“It feels quite sinister,” Kano tells Apple Music about the title of his exceptional sixth album, *Hoodies All Summer*. “But a hoodie’s also like a defense mechanism—a coat of armor, protection from the rain. It’s like we always get rained on but don’t worry, we’re resilient, we wear hoodies all summer. We’re prepared for whatever.” That description is fitting for 10 songs that tear down stereotypes and assumptions to reveal the humanity and bigger picture of life in London’s toughest quarters. On “Trouble” that means reflecting with nuance and empathy on the lives being lost to postcode wars and knife and gun crime. “People become so used to the fact that these situations happen that they are almost numb to it,” he says. “Young kids dying on the street—it gets to a point where it’s like you lose count, and you just move on really quickly and forget a person’s name two minutes after hearing about it.” Like 2016’s *Made in the Manor*, this is an album rooted in his experiences of living in East London. This time, though, the focus is less introspective, with Kano, as he says, “reversing the lens” toward the communities he grew up in. “I just wanted to speak about it in a way where it\'s like, ‘I understand, I get it.’ I\'ll get into the psyche of why people do what they do. It’s about remembering that these unfortunate situations come about because of circumstances that are out of the hands of people involved. Not everyone’s this gang-sign, picture-taking, hoodie-wearing gang member. That’s the way they put us across in the media. Yes, some people are involved in crime, and some people are *not*—they just live in these areas, and it’s a fucked-up situation.” Kano’s at his poetic and potent best here. Lines such as “All our mothers worry when we touch the road/\'Cause they know it’s touch-and-go whether we’re coming home” (“Trouble”) impact fast and deep, but he also spotlights hope amid hard times. “I feel like we’re resilient people and there’s always room for a smile and to celebrate the small wins, and the big wins,” he says. “That’s when you hear \[tracks\] like \'Pan-Fried\' and \'Can\'t Hold We Down\'—you can\'t hold us down, no matter what you do to us, you can\'t stop us. We’re a force, you can\'t stop us creatively. I want more for you: I’ve made it through, I want you to see what I’ve seen. It’s about everyone having the opportunity to see more, so they’ll want more, to feel like they are more.” If the wisdom of Kano’s bars positions him as an elder statesman of UK rap, the album as a whole confirms that he’s an undisputed great of the genre. Musically, it sets new standards in vision and ambition, complementing visceral electronic beats with strings and choirs as it moves through exhilarating left turns and dizzying switches of pace and intensity. “I wanted it to be an exciting listen,” he says. “Like the beat that comes in from nowhere in ‘Teardrops’—it’s like a slap in the face. This ain’t the album that you just put on in the background. I didn\'t want it to be that. You need to dedicate time out of your day to listen to this.”
If trip-hop had been created in sunny Inglewood, California, instead of downcast Bristol, it might sound a lot like *Chasing Summer*. It’s mood-intensive and takes unexpected stylistic shifts, yet stays true to the block. SiR, an R&B prodigy and TDE signee, doesn’t bunker down behind muted, eclectic sound banks. His supple reading is front and center, reveling in tales of love and torment. Stars like labelmate Kendrick Lamar (“Hair Down”), Lil Wayne (“Lucy’s Love”), Jill Scott (“Still Blue”), and Sabrina Claudio (“That’s Why I Love You”) are drawn to his magnetic personality, respectfully vibing with SiR on his level. *Chasing Summer* passes the bump test, no matter what the season. Stay for the album’s closer “LA,” his potent love letter to the City of Angels.
Thanks to his multitude of hits for Playboi Carti, Pi’erre Bourne sports one of the most instantly recognizable producer tags in the rap game. Fans of Young Nudy boast even more familiarity with that *Jamie Foxx Show*-referencing snippet, seeing as their fruitful partnership touches all of the Atlanta rapper’s *SlimeBall* mixtapes and the creepily compelling *Nudy Land*. The joint effort *Sli’merre* displays everything right about their pairing—the warbly trap beats and slightly askew flows of cuts like “Dispatch” and “Gas Station” cooking up with narcotic ease. 21 Savage and Lil Uzi Vert come through with memorable features on “Mister” and “Extendo,” adding their juice to an already overflowing spiked punchbowl.
