Nickodemus is a deejay/producer from New York who has been making music for over two decades. Since the time he got started, he showed a real interest in bringing different types of music across the globe together in the name of dance music. This was true when he dropped his last album, A Long Engagement, back in 2018, and it’s true now with his latest album, Soul & Science. Now, there have been many attempts over the years at making “global” or “world music” accessible to listeners in the U.

Protextor is an artist originally from Iowa, but largely associated with Austin due to the fact that his career took off after he moved there in 2008, and then co-founded Austin Mic Exchange in 2012. However, after AMX came to a close in 2017, Protextor found himself at a bit of a crossroads, and he started to look to different forms of art, such as comedy and filmmaking, and even relocated to Los Angeles when COVID hit.

Secret Night Gang are a group from Manchester, started in 2018 by Callum Connell and Kemani Anderson. They released their debut self-titled album in 2021 on Brownswood Recordings. Now they have returned with their brand new full-length album, Belongs on a Place Called Earth. With Kemani Anderson on vocals and Callum Connell handling multiple instruments, the two have rounded out the group into a full band, but it’s their project and their songwriting and producing and arranging that is going to make or break the group.

Riddlore is one of the founding members of Chillin Villain Empire and by extension, a key player in the legacy of both The Good Life and Project Blowed. He has had a very long and varied career in hip hop that spans over thirty years now. Following the lead of Myka 9, he has now teamed up with Parker Pubs to release a book that is a hybrid of lyrics and memoir, Born a Villain.

Zerolex is a producer from Besançon, France. He first come to prominence as part of the production quartet known as Cotton Claw. In 2017, he released his debut solo album, M.I.L.D., which then evolved into the Zerolex Trio, which featured Claudio Ibarra on double bass and Chromé on saxophone. They released a couple of singles in the last couple of years, but now, at least for the time being, the trio has become a duo with just Zerolex and Chromé, now rebranded as Matsusake.

santpoort is the alias of Julien Mier, a producer originally from The Netherlands, but now based in Sydney. He began releasing music in the late 2000s, but as he finished up his run of environmentally themed projects under his own name in the late 2010s, he began to focus more on his santpoort alias. His most recent santpoort release came in May of last year, when he released an EP called cardboard time machine.

Lando Chill is an artist originally from Chicago, but they were based in Tucson when they broke through with a three album run on Mello Music Group made in collaboration with producer The Lasso. After releasing their brilliant album, Black Ego, in 2018, Chill and Lasso both left Arizona. The Lasso headed back home to Michigan, while Chill moved on to Los Angeles. It took a minute before we heard from Lasso again, but then we got if im being honest, produced by Calvin Valentine, in January of 2022.

Sleep Sinatra is an artist from Lincoln Nebraska who has been releasing music for over a decade now. In that time, in addition to his own beats, he’s worked with such producers as Ohbliv, The Architect, and August Fanon. His most recent project was an EP with The Architect, Battle of the Angelz, which came out just this past March. Now he’s back with a new project, P.T.G. (Post Traumatic Growth).

The Expert is a producer from Dublin who first got his start as part of a duo with Messiah J. In 2015, he broke out on his own as a solo artist with the release of his solo instrumental album, Dynamic Drift. In 2019, he teamed up with Cold Busted to release his next solo album, Excursions. Just last year, he made a big leap when he joined forces with emcee Jermiside and made the brilliant album, The Overview Effect.

The Madlib Invazion Music Library Series was established by Madlib and Egon over the course of the pandemic, created with a desire to give their creative friends a place to have the freedom to create without any limitations or expectations. The only constraints were that it had to work as a stand alone album, and it had to work as a one-stop, easy-to-clear source for background music in film and television.