Maria Isa is an emcee/vocalist from the Twin Cities who has been releasing music for over a decade now, both as a solo artist and as part of groups like Villa Rosa. Her last album came in 2014, when she dropped Valley of the Dolls. Now she returns with her strongest effort to date, Sasa. Produced entirely by upcoming Minneapolis producer J.Hard, it becomes clear very quickly in listening to Sasa that Maria Isa has found someone that really understands her musically.

Back in 2013, Philly emcee Curly Castro released his stellar solo album, Fidel. Since that time, we’ve gotten a bunch of smaller projects like his crew album, Restroy & Debuild, or his Grift Company EP done in collaboration with Zilla Rocca, released earlier this year. While we still await his long-promised solo album, Tosh, Castro tides us over with a collection of unreleased tracks, Winston’s Dubplates. This is a collection of unreleased material, and as such, it plays like a compilation.

We at Scratched Vinyl have had the pleasure of watching Brooklyn vocalist/emcee Corina Corina’s unfold since she released her first album, The Eargasm, back in 2012. She released her sophomore album in 2014, and then followed that up with a mixtape at the beginning of 2017 called Run The Blues. The mixtape was enjoyable, but it wasn’t the anticipated third album we had been waiting for. Now that wait is finally over as Corina Corina delivers that album, Hangover Music.

Variex is a producer and emcee from the Bay Area, who has worked with labels such as Milled Pavement and is a founder of the New Cocoon collective. The last time we heard from him was two years ago, when he teamed up with Seattle emcee Rawbeartoe to drop the album Always Something. With his next solo album coming around the bend, he now gives us a teaser EP, The Bread Crumbs EP.

It was just back in February of this year that Ipswich producer Sorrdes (fka Deadpoole) released his brilliant solo album, Strange Hymns. Now he’s back with a new EP that gives us a slightly different look, Moon Kissed. If Strange Hymns was the grand statement, Moon Kissed is the understated release that allows Sorrdes some freedom to explore some different elements. Overall, it’s got this mellow, contemplative downtempo vibe to it, and it’s something that is best listened to closely on headphones, so you can appreciate all the subtleties contained therein.

The Regulars are a new group consisting of some familiar faces, namely Bay Area veterans Otayo Dubb and Tahaj The First. While the two emcee/producers have known each other for a while and guest on each other’s projects, this marks their first endeavor as a duo. They now present their first album as The Regulars, Regular Rap. Sometimes meeting expectations is all you need, especially when you’re getting an album from two artists who have consistently met a high bar over the course of their careers.

We don’t always review every anniversary re-release at Scratched Vinyl, but sometimes those re-releases highlight some albums that really got overlooked at their initial release. One such case is Karneige and Uncommon Nasa’s From The Left. Uncommon Records was launched in 2004, but unless a record label has some serious startup funds, it usually takes a couple of years for a label to find its footing. This is true of most eras, but as anyone who worked in the music industry can tell you, 2005-2010 was an especially tough era to navigate, as the industry shifted into the digital age.

Marco Polo is a producer originally from Toronto, but he’s been based in New York since the early 2000s. Since that time, he’s worked with everyone from Pumpkinhead to Pharoahe Monch to Large Professor to Rah Digga, just to name a few. Now he’s teamed up with a true Brooklyn hip hop legend, Masta Ace, to deliver A Breukelen Story. Masta Ace is one of the more interesting people in hip hop, in the way that while he never achieved huge success at any point in his career, he’s managed to keep working, keep putting out albums, and remained to sound relevant after all these years.

Back in 2015, Bay Area producers Brycon and GPEK, both of the Gurp City family, teamed up to make an instrumental mix for Halloween called There’s No More Room in Hell. They had so much fun with it, they made additional volumes each subsequent year, bringing in additional contributors along the way. In 2018, it’s time for There’s No More Room in Hell Pt. 4. For Pt. 4, we not only get contributions from Brycon and GPEK, but we are also joined by Eons One, Yelir, and B.

Small Professor is a producer from Philadelphia who has been releasing music as part of groups like Them That Do and Career Crooks, as well as a solo artist. As a solo artist, Small Pro is best known for releasing a series of instrumental projects informally known as the Jawns Series. In the past, we’ve gotten releases such as Nasty Jawns, Queen Jawns, and Chicago Jawns. For his latest release, it’s time to put on your Sunday best for Church Jawns.