Fresh Kils is a producer and MPC Wizard from Toronto. He’s been releasing music for over two decades, as part of the Backburner crew, as part of groups like The Extremities and Ockham’s Blazer, and as a collaborator with such artists as PremRock, More or Les, Mad Dukez, Fraction, and numerous others. For all he’s accomplished in his career, the one thing that was missing from his resume was a proper solo album.

Calvin Valentine is an emcee/producer originally from Eugene, but now based in Los Angeles. Over the years, he’s worked with such artists as Illa J, Planet Asia, and Chris Orrick, just to name a few, while also maintaining a solo career that saw a run on Mello Music Group. In 2021, he teamed up with Cream Dream Records to release an instrumental album, Weed Is Awesome. Now he’s back with another album, The Bong’s in the Freezer.

Philly emcee/producer andrew started releasing music a few years ago, but he really caught people’s attention with his debut on Cold Rhymes in 2020, W.O.T.W. Earlier this year, he released a self-produced album called The Rain Knows What It’s Doing over on Three Dollar Pistol Music. Now he’s back with Cold Rhymes with a new LP, Sad Dance Songs/I Don’t Know. A lot of the time, when an emcee who also produces works with another producer, it’s because that collaboration is taking their music in a different direction that they probably wouldn’t have gotten to on their own.

Shitao is a producer from Paris who has been releasing music since the mid-2000s. In that time, he’s worked on a wide variety of projects, ranging from boom bap to orchestral movie scores. Most recently, we’ve gotten some real (The Waves) and imagined (Child’s Head with Flowers) soundtracks, which have been really interesting projects to dive into. Now Shitao is back with a new project that is video game-inspired, Don’t…Let him go back to the Tower.

Austin artist Scuare has been making dope hip hop for about the last decade, whether it be as a solo artist, as a duo with no1mportant, or with fellow exociety artists like Rav, Kill Bill, or Airospace. Just last year, he released his best solo album to date, Phenomenal. Now he is back with a new album done in collaboration with producer sow, Slippery People. For Phenomenal, Scaure produced the majority of the tracks himself, but one track, “Troubleshooting,” was produced by sow and featured trumpet from FLOOG.

Emapea is a producer from Poland who has been releasing music since the mid-2010s. He had a bit of a breakthrough moment in 2020, when he teamed up with Los Angeles emcee Kid Abstrakt to release the album Jazzy Vibes. Since then, he has mostly focused on his solo material, releasing his album, Bees, Trees, and Flowers, in 2021. In May of this year, he released an EP called Smuggling Town.

Thorts is an emcee from Bunbury, Australia, who has been releasing music since the mid-2000s. He’s shown no signs of slowing down, either, with recent projects with Jack Vaul, Joel Simeus, Whatever Cecil, and DJ Silence. His most recent project found him working with Haunted Days to make the album Hanky Man, which came out this past March. Now he’s back with a new EP done in collaboration with Morgantown, West Virginia-based producer Unsung, The Unsung Thorts EP.

The Winston Brothers is a relatively new project from two veteran Hamburg musicians who have both been part of the Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, multi-instrumentalist Sebastian Nagel and drummer Lucas Kochbeck. They made their debut on Colemine in 2020 with the release of a 7-inch, but now they are ready to give us their debut LP, Drift. The Winston Brothers aren’t looking to redefine funk with the first album. Instead, they are just looking to make the type of music they love, which are instrumental jams with great grooves and a gritty feel.

Eilot Lipp is a New York-based artist who got started back in the mid-2000s, when he released his self-titled album on Prefuse 73’s Eastern Developments label. He’s been working at a steady pace since then, with releases on Mush, Old Tacoma, and Pretty Lights. In 2016, he made his debut on Young Heavy Souls with the release of Come To Life. Just earlier this year, he teamed up with Blockhead to release the album In the Nude under the name Lipphead.

When Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad launched Jazz is Dead in 2020, the mission was to provide older jazz musicians the support they needed to get back into the studio and record original material, hopefully introducing them to a younger audience in the process. In the label’s short existence, we’ve gotten releases from the likes of Roy Ayers, Doug Carn, Azymuth, Brian Jackson, and Jean Carne, just to name a few.