Fredfades is a producer from Oslo who has been releasing music since 2008. In that time, he’s worked with artists like Ivan Ave, Pink Siifu, Mest Seff, Blame One, Charlotte Dos Santos, and Eikrem, just to name a few. In fact, Fredfades is such a collaborative artist, it wasn’t until 2017 that he dropped his debut solo LP, Warmth. And despite the fact that he’s been fairly prolific since then, we are just now getting his second full-length solo LP, Caviar.

AJ Suede is an artist from Seattle who has been releasing music since the mid-2010s. He has been really stepping it up in the past couple of years, working with artists like Televangel and Small Professor, and releasing projects on labels like Fake Four. In 2023 alone, he’s already released two albums, and now he’s back with a third, Ark Flashington. While he will occasionally work with an outside producer to achieve a different sound, AJ Suede is an excellent producer himself, and Ark Flashington is all Suede on the beats.

Amerigo Gazaway is an artist who has spent most of career between Nashville and The Bay. While he is probably best known for his mash up projects, pairing together artists such as Lauryn Hill and Nina Simone or De La Soul and Fela Kuti, Gazaway has been making original projects as well. For example, last October, he gave us an instrumental project called Seasons: Shades of Autumn. Now he’s back with a project for those hot summer nights, City Hop.

Melonyx is a duo from Nottingham, consisting of vocalists Georgia Copeland and Nadia Latoya. They made their debut on Tru Thoughts in 2021 with the release of Black Elixir EP. Since that time we’ve been teased with some remixes and singles, but now we finally get their debut full-length album, Soul Glow. For this endeavor, Melonyx teamed up with fellow Nottingham artist Joe Buhdha to handle the production duties. Buhdha has been at this for a nearly two decades, and he’s worked with such artists as Harleighblu and Terri Walker in the past.

andrew is an artist from Philadelphia who is relatively new to the scene, only starting to release music in 2019. Since that time, though, he’s caught a lot of different peoples’ ears, working with labels like Cold Rhymes, Three Dollar Pistol, and UDDTBA, and Fused Arrow, and making full-length albums with the likes of Zilla Rocca, Jesse the Tree, and steel tipped dove. Showing absolutely no signs of slowing down, he now teams up with New Jersey producer Pagez to make a new EP, Smoke Chain.

K!MMORTAL is an artist from Vancouver who is almost a decade into their recording career. They had something of a breakout moment when they released their 2019 album, X Marks the Swirl, which found a second life when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted a video of herself rapping along to “Sad Femme Club” in response to Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings. In the time since X Marks the Swirl, there have been several singles from K!

Five Steez is an emcee from Kingston, Jamaica who has been releasing music for over a decade now. In that time, he’s made collaborative projects with the likes of Mordecai, J-Zen, and SonoTWS, just to name a few. In 2020, he teamed up with Nomad Carlos and The Sickest Drama as The Council of the Gods to release an album called Trilogy. That album featured production from Sawandi, Time Cow, and a producer from Montreal named Son Raw.

Video Dave is a multi-hyphenate artist originally from Chicago, but now based in Los Angeles. While you might know him as an emcee, you’re just as likely to find him behind the camera or fashioning one-of-a-kind hats. He has been focusing more on his career as an emcee in recent years, with his collaborative effort with Smoke Bonito, Hella Personal Film Festival 2, coming in November of 2020. Since that time, we’ve gotten a couple of singles, but now he’s back and making his debut on Fake Four alongside producer Controller 7 with their new album, ArticulatedTexTiles.

Tachichi is an emcee from Halifax whose career goes back over two decades. In that time, he’s had a number of releases on Black Buffalo and Hand’Solo, and he’s collaborated with artists like Buck 65, Sixtoo, and DJ Moves. His most recent release came about a year ago, when he and Buck 65 dropped their album, Flash Grenade. Now he’s teamed up with a younger emcee, LXVNDR, to drop a new album, Found Money.

John Carroll Kirby is a veteran pianist/producer/arranger who had a long career behind the scenes, working with everyone from Solange to Norah Jones to Harry Styles to Steve Lacey, just to name a few. In 2017, he began focusing on his own solo career with the release of his album, Travel. In 2020, he signed with Stones Throw, and since the release of his first album with them, Conflict, he’s been working at a prolific pace.