Calvin Valentine is an emcee/producer originally from Eugene, but he’s been based in Los Angeles for a few years now. Just this past April, he gave us his Save the Planet project. Now he’s back with a different look, teaming up with producer Lawz Spoken as The Green Team to give you the buddy action comedy EP, High Noon at Cobra Island. Look, 2020 has been stressful as fuck, and sometimes you need your music to be a form of escape.

Back in the mid-‘00s, there was a group from North Carolina called The Others, consisting of emcee Mattic and producers Johnny Madwreck and DR. After a short run, the group split, with Mattic moving to France to work with Wax Tailor and also to pursuit a solo career. Madwreck became part of the production duo Dirty Art Club, but then left that group around 2015. After a long and winding road, these two have found each other again and launched a new chapter with the name Ill Scholars, now giving us their self-titled debut album.

Louisville artists Otis Junior and Dr. Dundiff have been collaborating since 2016, after they met at an open mic night (hey, remember those?) and bonded over their love of soul music. Since that time, they have released an EP and two albums. Their most recent, Cool, came out two years ago. They are now back with another EP, Rising With It. It’s nice when you can listen to music like Rising With It, and you don’t have to wonder how the artists found each other.

Jay Feeniks is a relatively new vocalist from Los Angeles who recently found a collaborator in producer Beautiful Disco, himself also relatively unknown. Fortunately, they both found each other and Paxico Records, who have now packaged their first four singles as an EP, Not Same. When you first press play on the first track, “All I Ask,” it won’t take long to understand what these two are all about. Beautiful Disco is laying down some smooth modern R&B beats with a nice bounce to them, and Feeniks is hopping on the mic and singing some romantic lyrics with a nice voice and a touch of autotune.

Back in 2015, Bay Area producers G-Pek and Brycon got together to work on a Halloween themed project called There’s No More Room in Hell. It went so well, the next year they recruited Eons One to a be a part of it, and each year it just seems to get bigger, both in terms of the roster and the scope of the project, and There’s No More Room in Hell 6 is no exception.

ProbCause is an emcee from Chicago that has been releasing music since the mid ‘00s, but really hit his stride in the mid-2010s, with excellent albums like Waves and Drifters. His last release came in 2017, when he released an EP called Distractions. Now he’s teamed up with Austin producer/guitarist Cloudchord for a new EP, Moonflower. Going into this EP, I was very familiar with ProbCause, but had never heard Cloudchord before, so I didn’t know exactly what to expect.

Indian Wells is an Italian producer who has been releasing music since the early 2010s. He’s probably best known stateside for releasing an album and an EP on Friend of Friends back in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Now he’s hopped on to the British label Mesh to release a new EP, New Ruins. New Ruins is an interesting project in that Indian Wells went out to the countryside in Southern Italy to record the project, but instead of writing something peaceful and serene inspired by the beauty of his surroundings, he began to think about the environment and the short-term ways of life that so many people live and the damage that we do to our own planet.

theSportingLife is a new duo from Birmingham/Huntsville artists Black Plastique and Jovani Occomy. Black Plastique has been part of the Birmingham hip hop scene for a few years, and on top of his solo career, he’s been a respected producer that has gotten placements on other artists’ albums, such as Mel.Crozby. Now he’s turning his production skills in a slightly different direction as he’s paired up with a young singer-songwriter from Huntsville name Jovani Occomy to create a new sound together with their debut EP as theSportingLife, A Proper Racket.

Over the years, Los Angeles artist Frankie Reyes has released a variety of music under different names, such as Gifted & Blessed, The Abstract Eye, and as one-half of the duo Steoples. Several years ago, Reyes met Peanut Butter Wolf at an event celebrating Latin American modernism, and as they got to talking Reyes pitched the idea of re-interpreting Latin standards on his Oberheim synthesizer, which eventually became his debut album for Stones Throw, Boleros Valses y Mas, which came out in 2016.

Nosaj Thing is a producer from Los Angeles that has been putting out music since the mid ‘00s. Over the years, he’s produced for everyone from Chance the Rapper to Onry Ozzborn, as well as putting out his own instrumental albums. His last release came in 2017, when he released the album Parallels. Now he’s back with a short EP, No Mind. For No Mind, the idea behind this project was to create music that emphasized the power of mindfulness and presence through a mix of ambient and trip hop.