Fly Anakin is an artist from Richmond, Virginia who has been releasing music since 2014. Over the years, he’s worked with a lot of his fellow Mutant Academy artists like Ohbliv, Koncept Jack$on, and Big Kahuna OG. He made a bit of a splash in 2020 when he collaborated with Los Angeles artist Pink Siifu to make the album FlySiifu’s, which came out on Lex Records. Now he’s back with his first solo album on Lex, Frank.

exociety is a collective from Austin built round the artists Scuare, Rav, Kill Bill, and Airospace. They are currently on tour through April, their first extensive tour as a collective. To help drum up support for the tour, they have released a collective album, deception falls. deception falls feels like a throwback in many ways, but mostly just in the way that we don’t get crew albums like this very often anymore.

no1mportant is an artist from Austin who has been releasing music since the mid-2010s, best known for his work with fellow Austin artist Scuare as the group …&more. It had been a couple of years since we had heard from him until he showed up on Scuare’s excellent 2021 solo album, Phenomenal. As it turns out, that was just the appetizer, because now he’s back with his first solo album in seven years, There’s No I.

Endemik Remote Ensemble is a collection of six experimental hip hop producers (mostly) from Canada consisting of Deadly Stare, EMC, Hermitofthewoods, Maki, sign one, and soso. As implied by their name, they collaborated remotely on a few different tracks until they finally had a finished product, They Fired With Their Lives. With a group of six producers living apart from each other in different parts of Canada and the U.S., this project was given shape by coming up with a sort of “telephone” system of collaboration.

Day Tipper is a producer from Atlanta who formerly worked with the group Clan Destined. He has been focusing on his solo material in recent years, making his debut on Full Plate in 2020 when he released Langford Landscapes. In 2021, he released a tribute to the British group Broadcast called I Found the End. That went so well, he has now upped the ante with a remix/mashup project called Broadkast.

New Mexico vocalist/emcee A. Billi Free has been making music for years, but got her first big break when she collaborated with Chicago production duo Tensei on her 2019 album, I Luma. Following that, she worked with another Chicago producer, Uncle El, on an EP in 2020, Blk Mgc Symbl. She also made an appearance on Whatever Cecil’s 2020 album, Flowers. In 2021, she was part of the assembled team for Michigan producer The Lasso’s full-length album, 2121.

Elzhi is an emcee from Detroit who has been at this for over two decades, notably joining up with Slum Village after Jay Dee’s departure before embarking on a critically acclaimed solo career. His most recent project came in 2020, when he worked with up-and-coming Brooklyn producer JR Swiftz on the album Seven Times Down Eight Times Up. Now he is back, this time teaming with a West Coast legend, Georgia Anne Muldrow, to deliver the album Zhigeist.

The Other Guys are a production duo from D.C. who have been releasing music for about a decade, working with artists like Von Pea, Substantial, and Rob Cave along the way. Back in 2019, they released an instrumental EP called Summer in Analog. It went over so well, they decided to make it a seasonal series. That went so well, they just kept making additional volumes, taking us now to Winter in Analog: Season 3.

Kansado is an artist from New York who made his debut on Darker Than Wax three years ago when he dropped a project called Futuro Tambao. Now he returns to pick up where that project left off, giving us the aptly titled Futuro Tambo II. Kansado is an artist that grew up in New York with Dominican parents, and the first volume of Futuro Tambao was Kansado’s way of paying homage to his Latin roots and the music his parents would play for him growing up, while also looking outward to the vibrant city he grew up in and then of course, also looking forward to where the music might go.

Kid Abstrakt is an emcee from Los Angeles who first made a splash with his 2017 album, Daydreaming, done in collaboration with producer Deli. He then improved on that with his 2020 album with Emapea, Jazzy Vibes. Now he’s back with a new EP, Higher Vibration. One of the things that made Kid Abstrakt so appealing when he hit the scene was that he had such a maturity and easy going vibe to his music, like he had already been doing this for years.