Sulfur is an emcee from Charlotte who was part of the group Thoughtcriminals alongside Mikal kHill. It’s been a minute since we got a proper project from him, with his last solo album, Re: Birth, coming in 2015. Now he’s back with an interesting project, The Wheel of Rhyme. As you might have inferred from the title, the inspiration for The Wheel of Rhyme is The Wheel of Time series of fantasy novels by Robert Jordan.

Krum is an artist from Dallas who has been releasing music for over a decade, working under the name Playdough before switching to Krum in the mid-2010s. He’s also been part of the collective Deepspace5 alongside artist like Sivion and Sintax, just to name a couple. Most recently, Krum released an album called Black Lung in April of this year, his first working solely as a producer with other emcees on the tracks.

Jamael Dean is a 22-year-old artist from Los Angeles who has made some noise in recent years, both as a solo artist and with his group The Afronauts. He made his debut on Stones Throw in 2019 with Black Spaces Tape, which introduced people to not just his jazz sides, but also his hip hop alter egos, producer Jasik and rapper Jira. Now he returns with his ambitious debut full-length album, Primordial Waters.

Eshon Burgundy and Zara Royalty are both Philly artists who have both been releasing music since the mid-2010s. They have appeared on each other’s projects over the years, but until now, they had never done a full project before. Since they are husband and wife, it did feel like just a matter of time before it happened, and now it’s finally here in the form of It Is What It Is.

Backburner is a large crew from Toronto/Halifax/Ottawa, one with many solo artists and subgroups, as you might imagine. One particular trio from Toronto, Swamp Thing, consists of Timbuktu, Chokeules, and Savilion. What makes this particular group compelling is that they pop up ever Halloween with a new release, a tradition that started back in 2012 with Creature Feature. Continuing this tradition, they are now back with a new full-length album, World War Swamp.

P.T. Burnem is an artist from Richmond, Virginia who has been releasing music for about fifteen years. Just this past April, he released an album called Perzang! which delivered the experimental electronic/punk/hip hop that he’s come to be known for. You could also find him amongst the plethora of emcees showing up to drop rhymes and have fun on production duo Necessary People’s These are the Necessary People, which dropped in July.

Kuf Knotz is an emcee from Philly that is over a decade into his career, with albums out on Mad Dragon and Ropeadope. Three years ago, he teamed up with harpist/pianist/vocalist Christine Elise to release an album called Higher Grounds. It went so well, they are now back for round two as a duo, releasing their new full-length album, Ké myōōnėdé [Community]. For this album, Knotz and Elise are bringing in producers DJ Sat-One, Barry Myrick, Brent Hoskins, Arjun Dube, Hezekiah, M-R Product, MH the Verb, INF Beats, Stijn, as well as producing a couple of tracks themselves.

DJ Platurn has been a fixture of the Bay Area hip hop scene since came up as part of the Oakland Faders crew in the early to mid-2000s. At the onset of the pandemic, as we were all trying to figure out what to do, he ended up connecting online with Los Angeles vocalist Savannah Lancaster. Together, they have now released their first album under the name Sundur, Somewhere There’s Music.

Lucy Camp is an artist from San Jose who has been releasing music since the mid-2010s. Her last EP, Someday Maybe, came out in August of last year. Since that time, there have been a couple of singles, but now she’s back with a change of pace with Nights [EP]. It doesn’t take long in listening to Nights to realize that this is a different type of project from Camp. While in the past she’s mostly rocked in a West Coast boom bap style of hip hop with some touched of modern R&B, she’s going in a completely different direction with Nights.

Philly/Phoenix artist Mega Ran has been doing things his own way for the better part of two decades now. Over the years he’s found ways to zig zag between projects and move from his nerdier themed releases to more general and personal hip hop albums. Of course, he’s also elevated the game by blurring those lines between what we might consider “nerdcore” and what we might consider “indie hip hop.” Case in point, back in May, he teamed up with Detroit emcee Noveliss to release the Megaman-themed Maverick Hunters.