Baker’s Dozen has been one of the best series of releases since Fat Beats introduced it a few years back. With each release, they give you thirteen instrumental tracks from one artist, with an array of contributors that include everyone from Daedelus to Elaquent to the late Ras G. Most recently, we got a contribution from Buffalo producer Daringer. Now we shift back to Los Angeles to get the first woman in the series, Low Leaf.

Two years ago, Houston emcee Anti-Lilly broke out of a funk by teaming up with Portland, Maine producer Phoniks and released his first album in years, It’s Nice Outside. The partnership worked so well, the two have run it back to make another album, That’s The World. That’s The World feels like a natural continuation of It’s Nice Outside, and not just because the same artists are involved. It’s Nice Outside was the result of Phoniks connecting with Anti-Lilly and helping him to use music to break out of a prolonged period of depression.

Yamin Semali is an emcee and producer from Atlanta, who first gained notoriety with the group Clan Destined before striking out as a solo act with such releases as Yamin and Yen Dollar Music, Vol. 1 & 2. His last release, The Hot EP, came out in 2017. He now comes back with an instrumental album, DOTCOM. Despite the fact that Yamin Semali has released instrumental albums before, chances are that if you know Semali, you think of him as an emcee first.

It’s been a minute since we last heard from New York emcee P.SO The Earthtone King. More accurately, it’s been about five years since his last release, Gateway to Greatness/Constellations, which in turn was a re-issue and expansion of a 2013 release. Any way you slice it, it’s good to have him back as he teams up with the production team known as 2 Hungry Bros. to release their EP, American Anime.

Offsite is an emcee from Maine, who is part of the Drops of Andromeda label, a Ruby Yacht-adjacent project. He has been releasing music for about the last six years, and he’s grown into one of the most unique and talented artists that’s been flying under the radar in that time. His latest project, help urself, is a collection of older unreleased material along with a few new songs. Listening to this release, you might not have known it wasn’t crafted in one session, since it flows together so well.

MiKE L!VE is an emcee from Ashville, North Carolina, who has been performing both as a solo artist and as part of the group Free the Optimus, along with C. Shreve the Professor, DJ Jet, and Good Shep. While we’ve gotten some singles from L!VE recently, it’s been a minute since he dropped a proper solo project. That changes now with Examples of _____ to Inspire You. While L!VE has been part of the Asheville scene for years, this release actually marks his first since moving to South Carolina.

sumthin gunny is a producer/multi-instrumentalist from Wisconsin who has been putting out music for a little over five years now. Just earlier this month, he released a project called Pieces. Now he’s following that up with a release on Hot Record Societe called Dilate. There’s not much info available about sumthin gunny, so I can’t go into much detail about him or his process or so on. However, I can go into detail about is the music contained within this album.

Boca 45 is a producer from Bristol who has been putting out music for about fifteen years or so, mostly on indie labels such as Domino and Jalapeno, but he’s also contributed to some major label projects as well. He’s never had a bigger platform as he does now, though, as he makes his debut on Mass Appeal with his album simply titled 45. One thing that will hit you right away about 45 is what a throwback Boca 45 is.

Dillon is an emcee and producer from Atlanta (though originally from Jacksonville) and one of the founders of Full Plate. Over the years, he’s worked on projects with his partner Paten Locke, producer Batsauce, Boog Brown, H20, and others. Now, after all this time, he’s finally giving us his first true solo album, but with a twist – this is a concept album based around a character he created a few years back, The Tails of Lobsterdamus.

Chilo is a New York emcee/poet/educator/activist who has been making music for many years, but really hit his stride at the beginning of this decade when he released Natural Evolution in 2011. A few years later, he paired up with his brother in arms, Queen producer/emcee/teacher Mane Event, to release an album called Magician’s Revenge in 2015. While they’ve both kept busy since then, things haven’t lined up for a proper follow up album until now, as they give us No Such Paradise.