Tiawa is an artist from Brighton who first made a little bit of a splash when she released a single in 2019 on the Roots Garden label, “Pain Killa.” Two years later, she’s now making her debut on Tru Thoughts with her first full-length album, Moonlit Train. To make Moonlit Train, Tiawa paired up with producer Jack-Chi, and filled out her sound with Ben Jones on keys, Craig Warnock on flute, Lee Westwood on guitar, and Liam Philpot on sax.

Uptown XO is an emcee from D.C. that has been releasing music for over a decade, both as a solo artist and as part of the group Diamond District alongside yU and Oddisee. In January of 2020, he released an album called Culture Over Corporate, and followed that up with a second volume in September 2020. Now he’s back to close out the trilogy with Culture Over Corporate Vol. III.

mndsgn. is a producer from Los Angeles that has been releasing music for over a decade. While he’s been keeping busy recently working on other projects like Prophet’s 2018 comeback album, Wanna Be Your Man, and producing tracks for artists such Korea Town Oddity and Ivan Ave, it’s actually been five years since mndsgn.’s last proper solo album, Body Wash. Now he makes his return to the spotlight with Rare Pleasure.

Offsite has been a bit of a nomad over the years, but Wisconsin has always served as a home base in between stints in places like Japan or Maine. No matter where he is, though, he’s a dope emcee who performs with his heart on his sleeve, as evident by recent releases like last year’s kitano omens. Now he’s back with a collection of songs that we recorded over the last two years, A Thousand Miles The Same Mood.

Def3 is an emcee originally from Regina, Saskatchewan who has been releasing music for over fifteen years now. In the past, he’s worked with such Canadian hip hop mainstays such as Moka Only and Factor. In 2017, he teamed up with Denver producer Late Night Radio to make the album Small World. Now, after an eventful four years, he’s back for another round with Late Night Radio as they present their new album, Weddings and Funerals.

DJ Format is a deejay and producer from Brighton that has been putting out music for over two decades, working with everyone from D-Sisive to Chali 2na along the way. His last full-length album came in 2017 when he teamed up with Toronto emcee Abdominal to make the album Still Hungry. Now he’s back with a new solo venture, Devil’s Workshop. Chances are that if you’re familiar with DJ Format, you probably think of him as someone who can throw down some bangin’ old school beats and turn the party out.

Flagstaff duo An Illustrated Mess have made a lot of noise since releasing their debut album, Last Night, And All Of Our Glorious Mishaps, in December of 2019. In the time following, they’ve done a lot of one off collaborations, Tsoh Tso (fka Whatever Cecil) produced an album with Tré Orona, and they released their sophomore album, One More For Safety. Now they take a moment to breath and reflect before embarking on their third album by giving us a remix album, K’é.

Happy Tooth is an artist from Columbus that has been releasing music for about the last ten years, probably best known for his collaborations with Dug, as well as his solo material. His last solo album, I’ve Been Meaning to Write the Meaning of Life, came in 2018. After working on some collaborative projects, he’s back with a new full-length album, The Laughter’s Rehearsed. For the production on this album, Happy Tooth turned to Columbus producer Bum Theory, who also produced his last album.

Reginald Chapman is a trombonist/composer/producer who has been releasing music for about the last fifteen years or so, playing with groups like No BS! Brass Band, Megafaun, and Foxygen, just to name a few. He released his first solo album, No Prototype, in 2018. Around this same time, he was developing an alias called Pressure Fit that would allow him to explore the worlds of electronic and hip hop music as a producer.

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. Now he’s come back with a new project with a different angle, the seven sins (still haunt me at night) [v.