B.Bravo is a producer from Los Angeles that has been releasing music for over a decade, whether it be as a solo artist or as part of groups like Umii or Kool Customer. His last proper solo release came back in 2017, when he dropped the full-length album Paradise. Now he’s come back to provide some summer jams with an EP called Cosmic Mind. There is a lot happening in the world right now, and while there has already been a lot of political music released this year and much more is to come, sometimes you need your music to be a moment of self-care – a soundtrack for your moments to relax and recharge.

Rebekah Farrugia is Associate Professor of Media Studies and Kellie D. Hay is Associate Professor of Cultural Studies, both at Oakland University in Detroit. About ten years ago, these two colleagues, who didn’t know each other particularly well beforehand, embarked on a journey of not just studying but becoming involved the Detroit hip hop scene through a women-centered hip hop collective called The Foundation. The result of all their research, involvement, and hard work is now available in their book, Women Rapping Revolution: Hip Hop and Community Building in Detroit.

Deadly Stare is the alter ego of Montreal artist Scott Da Ros, a name he first used for an album in 2018 when he dropped The Electric Seaenfiora, after years of using his own name or the name Triune Gods. Now he comes back to further establish the Deadly Stare name with a second album under the moniker, Colors. With the first album, Da Ros used Deadly Stare to explore a cinematic downtempo style that fell somewhere in between Blockhead and Wax Tailor.

Anzola is a producer/multi-instrumentalist born and raised in Venezuela before immigrating to Toronto in 2009. He has been releasing music for the last five years, with his self-titled EP in 2017 being his most recent output. Now he joins up with URBNET to release his new EP inspired by his hometown, Caracas. As someone from the U.S., I’m going to have to claim some ignorance when it comes to Venezuelan electronic music, and to their pop music overall, outside of Arca’s contributions to Bjork’s last couple of albums.

It’s been three years since we heard from the New York native known as Latasha Alcindor, when she released her album, Teen Nite at Empire. Since that time, she moved to Los Angeles and shortened her stage name to just “Latasha.” While we still don’t have brand new music from her, we do get this collection of older unreleased material, Past Life. Normally, when someone releases a collection like this, it is usually a place holder.

Savannah/Athens artist Dope Knife and Saskatoon producer Factor Chandelier have been in each other’s orbits for a while, with Dope Knife contributing rhymes on the track “Long Game,” on Factor’s most recent album, First Storm. Now they have formally teamed up as a duo for an EP, Kill Factory. One of the first things that hit me about this EP is just how much it bangs. It caught me off guard because it had been a minute since Factor had been part of a hardcore hip hop project – most of his recent output had been of the more art rap/experimental hip hop variety, such as his work with Ceschi or his own solo work.

Devin Burgess is a producer from Cincinnati who has been releasing music at a fairly prolific pace for about the past six years. Just this past April, he released a project influenced by all the terrible things that had happened in 2020 called Wait On It. Because the year was far from done, we now get a new project for our times, SayTheirNames. As you might guess from the title of this album, SayTheirNames is a project devoted to those Black people who have recently been murdered by racist cops, the reason the streets across the country and around the world have been flooded over the past couple of weeks.

Longshot is an emcee who originally got started in Chicago but has been calling Minneapolis home for about ten years now. His most recent album came two years ago, when he teamed up with Doomtree producer Lazerbeak to make the album Parades. Now he picks up where he left of to make an EP for our times, #ImSaying. When Longshot isn’t dropping dope rhymes, he’s working with children in the community and trying to build a better future for the next generation.

Seline Haze is an emcee from Athens, Georgia who has only been releasing music for a couple of years. Her last project, Saga of Love, came out in 2018. There have been some singles since then, but now we finally get the next chapter of her career with a new EP, Haze. While there was plenty to like about Saga of Love, there was part of the EP that sounded a little green, like Haze was still figuring out who she was as an artist, and what worked best for her musically.

New York artists billy woods and ELUCID have put out a lot of great and challenging hip hop as solo artists over the years, and they’ve been part of a lot of interesting projects as collaborators as well. With similar approaches to their art, it only felt right that they came together as Armand Hammer, who released their first project back in 2013. While they’ve certainly been busy since their last album, Parafin, which came out in 2018, we finally get a new album in Shrines that couldn’t have been more timely and needed.