbreak, loss, and the increasingly disposable elements of modern life. The deeply woozy Child Actor-crafted opener “Showbiz” casts the trio as “the new fools in town,” as they take turns introducing themselves while knitting together references to Digital Underground and children’s literature. “I’m trying to find clips of Nickelodeon/ Stir-fried food, high sodium/ Nervously shifted the podium/ Get a grasp on my energy/ I’m near half of a century/ Damn, this a different dream,” Eagle confesses over the lurching psych-funk of “Pliers,” conveying the album’s twin themes of time-hopping and personal reflections.
ShrapKnel
Nobody Planning To Leave
Vinyl LP
On Nobody Planning To Leave, MCs Curly Castro and PremRock traverse a scorched earth where fantasy beasts and hip-hop mythology commingle. Relying on survival-tactic smarts, and equipped with soothsayer spells, the duo’s wanderings and pit stops are set to the witching hour sonics of Bay Area producer Controller 7, who conjures lonesome backdrops from spooky pockets of percussion, the pained wailing of strangulated synths, and rattling drums that drop in and out, adding to the nervy drama of the experience. As the journey unfurls, support comes courtesy of guest MC Lungs who worships hidden deities in a church basement on the murmuring “Steel Pan Labyrinth,” and Breezly Brewin, who slinks over the moonlight bass of “Nutkracker Blues” to wonder: “If we trying to keep the innocence, what kind of cocoon’s enough?” PremRock smartly codifies the ShrapKnel credo on “Illusions Of P,” which is fueled by murky low-end tones. “None of this will last forever, but you pray it will,” raps the MC. “Allusions of hunting permanence—but you pray still.”
