Adam Gibbons is the British artist behind projects like Lack of Afro and The Damn Straights that has been putting out music since the mid ‘00s. For all he’s accomplished in his career, one thing that has eluded him thus far is breaking into film scores. Well, he finally took upon himself to make his own film score, The Last Bastion (OST). The Last Bastion is the soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist, and may never exist, but Gibbons came up with the general premise of “The film starts off with four men - having had enough of the uninspiring lives they each lead, decide to pack up all their possessions and travel to a place called ‘The Last Bastion’ - a kind of utopian theme park that promises eternal fulfilment.

729 is the Birmingham duo of emcee OZU and producer Erthling. They got together about four years ago on July 29th (hence the name), and since that time they’ve been steadily crafting some really inventive and passionate hip hop. Just last summer, we got a full-length album called from them called X8. Now they’ve come right back with another full-length album, this time self-titled. The craziest thing about making this their self-titled album is that this particular album is more of a posse album than anything they’ve done in the past.

Bag of Tricks Cat is an emcee from Glendale, Arizona who has been putting out music since the mid 2010s, most well known for his Emerald Knights collaborative albums with Mega Ran, along with his 2019 solo album, Felix Shevrolet. Last fall, we got a single with Whitney Peyton called “Stay Safe,” which was actually a teaser for his latest EP which is finally here, The Bad Luck EP. For The Bad Luck EP, Bag of Tricks Cat is working with producer like Yung Kooky, FloState Beatz, El-Jay Beats, Exjordanair, and Dakota.

The Halluci Nation is the group consisting of Ottawa musicians 2oolman and Bear Witness, which you might recognize as two of the three members of A Tribe Called Red. After DJ NDN left the group in 2017 for health reasons, the other two members continued on under that name for the next couple of years. As they started to work on new projects, the two remaining members decided it was time for a rebranding to distinguish this new phase as a duo.

Emma-Jean Thackray is a musician originally from Yorkshire, but now based in London. She first made a splash in 2016, when she dropped the EP WALRUS. In 2020, she teased us with an EP and a single, but now she’s finally ready to release her debut full-length album, Yellow. When Thackray dropped her 2018 project, Ley Lines, she said that she considered Madlib’s Yesterday’s New Quintet as a major influence, meaning that she tried to think of playing each instrument on her album as being a different persona, to get that full ensemble type of feel to come through.

When R4PC4MP dropped their first album, Somebody Gotta Hold the Balloons, back in 2018, it was a collaboration between Portland, Oregon artists Lucas Dix, Blake Ambrose, and Brass Clouds. By the time they came back with a second album, TR4PC4MP, in 2020, the group had amorphized to include Kurn’t Cobain alongside Blake and Lucas on the mic, and the production was now being handled by i like animals. Now, as their third album reaches us, it should come as no surprise that the camp is once again expanding it’s roster as the core from the last album now welcome in a couple of newcomers from Columbus, Ohio, by the names of Dug and Happy Tooth, along with a producer form Madison, Evaridae.

Emmavie is a producer/vocalist from London that has been putting out music for about the last seven years. In 2019, she teamed up with Portland, Oregon label Fresh Selects to put out her full length album, Honeymoon. Now she’s back with a new EP full of collaborations, What’s a Diamond to a Baby. One of the most underrated aspects of Emmavie’s music is her production. To a certain extent, I understand it, because she’s also a frontwoman with an excellent voice, but if one thing is clear throughout her career, it’s that her songwriting and production put her in the best position to succeed as a vocalist.

Back in March of 2018, Kansas City artist Kadesh Flow released an EP called Room Service. Recorded in his hotel room at MAGFEST with a few close collaborators, the EP exuded an excitement and urgency from an artist who had recently quit their day job and was ready to take their music to the next level. Going into 2020, Kadesh Flow was ready to return to this format, with plenty of conventions and festivals on the calendar.

Last September, Baltimore artist Height Keech dropped his latest solo album, Wild Height Keech. What you might have missed if you didn’t read the liner notes, is that one track on the album, “Last Blast Do or Die,” was co-produced by Philly artist ialive, with Keech and ialive using the name Necessary People for their production duo. This wasn’t the first time they used the name, having produced a few other tracks under the name.

Peyton is a vocalist from Houston who had one big break when her single “Sweet Honey” got picked up by the show Insecure. She got her next break when Stones Throw put out her debut EP, Reach Out, in 2019. Now she is back to take the next step with her debut full-length album, PSA. Peyton came up in Houston learning how to sing from her grandmother, the acclaimed gospel singer Theola Booker.