Memphis’ simmering supremacy among contemporary rap locales owes much of its current clout to Young Dolph. Projects such as 2017’s *Bulletproof*, which Dolph was emboldened to make after multiple near-death experiences, have often put him firmly at the center of the narrative. For *Dum And Dummer*, however, the Paper Route Empire boss shares the proverbial spotlight with his signee Key Glock, a young local with a growing national profile. A fitting pair despite the age difference, they trade bars like trap naturals over Bandplay productions like “Back to Back” and “Baby Joker,” mixing rubber-band business with luxury brand name-drops. Elsewhere on this stacked hour-long effort, the pair split off for their own gratifying cuts, with Dolph wetting his beak on the lascivious “Juicy” and Glock reflecting on his good fortune on “Monster.”
Louisville might not be the first city that springs to mind when you think about American rap hubs, but Jack Harlow’s trying to change that. (He’s relocated to Atlanta these days, but we won’t split hairs.) The 21-year-old MC is very much of a generation indebted to Drake, in both style and content—moody beats, melodic bars, tons of semi-relatable relationship drama. But for a young buck with the aura of a guy who just stepped off the set of *Riverdale*, Harlow’s got bars, and on *Confetti*, his fifth mixtape, he spits them at breakneck speed with utmost confidence. “THRU THE NIGHT,” a collaboration with fellow Louisville native Bryson Tiller built on an inspired sample of Usher’s “U Don’t Have to Call,” is an easy highlight.
Summer Walker doesn’t look the way she sounds. The Atlanta singer’s face tattoos are more in line with the aesthetic of her hometown’s many hip-hop superstars than that of ’90s golden-era R&B acts like Mary J. Blige, Xscape, and SWV, but the makeover feels right for the moment. On Walker’s heavily anticipated *Over It*, which follows her 2018 breakout mixtape *Last Day of Summer*—as well as the *CLEAR* EP—the singer recontextualizes some familiar-sounding frustrations and reckonings about hard-earned romantic truths by way of throwback sounds and contemporary real talk (all of which sounds even richer thanks to Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos). “Did I ever ask you to take me to go shopping in Paris?/Or go sailing overseas and just drape me in Gucci?” she asks on the Bryson Tiller duet “Playing Games.” “No, I never had an issue, go to the club with your boys, baby/I never wanted you to stay too long, just wanted you to show me off.” Later in the song she borrows a few bars from “Say My Name,” Destiny’s Child’s eternally catchy ballad of the underappreciated lover. *Over It* is indeed peppered with references to the R&B of Walker’s childhood: Producer London On Da Track utilizes a vintage 702 sample for “Body” and builds the beat for “Come Thru,” which features Usher, on the keyboard line of the ATL icon’s 1997 “You Make Me Wanna...” The album also boasts guest spots from Drake, 6LACK, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, and long-dormant moody-R&B hero PARTYNEXTDOOR. The vantage point of *Over It*, though, is wholly the singer’s own. The exchanges in Walker’s verses sound like they could have been grafted directly from text messages or pulled from a FaceTime conversation. “Am I really that much to handle?” she opines on the title track. “You wanna be a good friend to me/Why don’t you pour up that Hennessy/Light up a few blunts so we can get high,” she sings on “Tonight.” “Too much Patrón will have you calling his phone/Have you wanting some more,” she advises on “Drunk Dialing…LODT.” Walker’s words are so relatable they seem destined to become social media captions. *Over It*, then, is a project whose title betrays its maker’s constitution, one certain only to leave fans wanting more.
