Pasquale is the alias of Chadio, an artist from Vancouver who has been releasing music since the mid-‘00s, working along the way with groups like 50 fingers and artists like mikedecline. Most recently, he teamed up with The Dirty Sample to release an album called No Wives Club back in May of this year. Now he’s back under this production alias of Pasquale to present an instrumental album, Specials. When you press play on Specials, you’ll immediately be sucked into the beautiful world of Pasquale’s production, with big, soaring drums powering these midtempo tracks paired with gentle melodies that slowly build and envelope your ears.

Sankofa is an emcee from Fort Wayne who has been at this for the better part of two decades. Despite being this deep into his career, Sankofa remains as prolific as ever. His last project, BLKTCHP, came out just this past June. Now he’s back with a new EP, Floodgates. One thing that remains true about Sankofa’s career is that he likes that mid ‘90s boom bap style of production, and he’s got a knack for finding lesser known producers who can deliver the goods in that style.

Ill Poetic is an emcee/producer originally from Ohio, but now based in San Diego. He’s been putting out music since the mid ‘00s, and over the years he’s worked with everyone from Illogic to Blitz the Ambassador to Chris Orrick, just to name a few. His last full-length solo album came in 2017, when he released An Idiot’s Guide to Anarchy. Now he’s back with a completely different type of project, an instrumental album called Portfolio I: As Serious As Your Life.

TekForce is an artist form Dallas who emerged through the Nerdcore scene in the mid-2010s. His most recent album came in 2019, when he released his first instrumental project, Teknically Beats Stage 1. Now he’s come back with another different look as he presents his latest album, Child of the ‘80s. If you tell someone you’re making an ‘80s-inspired hip hop album, their head might go any number of places. After all, this is a decade that started with hip hop sounding like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and Kurtis Blow and ended up sounding like Public Enemy and De La Soul.

John Carroll Kirby is a musician from Los Angeles that had been working for years behind the scenes as a session musician, composer, producer, and collaborator before finally releasing his first solo album, Travel, in 2017. Since joining up with Stones Throw in 2020, he’s really hit the ground running, releasing four albums so far, with the latest, Septet, coming just the past June. Now he’s back with his fifth for Stones Throw, and quite different from the rest, Cryptozoo: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

Aru-2 is a producer form Tokyo who has been releasing music since 2013, at different times working with such labels as Hot Record Societe and Fresh Selects. Most recently, he released a beat tape called Lock the Door just this past April. Now he’s teamed up with an artist from Osaka, Kzyboost, who is known across Japan for his skills on the talkbox to make an album for Bastard Jazz called Hot Pants.

Air Credits is the Chicago duo of emcee ShowYouSuck and producer Hood Internet. They released their first album, BROADCASTED, back in 2016. In more recent years, they’ve been working on their WASTELAND RADIO NEW ARCHIVES series of EPs, an interesting concept where they imagine and create archival recordings of a dystopian future. Now they are back with a new project focused on the present, Believe That You’re Here. There has always been a need for science fiction and the ability to imagine a dystopian future, but in the five years since Air Credits started releasing music, that dystopian future has started to look more and more like a dystopian present, so why not make a project about what’s happening right now?

Boom Bap Project is a trio from Seattle consisting of emcees Karim and Destro Destructo alongside DJ Tre. They had their biggest taste of fame back in 2005, when they released the album Reprogram on Rhymesayers. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to catapult off of that success for a variety of reasons, and the next thing they knew, it had been fourteen years with no proper album from the group. The good news is the three artists finally got back on the same page, and they are now ready to release their first project in ages, Return Flight.

Tanya Morgan is the Brooklyn duo of Von Pea and Donwill who have been releasing music under that name for fifteen years now. They released a short EP in 2020 called Be Right Back, but really, it’s been since 2017 when they dropped their last full-length album, YGWY$4. Of course, in the meantime they’ve been dropping killer solo albums and working on various side projects, so they never really went away.

Small Professor is a producer from Philly who has been releasing music for over a decade. He’s collaborated with everyone from Curly Castro to Guilty Simpson, and he’s been part of groups like Them That Do. Last year, we got familiar with a lot of his solo work through his series of A Jawn Supreme releases. Earlier this year, he debuted a new project called the seven sins (still haunt me at night) [v.