Kadesh Flow - Motivated

Kansas City artist Kadesh Flow has been making moves over the past couple of years, releasing a couple of strong EPs as a solo artist and working with the Marcus Lewis Big Band’s Brass and Boujee project. For all that’s been going well for him, the day to day struggle of an independent artist in this era can be tough and wear on a person. Like a true musician, though, Kadesh put it all in the music to drop a new EP, Motivated.

Sweatson Klank - Good Days

Sweatson Klank is a producer from L.A. who has been making music for quite some time, previously working under the name TAKE before switching over to the current name in the 2010s. He’s been working at a pretty steady pace the entire time, with his last album, Super Natural Delights, coming out just last summer. Now he’s back with another full-length, Good Days. Sometimes you don’t need to overthink things. On Good Days, Sweatson Klank isn’t trying to do anything fancy – he’s just laying down some great instrumental grooves based on the music that he loves.

Ambeez - Parallel Port

Ambeez, aka Ambition, is an emcee/producer from Halifax that is part of the Backburner crew. He’s been part of a lot of different projects over the years, but most recently he teamed up with Jesse Dangerously to form the group The Library Steps, who dropped an excellent album called Rap Dad, Real Dad in 2018. Just this past summer, he teamed up DJ Uncle Fester to release a mixtape, KREAM 3D.

Roane Namuh - Petrichor

Roane Namuh is a producer from Portland, Oregon, who has been part of the Liquid Beat family since the beginning. He is probably best known for his collaboration with vocalist Reva Devito, Cloudshine Deluxe. Outside of a few remixes, he’s been relatively quiet in recent years. That changes now, though, with the release of his new EP, Petrichor. Petrichor might not be a word that you’re familiar with, but the term refers to the pleasant smell after the first rain after a long period of warm, dry weather.

Erthling - Interview - 1-23-20

Erthling. is a producer/emcee from Birmingham that has been part of groups like 729, Pen Pals, and New Ancients and produced for artists such as Mel.Crozby, Richard Daniel, Kennie Blk, just to name a few. As an artist, he’s been as creative as he’s been prolific, which is part of how he’s been able to make such a big mark on the Birmingham hip hop scene in only about the last five years or so.

EyeQ - Triple L - Love

EyeQ is an artist from Orlando who has been releasing music since the early 2010s. He has been lumped into the subgenre of nerdcore due to some previous anime and video game-inspired projects, but his most recent project is anything but. Starting last year, he released the first in a series of three EPs, Triple L – Live, a tribute to Anita Baker. Now it’s time for volume two, Triple L – Love.

OZU8LACK - Finding OZU

OZU8LACK, aka Ozu, is a Birmingham emcee who has been putting out music for several years, as part of groups like 729 and 888 alongside his solo career. Just this past December, he put out a solo release called Memoirs: Diary of an Unknown Artist. Now he follows that up with the full-length album, Finding OZU. One of the first things that will become apparent when listening to Finding OZU is what a great emcee Ozu is.

In Kind - From a Star

In Kind is Tchad Cousins, an act from Kalamazoo, Michigan that’s been putting out music for only a couple of years. There have been scattered singles over the last two to three years, but now they take a big step forward with an EP put on Young Heavy Souls, From a Star. On this EP, one of the things that will become apparent pretty quickly is that In Kind is not content to play within the lines of any one genre.

Kay the Aquanaut & Maki - The Nautical Blue

Kay the Aquanaut is an emcee from Saskatoon who has been at this for over two decades now. Over recent years, one of his most trusted collaborators has been with fellow Canadian Maki. Their last album together, Earth Station 7, came out almost exactly a year ago. Now they are back for their fourth album together in five years, The Nautical Blue. Maki and Kay have made for an interesting pairing from the jump, since Kay brings this big personality to the mic, and Maki likes to make these really moody downtempo beats.

Werkha - The Rigour

Werkha is a producer from Manchester who released his debut EP back in 2012. Since that time, he’s had a few releases for Tru Thoughts, scored some documentaries, and produced the debut album for Bryony Jarmon-Pinto last year. To start of the new decade, he moves over to First Word Records and gives us a new EP, The Rigour. The EP is called The Rigour because as much as you might enjoy this music, Werkha wants to remind you that as much as he loves doing this, it still takes a lot of labor to put something like this out into the world.