Tom Misch is a young producer from London that’s been releasing music for a few years now, including Soulection’s White Label series. After all this time of releasing singles, remixes, one-off collaborations, EPs, and beat tapes, it’s finally time for his first solo album, Geography. Even if you’re familiar with Misch’s production in the past, there’s probably going to be a few surprises for you with Geography. That’s because while Misch has done a great job of releasing interesting material here and there and building up a following, he’s quietly been prepping this album that shows the full range of his abilities and influences.

Once upon a time, way back in 1996, Kool Keith developed an alter ego named Dr. Octagon, a hypersexual doctor from outer space. He then got together with producer Dan the Automator and turntablist DJ Q-Bert to record the classic album Dr. Octagonecologyst. Over the years, it’s been regarded of something of a cult classic. Despite it’s popularity amongst hip hop fans, we’ve never gotten a proper follow up to the album.

It’s been four years since Minneapolis noise rap group Moodie Black released their last album, Nausea, on Fake Four. Normally, when it takes that long between albums, you might expect a little bit of change or growth. Every once in a while, that journey in between albums becomes more intense and personal, which is what happened when Moodie Black frontperson Kdeath publicly came out as a trans woman. Identity is a deeply nuanced and personal narrative, and that’s exactly the journey we go on with Lucas Acid.

Les Fortunate is a trio out of Boise, consisting of producer Weighn Beats and emcees Clev Speech and Mo Digs. They united as a group to give their first album, which is simply self-titled. I don’t pretend to know a lot about the Boise hip hop scene, but I do know that Weighn Beats is a really talented producer that I know from his work with Oso Negro. Now he’s teamed up two other emcees, and they are both really talented as well.

D Gut is one of the members of the RDFND collective out of Birmingham, along with K1NG ELJAY, Mel Crozby, and Richard Daniel. The last time we heard from D Gut was just about a year ago, when he collaborated with K1NG ELJAY on The Process. Now he comes back with a solo EP called Litmus. The full title of this EP is Litmus…Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Embrace The Flaws.

Bay Area emcee Deuce Eclipse has been part of a lot of different projects over the years, but perhaps his most distinctive is the Latin rock/hip hop group he founded with Juan Manuel Caipo, Bang Data. They started the group about ten years ago, but it’s been a couple of years since we got an official release from them. Now, they come back with their best album to date, Loco.

Vibe Music Collective emcee Cavalier is originally from Brooklyn, but moved to New Orleans with producer and close friend Iman Omari a few years ago. It has also been three years since we got an official release from him, when he released his Lemonade EP. Now he’s back with his full length album, Private Stock. Much like a lot of his previous work, Cavalier once again works with Iman Omari, which means you’re getting exactly what you’d expect from the two of them.

Jean Grae is a legend of the New York Underground, with a career going back twenty years. In recent years, she began collaborating more and more with producer/emcee Quelle Chris, originally from Detroit, but now based in New York. Just last December, the two announced that it was not just a creative partnership, they had gotten engaged. Now, they come forward with their first full-length album as a couple, Everything’s Fine.

Kansas City artist Kadesh Flow is probably best known right now for his appearances with Mega Ran, but the young artist is about to kick things up a notch. He starts off the year with the first of a couple of planned releases, an EP called Room Service. It’s been about three years since we got a solo release from Kadesh Flow, but the young man started making moves last year to put things in motion.

The Library Steps is a new duo consisting of old friends and Backburner members Jesse Dangerously and Ambition. They’ve come together to release their first full-length album, Rap Dad, Real Dad. One of the fun things about a crew as big as the Toronto/Halifax/Ottawa crew known as Backburner is that it seems like there’s a never-ending series of sub-groups that can form. In this case, Dangerously is on the mic, and Ambition on the beats.