Back in 2016, Chapel Hill emcee SkyBlew teamed up with Raleigh producer SublimeCloud to make a project called Destined: The Rebirth. Just a year later, they returned for round two with Destined: The [R]Evolution. With a lot of different projects in between now and then, the two have finally come back together to make this a trilogy by releasing Destined: The Realization. If The Rebirth was about refocusing and pushing to make a music career happen, and The [R]Evolution was about artistic growth and taking that next step forward, The Realization is something of a celebration that a lot has been accomplished in these past four years.

Small Professor is a producer from Philly who has been releasing music for over a decade. He’s collaborated with everyone from Curly Castro to Guilty Simpson, and he’s been part of groups like Them That Do. Over the years, he’s also been releasing quality instrumental projects at a steady pace, most notably his different “Jawn” collections, releasing almost one a month in 2020. His latest effort, though, A Jawn Supreme (Vol.

Kemba has been one of the most thoughtful and exciting voices in hip hop since he emerged in the early 2010s, first performing as YC the Cynic before changing his name to Kemba and releasing brilliant albums like GNK and Negus. Like most artists, but especially as a Black man working in hip hop, he couldn’t help but be moved by the current rise of protests across the nation. He now presents a new EP based on these events, The World is Watching.

Like many of you, I have been following the news coming out of the Minneapolis hip hop scene over the last several days, where multiple artists have been accused of inexcusable behavior ranging from sexual and physical assault to emotional abuse and beyond. I’ve avoided making a statement until now because as a heterosexual white man and as someone who has never lived in Minneapolis, I didn’t want to drown out anyone’s voice that had their boots on the ground in the Twin Cites that might have better perspective then myself.

J.Lamotta is an artist who is truly international, born in Tel Aviv to Moroccan parents and now living in Berlin. She has been putting out music for the last five years, making her debut on the Jakarta label in 2017 as part of their “dubplate” series with the album Conscious Tree. More recently, in 2019, she released her second album for Jakarta, Suzume, which saw her going in a more retro style, working with live strings and a horn section.

Ego Ella May is an artist from London that has been putting out music since the early to mid-2010s. Since that time, we’ve gotten a handful of singles and EPs from her, along with some guest appearances on projects from everyone from IAMNOBODI to Joe Armon-Jones. In anticipation of her first full-length album, May released the compilation So Far last September to catch people up with what she’s been working on over the years to build up to this moment.

Angela Muñoz is an 18-year-old singer-songwriter who initially made her recording debut two years ago when she sung the song “Bitches Do Voodoo” on The Midnight Hour’s self-titled debut album. Now she is all set to drop her first solo album, Introspection. When someone drops an album at eighteen, especially a woman, that isn’t either bubble gum pop or some sort of immature punk or hip hop, there’s an impulse among critics to describe the artist as “wise beyond their years” or “an old soul.

Handbook is a producer from York, UK who has been releasing music since the beginnings of the 2010s, and has been putting out music on Cascade Records since 2012’s Handprints. Earlier this year, he put out a release as part of Ian Urbina’s Outlaw Ocean project, Blurred Horizons. Now he’s back on Cascade Records for another solo album, Rewind. The first thing that hit me about Rewind is just how gorgeous it is.

Before the pandemic, Seattle emcee Gabriel Teodros was planning a show on June 24, 2020 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his first solo show. After the pandemic hit and it became obvious that the show was a no go, Teodros was left to figure out what else he could do in this situation. Like a lot of other artists have done and continue to do, he went through the vaults and started combing through his unreleased material.

Koreatown Oddity is an artist from Los Angeles that has been putting out music since the early 2010s. Earlier in his career, he might have been seen as a bit of a novelty due to the fact that he would perform live while wearing a wolf mask. As he persisted, though, the music made more of a case for itself as hip hop of substance, and the novelty took a back seat.