If meme culture has contributed anything to the legacy of J. Cole, it helped establish him as a sort of popular rap antihero: “J. Cole went platinum with no features.” Casual fans could be forgiven for thinking this an indicator of Cole’s friend circle, but his label Dreamville’s *Revenge of the Dreamers III* compilation goes to great lengths to prove the opposite. The recording sessions, which took place over a 10-day period in January 2019, reportedly hosted over 100 artists and producers, all of whom were summoned via personal invitation. The songs (and contributors) that made the album, then, are the best of a creative community formed at the behest of “Mr. Nice Watch” himself. Present, of course, is the home team of Dreamville singer Ari Lennox, Queens-hailing everyman rapper Bas, ATL bar specialist J.I.D, songwriter/producer Omen, and Atlanta duo EARTHGANG, among others—along with names that were at one time unlikely to appear on the same playlist as Cole, let alone a compilation album flying his label’s banner. Each of the project’s 17 songs overflows with features, with notable contributions coming from young power players outside of the camp like Buddy, Young Nudy, KEY!, Maxo Kream, DaBaby, and Ski Mask the Slump God. The spirit of collaboration is audible throughout, as confirmed by Bas, who spoke with Apple Music just after the album’s recording. “It was so easy to create,” he says. “You have so many other creatives that you trust and respect, you don’t have to overdo it. You could do a 16-bar verse or hook or bridge and know that someone else is bringing something dynamic to the table.” The MC, who appears on four songs on *Revenge III*, clearly isn’t concerned about what working with a wealth of talent means for air space within the project. “I wish we could work like this all the time,” he says.
“You got to understand that at this point, I’m only two mixtapes out,” Roddy Ricch tells Apple Music. “Y\'all just now beginning to see me and we gon\' grow together.” The speed with which Roddy Ricch has made his name as one of the most important voices in LA rap is nearly unprecedented, but the specific leaps aren’t difficult to trace. His breakout tape *Feed Tha Streets II*—only the second one he made—features London On Da Track-produced “Die Young,” the song that gave him his first influx of attention. He’d follow that up by supplying fallen LA hero and friend Nipsey Hussle with an earworm of a chorus for “Racks in the Middle.” And then came “Ballin\',” the runaway smash from Mustard’s *Perfect Ten* album that sent Ricch well on his way to becoming a household name. Whatever\'s next for the Compton MC will likely come from his debut album, *Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial*, a project that features continued ruminations on success (“Perfect Time”), dalliances with spirituality (“Prayers to the Trap God”), and a fiery recounting of how far he\'s come as an artist and a human being (“Intro”). According to Ricch, it\'s the result of years of reflection both in and out of the studio. “I feel like progress really just comes from within,” he says. “Coming out of the streets, being a millionaire, and just knowing the different struggles that are in different people—you\'ll feel the progress because I\'m progressing. This ain\'t me trying to rap, it\'s just me just talking to you.” Below, Ricch details some of the factors that helped him toward the project\'s completion. **Make It Like a Movie** “I really just make music all the time. My process is not making an album or a mixtape. I just really just do it for fun. I like working hard, but really just recording when I have the inspiration to talk about something. I really put my brain around molding songs together and putting different artists together and just making it a movie.” **Get Introspective** “I feel like ‘Intro’ came when I realized that I wasn\'t a normal human being. I was seeing another side of having a little bread and traveling a little bit and just trying to motivate the people behind you that you got to lead into another type of promised land. You just reflect on all that and it bleeds into the music. You just talk that shit.” **Keep a Level Head** “I\'m not gon\' say I\'m always happy, but I\'m always content. When I was really blowing up, that was just a time in my life where bad stuff was happening to me. I was losing friends—I lost my best friend to a high-speed chase. Some of my friends went to jail for four or five years after having college scholarships, not even being involved in gangs but just really just being innocent bystanders walking down the street and they just felt like sliding on your side that day. This is the stuff I was going through before I got into the position of being able to travel and really make music.” **Open Up** “If I ever have to say something, \[it’s because\] that’s how I was feeling that day. I just put out ‘Ballin’’ with Mustard. Everybody that listens to that song tells me that it makes them happy. It’s because at that moment in time I had patched up my wounds from a lot of the street shit I went through and I felt good that day. So now it\'s like the more I begin to open up and drop more songs, people are seeing that I could do different things.” **Follow Nipsey’s Example** “All my closest relatives have quit their jobs and it\'s a business, you know what I\'m saying? My people are doing real estate, going into the trucking business, and really just trying to figure out different things. When my brothers and sisters, even my cousins and aunties are all just figuring out what their interests are, \[I feel like\] Moses in the Bible: leading people out of a situation and taking them into something different.”
