B. Cool-Aid – Leather Blvd.
B. Cool-Aid is the duo of rapper Pink Siifu and producer Ahwlee, but Leather Blvd.–their first full-length album since their 2017 debut LP BRWN–is much more multi-faceted and has much more going on than what you might expect from a “duo album.” That’s because Siifu and Ahwlee recruited a collective of musicians operating in the spirit of the Soulquarians, the many-membered group of musicians who contributed to classic albums like The Roots’ Things Fall Apart, Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun, and Common’s Electric Circus. They brought in DJ Harrison, leader of jazz/hip hop band Butcher Brown, to create original, live-instrumentation pieces that Ahwlee could apply his sample-heavy style to. “Over the years, I’ve been hella in the crates,” Ahwlee said in press materials for the album. “Just sample, sample, sample [but] I’ve [also] been working on my own musicianship over the past two or three years. So having them [Butcher Brown] jump on it was just inspiration.”
El Michels Affair & Black Thought – Glorious Game
30 years into his career, The Roots’ lead MC Black Thought remains at the top of his game, and seemingly nothing can stop the creative hot streak he’s been on since officially launching his solo career in 2018. His latest album is a collaboration with El Michels Affair, the retro-soul group known who came to prominence after “reverse-engineering” Wu-Tang Clan songs on such albums as Enter The 37th Chamber and Return to the 37th Chamber, and eventually went on to work with Wu-Tang Clan members themselves. For this album, El Michels Affair leader Leon Michels would write and record entire vintage-style soul songs, and then chop up and loop his own music the way hip hop producers like his hero the RZA did back in the day. It’s a perfect setting for Black Thought, who came up in that same era and whose voice goes great with dusty soul. On Glorious Game, Thought sounds as athletic as ever, darting around the El Michels Affair instrumentals with curveball rhyme schemes and knockout punchlines. And unlike last year’s Danger Mouse-assisted, guest-filled Cheat Codes, no features; just Black Thought commanding the ship and reminding the world he’s one of the best to ever do it.
MC Yallah – Yallah Beibe
East African rapper and Nyege Nyege Tapes collective member MC Yallah’s latest album Yallah Beibe knows no bounds. She raps in four languages (English, Luganda, Luo and Kiswahili), ropes in producers from all over the world (the French-born Debmaster, The Democratic Republic Of Congo’s Chrisman and Japan’s Scotch Rolex), and gets a dancehall assist from Ratigan Era and metallic screams from Lord Spikeheart (aka Martin Kanja of industrial duo Duma). Her music is so genre-defying that it makes the bridge between trap, industrial, and dancehall seem tiny, and she tops it off with such in-your-face, skillfully complex rapping that would make anyone turn their head.
redveil – playing w/ fire EP
At the turn of the 2010s, a new generation of rappers arrived with a fresh perspective that threatened to change the rap game forever–artists like Odd Future, Danny Brown, Denzel Curry–and redveil feels like the true heir to their thrones. He’s been co-signed by Tyler, the Creator, he toured and collaborated with Denzel Curry, and he’s the sole guest on the new JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown album. His music also shares various traits with all of those rappers, but he never sounds like he’s imitating any of them. He’s a true auteur who handles much of his rapping, singing, production, and instrumentation on his own, and he’s been on a roll lately. He released one of the best albums of 2022 with learn 2 swim, and now he follows it with the playing w/ fire EP in the midst of his first-ever headlining tour. It’s only got six songs, but that’s enough to prove that redveil is still pushing forward. The aforementioned JPEGMAFIA makes an appearance, as does R&B/soul singer Mekdelawit, and the EP shows off so much range. He blurs the lines between organic instrumentation and synthetic production, and he fills the EP with melodic hooks and lyrical turns of phrases that land with severe impact. It’s not just that redveil’s music reminds me of the sounds of that exciting early 2010s era; it’s that he’s as hungry and talented and as original as his heroes were back then too.