Lando Chill has made a big splash in a short amount of time. Since 2016, when he dropped his debut album, For Mark, Your Son, the Chicago-born, Tucson-based artist garnered a lot of attention for his unique approach on the mic and his emotionally charged lyrics. Last year, when he dropped his sophomore album, The Boy Who Spoke To The Wind, he not only released one of the best albums of the year, he also featured a producer in The Lasso who would emerge as his friend and partner in music.

Moses Boyd is a British producer and multi-instrumentalist who has been working across multiple genres from jazz to R&B to hip hop, having collaborated in the past with artists like Sampha, Little Simz, and Nubya Garcia, just to name a few. For his latest project, he looked to explore his heritage through music, resulting in the eclectic Displaced Diaspora. Boyd is the first of his family born in the UK, with his parents coming to the country from Jamaica and Dominica.

Ackryte is a producer from Minneapolis who has been making beautiful instrumental hip hop for years, along with producing for a few emcees like Rich Garvey. After working at a pretty prolific pace for quite some time, Ackryte took some time off, or at least relatively so. This is all to say that two years after his last solo release, ok cool, we now get his return to form, Hiatus.

Since emerging out of the Twin Cities in the late ‘90s, Atmosphere has remained one of the hardest and steadiest working groups in independent hip hop, constantly touring and releasing albums, EPs, and singles at consistent rate. As we break the two decade mark on the duo of Ant and Slug, they come back two years after their last album, Fishing Blues, with their seventh full-length, Mi Vida Local. A long time ago, their stopped being a real precedent for what Atmosphere were doing as a hip hop group, in terms of longevity and growing older within the genre.

SoulChef is a producer from Auckland who has been putting out music since 2010. The last time we heard from him was a little over a year ago, when he teamed up with emcee Nieve to release an EP called Step Into The Ghost. Now he’s back with a new full-length instrumental album, Home. It doesn’t take long to understand what Home is all about. SoulChef isn’t doing anything too conceptual here, he’s just bringing big, fun, soulful beats, one right after another.

E-Turn is an emcee/vocalist from Orlando. She’s been putting out music for a few years, with two albums already under her belt. Things are kicking up a notch for her, though, as she makes her Fake Four debut with her strongest album to date, Young World. Young World has been one of the more anticipated albums of the year, at least in terms of newer artists. Ever since Fake Four announced her signing and brought her to SXSW in March to play their official showcase, it started to become clear that we had some serious talent on our hands, and that this album coming out in the fall just might be something special.

mCurtis is a producer from Greece who has been recording for a couple of years now. He is now ready to take his place on the international stage with his ambitious debut album, Yomi, which comes out on Kraak Records. Most of the time, especially these days, we’ll be witness to producers taking steps before releasing their first album – maybe a beat tape or two, maybe an EP or two, and maybe even a first album that isn’t quite fully formed.

It’s been a couple of years since we last heard from LA to the Bay emcee Bambu, who took some time off since releasing Prey For The Devil in 2016. He used that time to focus on his family, who welcomed a new child, and to work locally on business ventures and local activism. Now he makes his return with a slightly different project called Exrcising A Demon | Article I | A Few Left.

Detroit producer Shigeto has been making his own unique blend of house and instrumental hip hop for over a decade now. 2017 saw the release of both his third album, The New Monday, and his collaborative album with ZelooperZ as ZGTO, A Piece of the Geto. Now he comes back with a new instrumental solo EP, Weighted. While last year was pretty busy for Shigeto, both albums he released left a lot to be desired, in large part because both projects featured ZelooperZ on the mic, who is not on the same level as Shigeto, and just feel back on cliched and sexist rhymes.

Illingsworth might not be a name you right away, but the emcee and producer and from Detroit has not only been working as a solo artist, but also as part of groups like Detroit CYDI, and producing for the likes of Open Mike Eagle, Milo, and Phonte, to name a few. His last solo effort came two years ago, when he released the instrumental album, Worth The Wait. Now he makes his Mello Music Debut with the ambitious You’re No Fun.