Chances are that if you aren’t already familiar with Olivier St. Louis as a solo artist, chances are that you’ve at least heard his contributions as a frequent collaborator with Oddisee as a guitarist and vocalist. The D.C.-born, Berlin-based musician released a handful of singles last year, but as it turns out, that was just the warmup to his new EP, Matters of the Heartless. One of my favorite feelings in the world in when you put on a new record and it instantly feels familiar.

Raheem Jarbo, aka Mega Ran, aka Random, has been making music and traveling the globe for the better part of two decades. He’s accomplished a lot in his career, most notably serving as one of the most successful artists in bringing together the worlds of indie rap and nerdcore. As you might imagine, he’s compiled a lot of stories over the years, whether they be from his childhood in Philly to his days as a teacher, or as an artist that got invited to play in places like the United Kingdom or Japan.

Int Eighty might not be a name you immediately recognize, but chances are that’s because a lot of people collapse the name of the group Dual Core onto the emcee (overlooking the excellent work that producer c64 brings to the table). With that said, Int Eighty recently got inspired by watching Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood and has now given us reason to relearn his name as he gives us his first official solo EP, Loyalty.

M.C. K-Swift is an emcee/producer from Brooklyn who is part of the collective known as New Rap Order. He’s been going strong since he was a teenager in the early ‘90s. Last March, as the pandemic set in, he released an album called Keep Your Distance. Now, coming into 2021, he’s upping the ante and releasing an album a month for the entire year. He’s starting the project off with Pottery Class Volume 1: The Clay.

Dixon Hill is a producer from Las Vegas who is only a couple years into his career of releasing music. In that short time, though, he’s hit the ground running, making his biggest splash so far in 2019, when he released Actus Reus with Guilty Simpson in 2019. Now he returns to a beat series he started in 2018 with Holodeck Beats: Program 3. It’s funny how adjusting expectations going into a listening experience can affect your enjoyment of the project.

Donovan Days is a new name from a familiar face – Philly emcee and producer Ialive. After a 2020 that saw him release projects such as his producer compilation project I’ll Wait Forever and his collaborative project with Cody Cody Jones, Cool Code & Don, he’s wasting no time in 2021, coming back with a new name and album, Donovan Days. The interesting thing about Donovan Days is that while there is a name change and a certain shift of style to the album, this doesn’t feel like a radical departure the way it would if you described this album the same way for a different artist.

The nomadic emcee known as R.A.P. Ferreira, fka milo, has been working at a steady clip for the better part of the last decade. His last effort came back in March of 2020, when he dropped purple moonlight pages with The Jefferson Park Boys. Now he’s back with a self-produced album, bob’s son: R.A.P. Ferreira in the garden level café of the scallops hotel. While the title of this album might lead you to believe that it’s a tribute to Ferreira’s biological father, it’s actually a reference to poet Bob Kaufman, who is credited with coining the term “beatnik.

You might not know the name Aaron Frazer yet, but chances are you’ve heard some of his previous work, namely as a drummer and vocalist with Durand Jones & The Indications, singing lead on “Is It Any Wonder?” Among the people who noticed that track was Dan Auerbach, who liked it so much that he went to work producing Frazer’s debut solo album, Introducing…. One of my favorite feelings is when you put on an album for the first time and it feels like you’ve already been listening to that album your whole life.

Apifera is a name you might not know, but you might be familiar with some of the musicians involved. That’s because Apifera is a project involving Nitai Hershkovits (keys), Yuval Havkin aka Rejoicer (keys), Amir Bresler (drums) and Yonatan Albalak (bass). If you listened to the last Rejoicer album, Spiritual Sleaze, which came out on Stones Throw last February, you’ll find the other three members of Apifera listed in the liner notes as contributing musicians.

Passalacqua is the Detroit duo consisting of emcees Mister and Blaksmith. After finding each in the indie hip hop scene in the mid ‘00s, they put out their first EP in 2011. Now, after taking a couple of years to work on solo material and side projects, they’ve come back to celebrate that anniversary with a new album, Passalacqua LP. It’s nice when everything comes together in a nice neat little package.