The title for Mississippi MC Big K.R.I.T.’s *K.R.I.T. IZ HERE* is a callback to his 2010 breakout mixtape *K.R.I.T. Wuz Here*. That particular project introduced the world to a preternaturally talented rapper and producer from an under-regarded rap territory. Nearly 10 years later, K.R.I.T.’s fourth studio album finds him indulging different facets of his personality as a performer while remaining committed to the lyrical deftness and “country rap tune” aesthetics he pledged allegiance to back when he first *Wuz Here*. *K.R.I.T. IZ HERE* is a robust 19 tracks, implying an outpouring of inspiration, especially considering that his *TDT* project was released a mere six months prior. Within *K.R.I.T. IZ HERE* we encounter K.R.I.T. the player (“Addiction”), the lover (“Obvious”), the provider (“Family Matters”), the devotee (“Learned From Texas”), and the poet (“High Beams”), just to name a few. He is the studied MC, above all, and a proud Mississippian at a close second, acknowledging a long-standing chip on his shoulder in “Make It Easy,” where he raps, “Undoubtedly, probably, I’m like lightning in a bottle/A country boy killing your favorite rapper’s bound to shock you!”
"Next to The Sun" is the debut LP from KAINA.
Within seconds of being introduced on “Hard Bottoms & White Socks,” the opening track on his fourth album, YG makes it abundantly clear where he stands. \"Talkin\' about the West Coast/I\'m the face of it,\" he proclaims in no uncertain terms. Nodding back to predecessors like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg and giving due props to Kendrick Lamar and the tragically departed Nipsey Hussle, the Compton native proceeds to back up this bold claim credibly throughout the album, recalling the days when rap felt like a bicoastal struggle for dominance. Reteaming once again with Mustard, the production mastermind behind several earlier hits, YG embraces an ultramodern version of his hometown hip-hop sound. Informed by the heralded G-Funk era but imbued with a contemporary slickness, “In The Dark” and the Pan-Latin trap of “Go Loko” speak volumes about how to preserve the spirit of California classics while pushing things forward. Less than a year after *Stay Dangerous* and its star-studded hit single “Big Bank,” he hasn’t lost any of that cocksure swagger, whether he’s celebrating the perks of celebrity status on “Bottle Service” or calling out the fakest of snakes on “Stop Snitchin.” Yet where he really proves himself is through less braggadocious moments like the sobering storytelling of “Keshia Had a Baby” and his heartfelt Nipsey tribute “My Last Words.”
own pace ! thank you moms, umi kali, pops, all my aunties uncles and cousins, my big brother nate, my best friend jasper, my inspirational blessed brother caleb, he was there when niggas was really in the pit, my G laron, the chicago homie chaz, sexmon liv, the guy iamnobodi, my brodey matt, my mud brother 4L mike, my good brother sage, the homie animoss, and maassai the best rapper went thru the most makin this project, happy to finally be able to share it w/ yall --- tracks -- 1. trauma & grace prod. caleb giles & slauson malone 2. smallsteps prod. laron 3. bloody knuckles prod. bluezy 4. on me prod. iiye 5. affirmation #1 prod. iamnobodi 6. whispers prod. bori 7. grapefruit prod. AFB 8. looking 4 runtz feat. MIKE prod. dj blackpower & AFB 9. stranger feat. navy blue prod. AFB 10. affirmation #2 prod. animoss 11. walk with me prod. AFB 12. 2020sht feat. Maassai prod. iamnobodi
The Vegas-born rapper is on the kind of hot streak that’ll make you wonder what you’ve been doing with your life: In the span of a couple years, the teenager collaborated with Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar (co-writing and co-producing “Nile” for Beyoncé‘s 2019 *The Lion King* tie-in album *The Gift*), nabbed writing and production credits on the *Black Panther* soundtrack, and had his own breakaway hit with the brash, minimalist “Orange Soda.” Keem’s low-key sing-raps aren’t exactly reinventing the form on *DIE FOR MY BITCH*, his second mixtape, but they’re weirdly catchy and occasionally hilarious. (“If they cancel me, then I retire,” he smirks on “TOP RAMEN.” Goals!) He even tries his hand at emo on the wonderfully salty “MY EX,” to surprisingly pleasant effect.
