Illsamar is an emcee based out of Southern California (Covina, for those of you familiar with the area). She’s been putting out singles and videos for a couple of years, but now it’s finally time for her to take the next step as she releases her EP, foreign. For the EP, Illsamar works with producers Newselph, Wontel, Asaiah Ziv, and Germmanii, who come together to give her a collection of modern trap/R&B-influenced beats.

Happy Tooth is an emcee from Columbus that has been making music for about ten years, most notably for his work with Dug. Over the past year or so, he’s been working on his most recent album with producer Bum Theory, also from Columbus. Now the time is finally here for his most ambitious album to date, I’ve Been Meaning To Write The Meaning Of Life. This album is interesting for a lot of reasons, but the main one that stands out to me is the specific tone that is struck by Happy Tooth and Bum Theory.

Waldo From Cincinnati and Homage CVG are two producers from the Cincinnati collective known as Fort Ancient Records. We had just heard from Homage in August, when he released an LP by the name of Hacienda. The two had both been working as part of the whole collective as well, who have been releasing a series of EPs called Fort Ancient Airlines. The two first worked as a duo last year, when they released an album called Grocery Choppin’.

Minneapolis producer Big Cats has been busy lately. Less than two weeks than his last collaboration with Gaunte dropped, he comes right back with a new project with Crunchy Kids emcee/vocalist Chance York, whom he last paired up with back in 2016, when they released Highest Self. Now they’ve finally reunited to release a new album, Deep Dark Hope. The first thing that hit me in listening to Deep Dark Hope is that this album marks a turn for both Big Cats and Chance York towards a more modern pop/R&B style, at least for a good portion of it.

Since the inception of Strange Famous Digital a couple of years ago, we’ve gotten releases from Wheelchair Sports Camp, Prolyphic, Dope Knife, and Duncan Jewett. After jumping all around the U.S., now we hop across the pond to London, where we get a new entry from London producer Aupheus called Megalith. The first word that came to mind when listening to Megalith was “ominous.” Inspired by the sci-fi of his youth, especially the writing of Phillip K.

Neila is an emcee from Los Angeles who comes out of the Project Blowed camp, and one who’s been putting out music for about the past fifteen years. Her last album, Analog Jewelry, came out almost exactly one year ago. She now follows that up with her fourteenth album, Strangers Stories. While her last two albums had some interesting inspirations and concepts to them, Strangers Stories is a much more straight-ahead hip hop album.

In July of 2017, Los Angeles producer B.Bravo teamed up with Portland vocalist Reva Devito to form a new group called Umii, who released their debut album, This Time, on Fresh Selects. Now, a little over a year later, we get to revisit the fun we had with them as we get This Time (Remixed). As with any remix album, there are two key factors to consider – the source material and those doing the remixing.

The nomadic emcee known as Milo has been based out of places like Milwaukee, Chicago, and Los Angeles, but these days he’s calling Maine home. 2018 has already been a busy year for him, as we got an album from his alter ego, Scallops Hotel, and the debut of his project with ELUCID, Nostrum Grocers. He’s not ready to slow down yet, though, as he now drops his latest solo album, budding ornithologists are tired of weary analogies.

Just about a year ago, Portland, Maine artist Brzowski gave us one of his most ambitious projects to date, ENMITYVILLE. Now he comes back with a shorter, shared project, a split EP with Ohio artist MC Homeless called Dig Two Graves, which comes to us courtesy of I Had An Accident Records. The split EP is probably most associated with punk rock, and so it makes sense that when this type of project emerges, it would be from two hip hop artists with a heavy dose of punk rock to their sensibilities.

Acid Reign emcee Gajah first released a full-length project with producer Mute Speaker back in 2013, called On & Offspring. Gajah is from Los Angeles, and Mute Speaker is originally from Brighton, UK and now based in Cambodia, but their chemistry together was evident from the jump, erasing all of the borders and miles between them. The paired back up to make a Zappa-inspired project simply titled Zapped in 2015. Now, the duo has come back for their third go-round with a project called Vent.