J. Griffith Rollefson is Associate Professor in Popular Music Studies in the Department of Music at University College Cork, National University of Ireland. Originally from San Francisco, Rollefson has been researching the subject matter of the intersection of postcolonialism and hip hop for a long time. After spending time in Berlin, Paris, and London researching this material, we finally get the results of his hard work in Flip the Script: European Hip Hop and the Politics of Postcoloniality.

Illogic has been one of the mainstays of the Columbus hip hop scene for years, but has been mostly known as an emcee during that time. Most recently, he collaborated with San Jose producer/emcee/vocalist Lucid Optics to release the fantastic Lucid Logic album in 2017. After all of his accomplishments, Illogic managed to still find a way to do something he hasn’t done before, releasing his first self-produced EP, The Beauty of Evolution: Vol.

Back in August of 2017, North Carolina emcee and Free The Optimus founding member C.Shreve The Professor released an EP by the name of Mommy Love To Dance, a fun release that saw Shreve stepping out of his comfort zone. Just before the year was over, he comes back with a companion album that’s right in his wheelhouse, Daddy Love To Rap. If Mommy Love To Dance is C.Shreve switching things up and trying something new, Daddy Love To Rap is C.

One of the best parts of every December is when Fake Four rolls out Freecember, their tradition of releasing an EP or other project every week of December from a lesser known artist and giving it away for free. This particular entry comes from Bay Area artist OneWerd, who gives us Alive. If you’re a regular reader of Scratched Vinyl, you should already be familiar with OneWerd, who has been going strong for a few years now, and most recently released his album Becoming on Acid Lab Records back in March.

2017 might not have been the best year for Offsite for personal reasons, but it was a good year for him musically. After have two releases earlier in the year, Offsite snuck in one last three-song EP, titled Tri. The two releases that came earlier this year, cleaning out my conscience and lvls may vary, dealt with the loss of a close friend who took his own life. It’s a tough thing to go through, but luckily Offsite had his music as an outlet to try to process everything he was going through.

Fort Ancient Records is not only a record label out of Cincinnati, but also a collective of producers that includes Homage (CVG), Phonophage, Dren AD, Grocery Choppin’, and Waldo From Cincinnati. The last time we heard from them as a whole was back in August of 2017, when they dropped their themed EP, Gatsby. Now they are back with an EP called First Team. While the last EP had a clearly defined theme, First Team is a little more loose in it’s construction.

The last time we heard from Toronto emcee and Backburner member Wordburglar, it was back in 2015 when he dropped his last solo album, Rapplicable Skills. Now, with a new album on the horizon for 2018, he’s released this three-song EP, If It Rhymes It’s Real. If you’re already familiar with Wordburglar, this EP delivers exactly what you’ve come to expect from him. With beats from Beatmason and scratches from More or Les and Uncle Fester, we get three energetic tracks that deliver on some classic East Coast boom bap.

Producer/emcee Substantial started off 2017 with a bang, releasing the excellent album The Past is Always Present in the Future. Most people probably think of him as an emcee, but he’s been making beats this whole time, and he’s set to release an instrumental album this coming spring titled The Garden. Before we can have a garden, though, Substantial sets the scene and releases this instrumental EP, Seeds. Seeds exists in that blurred area between EP and beat tape, where some of the tracks feel like complete compositions and others feel like beat samples that could be developed further if the need was warranted.

Heiruspecs might not be a name that well known outside of the Twin Cities, but if you talk to anyone involved with the music scene there, they will no doubt not start talking your ear off about the group, who have been a mainstay of talented individuals who come together like Vultron to make some unique and fantastic hip hop. To celebrate their twentieth anniversary as a band, they’ve assembled a mixtape looking back at some of their greatest hits and some rarities and side projects as well, all together in 20⁄20.

Sampa the Great is an artist born in Zimbabwe, raised in Botswana, and recently relocated to Sydney, Australia. She first made waves back in 2015 when she released The Great Mixtape. Amongst others, she caught the ears of Big Dada, who have now teamed up with her to release her latest project, Birds and the BEE9. Birds and the BEE9 is a collaborative effort, one that finds her working with producers Kwes Darko, Sensible J, and Silentjay, along with guest vocals from REMI, Nicole Gumbe, Syreneyiscreamy, Mwanje Tembo, and Zaachariaha.