Atlanta’s Yung Baby Tate is a fan of the concept album: 2018’s *BOYS* was devoted to... well, what do you think? But the ambitious multi-talent (she raps, sings, and produces all her own beats) seems even more inspired on *Girls*, a full-length ode to the countless ways women rule. Tate draws from Atlanta rap and R&B classics in a way that feels entirely her own: “Bad Girl” nods to the ringtone-rap minimalism of D4L and Soulja Boy, and “Freaky Girl” references Gucci Mane and TLC, a spectrum that makes for a solid summation of Tate’s whole deal. And she’s accompanied by a strong selection of cool-girl guest spots, including Tennessee’s Bbymutha, whose raunchy flexes make “Wild Girl” feel like 2019’s rowdiest ladies’ night.
Really, I (prod. by posca x fiddy) been (prod. by fiddy) tryna tell (ft. liv.e) (prod. by posca) shorty pt. 1 (prod. by fiddy) how beautiful (prod. by reggie) shorty pt. 2 (prod. by imo) is (prod. by frank leone) to me (prod. by mel hines) but (prod. by KeithCharles) shorty pt. 3 (ft. Chief Justice) (prod. by ricky sour x frank leone) not tryna hear it (ft. Slyy Cooper) (prod. by frank leone) from me. (prod. by mel hines)
tears of joy 20-track mixtape by MIKE (soundcloud.com/skadipiddyboopbop/tears-of-joy) ~~~~~ artwork by Sage Elsesser ~~ 1. scarred lungs vol. 1 & 2 (prod. bluezy & michul kuun) 2. Whole Wide World (prod. ohbliv) 3. goin truuu (prod. rbchmbrs) 4. GR8FUL 2K19 (prod. dj blackpower) 5. TAKE CROWNS (prod. dj blackpower) 6. memorial (prod. dj blackpower & laron) 7. SUMMER 17 (prod. laron) 8. big smoke (prod. dj blackpower) 9. its like basketball (prod. sporting life & dj blackpower) 10. Ain’t no love (prod. ted kamal) 11. PARKS (prod. dj blackpower) 12. PLANET (prod. adé hakim) 13. #memories ft. duendita (prod. dj blackpower) 14. right here next to you, baby (prod. dj blackpower) 15. Sleepwalk (prod. redlee & omari lyseight) 16. BREATHE, GOOD (prod. dj blackpower) 17. fool in me (prod. dj blackpower) 18. suffocate (prod. dj blackpower) 19. true blood (prod. ntvrme & dj blackpower) 20. stargazer pt.3 (prod. navy blue) ~~~~~ (KEEP IT 10K) (KEEP IT 10K) (KEEP IT 10K)
The title phrase of Wale’s sixth studio album, *Wow… That’s Crazy*, exists mostly in common parlance as conversational placeholder. We often hear it delivered by someone on the receiving end of an elaborate story, buying time to process what they’re hearing or to formulate a more insightful response. In the case of Wale’s *Wow… That’s Crazy*, the DC rapper is opening up about his worldview and some things in it that have been weighing on him, in a way likely to leave listeners in need of a second to process. The album opens with “Sue Me,” on which the rapper grapples with his presence in the entertainment matrix. “Sue me, I’m rooting for everybody that’s black,” he admits. There are a number of references to his vantage point here—as it refers to the black experience specifically, including odes to black women (“BGM,” “Black Bonnie”) as well as ruminations on his responsibility as a young leader. “We just want to be black and legendary/Be us and be proud by any means necessary,” he raps on “Love Me Nina / Semiautomatic.” On the 6LACK collaboration “Expectations,” he raps, “Black man in therapy/’Cause white terror don’t sleep/I got to roll up my leaf/Might stop the PTSD.” Another theme of *Wow… That’s Crazy* is the complexity of the modern relationship—one familiar to Wale fans. The Jeremih-assisted “On Chill” finds him begging for a reprieve from a relationship’s fighting, while “Set You Free” has the rapper taking responsibility for his missteps within a partnership. There’s also the Lil Durk collaboration “Break My Heart,” which gives us a rare glimpse into the guesting Chicago MC’s softer side. In addition to the aforementioned guests, *Wow… That’s Crazy* features Ari Lennox, Meek Mill, Jacquees, and Megan Thee Stallion (among others), who all do their part to help the MC tell a story that fans can take their time with.
