Silas Short is a 24-year-old multi-instrumentalist/vocalist who grew up in the suburbs of Milwaukee and is now based in Chicago. He doesn’t have much of a discography to his name yet, but he did notably make an appearance as a guitarist on Kenny Segal’s 2018 album, Happy Little Trees. He now teams up with Stones Throw to release his debut solo EP, Drawing. Sometimes, when an artist releases a lo-fi recording, it’s an aesthetic choice that fits the overall style of music they are making.

Sekou Cooke is an architect, researcher, and educator who is currently serving as director of the Master of Urban Design program at UNC-Charlotte. He had been previously working as Assistant Professor at Syracuse University’s School of Architecture. He is also a 2021⁄2022 recipient of the Nasir Jones Hip Hop Fellowship at the Hutchins Center for African & African American Studies at Harvard. His work has been noted for his research and practice in the field of hip hop architecture, which you can now read about in his new book, Hip-Hop Architecture.

Two years ago, Brooklyn emcee P.SO The Earth Tone King teamed up with the production duo of 2 Hungry Bros. to release a project called American Anime, a record devoted to P.SO’s love of comic books, sci-fi, fantasy, and of course, anime. Now they have come back with the sequel, Manga Americana. Sometimes it’s not about doing something different from everyone else, it’s just picking your lane and doing it at the top level that few can touch.

Blackliq is an emcee from Richmond, Virginia who has been really prolific over the last couple of years. Most recently, he made an appearance on the song “Party McFly,” alongside Sage Francis and Jesse the Tree, which came from the new self-titled EP from Mopes, fka Prolyphic. Now he is right back with his own project produced by Mopes, Time is the Price. Music as therapy is an idea that is revisited time and again, but nowhere is this idea more direct than on Time is the Price.

More or Les is a Toronto emcee/producer who is part of the humongous Canadian hip hop collective known as Backburner. As a solo artist, he’s been releasing music for nearly two decades, with his latest album, The Human Condition, coming out about a year ago. Now he’s back with a new EP, Post Human. This EP is called Post Human because many of the songs on the project were ones that were cut from The Human Condition, or they are tracks that are on theme but didn’t come to Les until months later.

Philly emcee Curly Castro has been keeping himself busy in recent years, working as part of groups like Shrapknel with PremRock, Bluu Edwards with Small Professor, or making guest appearances on Armand Hammer albums. His last proper solo album came out three years ago, when he dropped Tosh. Now he’s back with a brand new full-length, Little Robert Hutton. The name of this album comes from Bobby Hutton, a Black Panther who was killed by the Oakland Police during a confrontation lead by Eldridge Cleaver in April of 1968.

The Allergies are a production duo from Brighton, UK who have been releasing music for nearly a decade now. Their last album, Say the Word, came out in summer of 2020. Now they are back with their first album made completely under quarantine, Promised Land. The nice thing about the way that The Allergies work is that they produce at a consistent enough pace with these big, full albums, that they are able to keep everyone happy with their consistent devotion to funky break beats and party music while also giving themselves enough room on each album to experiment a little and expand on their sound.

Shad is an emcee from London, Ontario who is more than fifteen years deep into his career. We last heard from him in 2018 when he dropped the ambitious concept album, A Short Story About War. He’s now back with a new full-length album, TAO. Shad named this album TAO because of the literal Chinese translation of “the way,” as in the way of living that conforms to the truths of a moral universe, but also because of the CS Lewis book, The Abolition Of, meaning that we risk the abolition of ourselves if we lose touch of these aspects of our humanity.

Illsamar is a SoCal emcee who has been releasing music for the last four years, quickly earning the respect of underground legends such as 2Mex. Her latest release came in April of 2020, when she dropped her EP Foreigners. Now she’s back with a new project, Missed Calls. While some of her past projects have been somewhat outwardly focused as she explored issues of race, heritage, identity, and borders, Missed Calls is a decidedly inwardly focused project.

Solemn Brigham is an emcee who came onto the scene in 2018 as one half of the duo Marlowe alongside producer L’Orange. After releasing their second album together last year, it was time for Brigham to take the next step and release a solo album. Now that album is here in the form of South Sinner Street. Solemn Brigham grew up in the small town of Abermarle, North Carolina, about an hour east of Charlotte.