Namir Blade is an emcee/vocalist/producer/multi-instrumentalist from Nashville. While he’s still relatively young, he’s been experimenting and releasing music for over a decade, working on all sorts of different projects along the way, collaborating with artists like Danny Watts and joining producer collectives like Natural Selection and Wizards Only. Now he’s ready to step into the spotlight and make his debut on Mello Music Group with his ambitious album, Aphelion’s Traveling Circus.

Sly5thAve is a producer and multi-instrumentalist originally from Austin, but now based in New York. If you want pedigree, Sly played in the One O’Clock Lab Band while at UNT, and he toured with Prince and the New Power Generation. Since settling in New York, he’s played or produced for artists like Homeboy Sandman, Sene, Blu, and Freddy Gibbs, just to name a few. He released his first solo album, Akuma, back in 2014.

Reginald Chapman is a trombonist based in New York that for years has been making his name playing in all sorts of different scenarios, from Broadway to classical and jazz performances to brass bands and indie rock groups like Foxygen. In 2018, he teamed up with Portland label Fresh Selects to release his debut solo album, Prototype. While it’s not quite time for a sophomore album, we now have Prototype Remixes to tide us over.

Loren Oden might not be a name you know yet, but there is a good chance you’ve heard him sing with someone else. That’s because the Compton native has put in the work over the years, singing backup for everyone from Chaka Khan to Erykah Badu, before linking up with Adrian Younge. He’s been part of Younge projects like Something About April, Luke Cage, and The Midnight Hour. Now he’s finally recording his debut solo album, my heart, my love.

Siul Hughes is an artist from Connecticut that has been releasing music for about the last seven years. Somewhere along the way of playing shows and putting out records, he crossed paths with Ceschi, who then invited Hughes to make a small appearance on his 2019 album Sad, Fat Luck. Now Hughes gets to make his official debut on Fake Four with his latest album, HUEMAN. HUEMAN is an interesting album in a few ways, but first it might catch your attention just because this is stylistically different than a of recent Fake Four releases, with all these aggressive and staccato trap-adjacent beats from Dan Dillinger, Cityscape, and Bueffard Mallary.

Uptown XO is an emcee from D.C. known for both his solo work and as being one-third of Diamond District alongside Oddisee and yU. Just this past January, he ended a several year hiatus with an album titled Culture Over Corporate. He wasn’t done, though, because now he’s come back with a follow up EP, Culture Over Corporate Vol. II. While the previous album was all produced by Drew Dave, XO turns to Kev Brown to produce this EP, giving him nice gritty East Coast underground beats to spit over.

Stan Forebee is a producer originally from the Netherlands but now based in Melbourne. Formerly working under the name Beatsofreen, his career goes back about fifteen years, with releases on labels like Chillhop and WeGrowWax. Just over a year ago, he released a full-length album called Orange LP. Now he’s come back with a short EP for Los Angeles label Cold Busted’s Jet Set series called Second Home. Second Home isn’t the grand statement that some of Forebee’s previous projects are, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still enjoyable.

BRZOWSKI is the long time Maine-based artist now living in the Dallas area who has been releasing music for about twenty years. About eight years ago, he started collaborating with a producer from Portland, Maine named C$BURNS, and they’ve been working together off an on since then. Their last project came in 2016, when they rounded up a few more musicians to create the post-rock/metal/hip hop group Vinyl Cape, who released the album The Glitter of Putrescence.

Ardamus is an artist from D.C. who has been making music for about twenty years. Most recently, we heard from him just this past February when he made an album with Height Keech called Astro Blocks. Now he is back with solo EP, Enshrouded: Angels [EP]. While Astro Blocks had Ardamus rhyming over beats from Height Keech, Enshrouded finds Ardamus handling all of the production for himself. What this means is that instead of Keech’s big drums and psychedelic sounds, we’re shifting gears and getting into some gritty underground East Coast boom bap.

Back in November of last year, Mega Ran released a project called Ages, Vol. 1. The concept was a shorter release that was something of a look back, checking in with where he was at different points in his past and how that shaped him become the artist and person that he is today. Now he’s back with Ages, Vol. 2, and it’s very much a project that’s focused on what’s happening today.