YaH-Ra is an artist from Los Angeles who has been putting out music for about the last five years. Most recently, she released The R.A.W. EP in November of last year. Now she’s right back with it, dropping another EP, The Queen’s Gambit. For this EP, YaH-Ra enlisted the help of Brooklyn producer Wavy Da Ghawd. He answered the call by cooking up some great minimalistic underground East Coast boom bap.

JWords is a producer from New Jersey who has been releasing music for the past three years. She’s done this as part of the group H31R, alongside emcee Maassai, working with Nappy Nina on the album Double Down, and as a solo artist. Her last solo release came at the end of 2020, when she dropped her Sonic Liberation EP. Now she is back to drop another solo project, Self-Connection.

While British musician Emma-Jean Thackery has been around for a few years now, she really had a breakthrough moment when her album, Yellow, dropped in July of last year. It was a wonderful combination of jazz, soul, and R&B, with great grooves and outstanding musicianship. Following that big project up was always going to be a bit of a task, so Thackery has zigged and zagged over to a smaller, experimental project called Talking Therapy.

Small Professor is a producer from Philly who has been releasing music for about fifteen years, working with everyone from Guilty Simpson to Curly Castro along the way. He’s also made a lane for himself with his instrumental projects, most notably with his different “Jawn” releases. Last year, he started a new series of releases called the seven sins (still haunt me at night). In 2022, he’s coming at you with a wildly ambitious new project, the next (temporal pincer) movement.

Shadee Clarke is an emcee from New Jersey who has been performing under the name MoShadee for most of his career. His first album, Groove Street, came out in 2011, and he followed that up with an EP the same year, and then another album, love & other things, in 2014. Since that time, however, it’s mostly been one or two songs released here and there. That all changes now as he remerges as Shadee Clarke, with a new full-length album, Flowers Bloom, produced by Ohbliv and released on Mutual Intentions.

SassyBlack is a Seattle artist who has been at her solo career for about seven years now, releasing mostly shorter projects (EPs, singles, beat tapes, etc.) at a steady pace the entire time. Case in point, a little over a month after her last short experimental release, she is now back with an EP, BLK. One of the interesting things about the way SassyBlack works is that when the music comes in smaller batches at a steady pace, you don’t necessarily clock the ways that she’s grown and improved and expanded her sound over the years.

Mattie is a vocalist from Dallas who has been making waves in their hometown the past couple of years, after putting in time with a few different groups in the past decade and cutting their teeth at Medicine Man Revival’s monthly residency. Now they are ready to step out on their own as a solo artist with their debut EP on Leaving Records, Jupiter’s Purse. For this project, Mattie teamed up with producer Black Taffy, and from the second you press play on this EP, you’ll understand why.

In December of 2019, Birmingham trio Nerves Baddington opened for Qualifier at the Firehouse for Qualifier’s 7” release party. Going into the show, Nerves Baddington encouraged everyone to come, announcing that it would be their last show for the foreseeable future, as emcee/producer Inkline was moving to Denver. Since that time, we’ve gotten a couple projects from Inkline, one solo and one collaborative one with K1NG ELJAY. During this same time period, bassist/producer Kilgore Doubt went on a deep dive to hone his own production skills, emerging with a beat tape in November 2020.

Fang Over Fist is an independent collective hip hop label based in Flagstaff, Arizona, founded about six years ago by An Illustrated Mess. Since that time, they’ve introduced us to a world of Native American talent making hip hop in Arizona and beyond with a unique style and point of view. Most recently, they introduced us to Jae Krxnalege, who dropped 2022 Tape in January. Now, they are right back with another producer who needs some shine, Bigby, who gives us Negative Self Talk EP.

Mopes is the Providence artist formerly known as Prolyphic, who had been putting out music on Strange Famous since 2006. His last album as Prolyphic, DNGRFLD, came in 2016. Since that time, he had been through some life changes and took a step back o evaluate his music career and had to decide whether or not it was something he wanted to move forward with. After five years, he came back, reinventing himself as Mopes, and releasing a self-titled EP in October of last year.