Sankofa is an emcee from Fort Wayne, Indiana who has been making dope rhymes for over fifteen years now. His most recent project came from a period of time when Sankofa was sidelined by a snapped Achilles. Wondering what to do with himself while recovering, producer Chad Wesley Snipes sent him some beats, and next you know they were working on an EP together. The result is Where We Find Ourselves.

New York emcee PremRock and Toronto producer Fresh Kils started collaborating a few years back, with their excellent debut album, Leave In Tact, dropping in 2016. Since that time, they’ve released a remix collection and another EP, Poet’s Payday, coming just last year. They are back now with another EP, Shelf Life. Both PremRock and Fresh Kils are versatile artists who can rock a crowd and have fun with it, but also know how to tap into the subtle and intimate side of hip hop, which is what they are doing here on Shelf Life.

Portland artist Lucas Dix has released a lot of music under the names of a lot of different projects, including Jellyfish Brigade, BCxLD, Hives Inquiry Squad, Shut-ins and the Colony, and R4PC4MP, just to name a few. For his latest project, he goes by the name of Claud Six, and takes a lot of new steps with the release of Vignettish. Vignettish is interesting for a lot of different reasons, but one of the main ones is the way in which Dix has managed to push himself in new and different directions, but also remain true to himself in such a way that the minute you press play, everything feels familiar.

Lasso is a producer best known for his work with Lando Chill, helping him achieve the vision of his last two albums, including our favorite album of 2018, Black Ego. However, after recording that album, both artists bid adieu to Tuscon, with Lando moving to L.A. and Lasso moving back to Michigan, where he grew up. Since that time, he’s been working on his own solo album, which finally sees the light of day as he drops the appropriately titled The Sound of Lasso.

Last Sons is a group out of Nottingham, UK, consisting of emcee Duke01 and deejay Furious P. You might now Duke01 from his previous work with Uncommon Records, such as his excellent 2014 album, Steroid Stereo, which actually featured cuts by Furious P. At this point, they are really just picking up where they last left off, formally giving us the first album under the new name of Last Sons, Chekhov’s Gun.

Suaze is a producer from Birmingham that has been making interesting music for a few years now, producing for such artists as Love Moor, Richard Daniel, and Shaun Judah. Along the way, he’s also released a couple of instrumental releases as well. His latest is a short-but-sweet project, Sunroom Sessions. The idea behind Sunroom Sessions is that this is music that you can put on and feel like you’re enjoying a beautiful sunny day with you windows open.

GrandAce is an artist from the Cincinnati area that has been releasing music for the last couple of years, mostly in the form of EPs, singles, and beat tapes. His last EP, Feel Good, came out a little over a year ago. Now he comes back with another impressive project, Also Codachrome EP. GrandAce recorded Also Codachrome as a way to work through his feelings of imposter syndrome as he approaches college graduation.

MC Frontalot is an artist who has been making music for almost twenty years now and is one of the forefathers of the subgenre known as nerdcore. His last full length, Question Bedtime, came out in 2014. He now follows that up with an album about the Internet, Net Split, or, the Fathomless Heartbreak of Online Itself. When an artist has been around as long as Frontalot, you might worry about them running out of steam, or getting stuck in the same gear they’ve always been in.

Raw Poetic is a D.C. emcee who used to be part of the group Panacea along with K-Murdock. These days, he’s been on quite the tear with his solo career, with three ambitious releases coming out just last year. He continues to build upon that output in 2019 with his latest album, Gulliver. For Gulliver, Raw Poetic collaborated with artists such as 12th Doctor, Disciple 99, RPM, Luke Stewart, and Aaron Gause.

Mister is an emcee from Detroit, formerly of the group Passalacqua along with Blaksmith. As he now ventures out on a solo career, he has teamed up with a producer from London named Curt Cataract to make an album called Approaching Land. Mister and Curt Cataract actually connected over ten years ago on Myspace, but the timing has finally worked out to release an album together just now. If you spent the time with Passalacqua, you probably think of them as a fun group, something you want to listen to when you want to get the party started.