It’s the end of another year, and while so many different things about the music industry feel like they are in flux or broken (i.e. Tickmaster, Live Nation, Spotify), the one thing that we know is true is that hip hop is as alive and varied and creative and challenging and fun as it has ever been. For all the years that Scratched Vinyl has been doing this, this top twenty was one of the hardest to put together.

Vancouver emcee/producer Moka Only has been releasing music at a prolific pace since the mid-‘90s. Eighteen years ago, however, he put out what at the time seemed like an innocuous release called Martin XMAS 2004. It was an enjoyable, different type of hip hop take on the standard Christmas album. What we didn’t know at the time, though, was that this was actually the start of a new tradition, with Moka Only releasing a new Martian XMAS album each year since then.

Raw Poetic is an emcee/producer from D.C. who first came up in the mid-2000s as part of the group Panacea. After the group broke up, he started working on different solo projects in the 2010s, working with different artist like Kev Brown and K-Def. In 2020, he worked on one of the most unique projects of his career when he teamed up with his uncle and jazz legend Archie Schepp and producer Damu the Fudgemunk to release an album called Ocean Bridges.

ill-sugi is a producer from Kanagawa, Japan. He has been releasing music for over a decade now, and in that time he’s worked with artists like Fitz Ambro$e, Bugseed, Budamunk, Dregs One, Brycon, and Tajima Hal, just to name a few. Throughout it all, he’s also maintained a solo career, with his last album, Warp Haze, coming out on Cold Busted last year. Now he makes his return to URBNET to release his new solo album, Zypression.

OKnice is an emcee from St. Paul who started releasing music about four years ago. He made a big step forward with his career earlier this year, when he released the excellent album, Have You Tried Being Happy? Now he’s back to close out the year with a new EP, The Sun Can’t Fix It. After releasing a “big” project like Have You Tried Being Happy?, it can be helpful to work on something short and focused before trying to match the ambition of making another full-length album.

Dusty Patches is the solo electronic project from Chicago producer/multi-instrumentalist Patrick Mitchell, who spent much of his early career in post-punk bands like New Color, Whiskey Wise, and De Triomphe. He started the Dusty Patches project back in 2016 when he started posting these synthesizer jams to YouTube. The project has certainly evolved since then, with his most recent release, Nocturnal Emissions from the Dablatory, coming in 2020. Now he has returned with his most interesting and ambitious project to date, Newtok.

Snotty Nose Rez Kids are a duo from Vancouver who have been making a lot of noise over the last five years. They continued their ascent last year with their excellent full-length album, Life After. Now they have come back with a new EP, I’m Good, HBU? After making a leap with a big statement album like Life After, it was always going to be interesting to see what Young D and Yung Trybez were going to do next.

The way that 2022 has been going for Fort Wayne emcee Sankofa, it only seemed right that we get one more project in before the end of the year, so that he can officially claim the title of busiest emcee of the year. He’s already released projects like Never Easy, The Sonny Vaccaro Years, and The Beat Shall Inherit the Verse (as part of The Silversmiths), and that’s just since August.

Tino is an emcee from Dayton, Ohio who has been putting out music for the past ten years. Just this past November, he released his seventh solo album, Midwest Sorrow. Now he has teamed up with French producer Marrrtin to release a new EP, La Pie Bavarde. Marrrtin is a producer who has been part of the French hip hop scene for the last two decades, and his resume is extensive.

One of the best traditions in indie hip hop is Freecember, where Fake Four uses the month of December to put out projects by lesser known acts for free. Just last year, we got releases from kidDEAD and OneWerd, Brook Pridemore, Sweetcream, and SB the Moor & Progeny. This year, we are kicking things off with a new self-titled album from Oscar Goldman. Oscar Goldman is an artist from Sonora, California, who has been releasing music for over a decade now.