Stereogum's 25 Great EPs From 2019

Let’s just state the obvious: BENNY THE BUTCHER can *rap*. He’s from Buffalo, not NYC, but *The Plugs I Met* boasts the kind of grimy, word-obsessed, kick-in-the-door New York gutter raps that old heads think went extinct in ’98. Well, not if Benny has anything to say about it. Over dusty Alchemist drums and menacing keys on “Dirty Harry,” the rapper crafts dense, writerly bars about all varieties of cinema-caliber gangster shit: “I wash the blood off the money that my daughters inherit/And kept the barrel so hot that it fog up the mirrors.” Name another current rapper who could invite Pusha T, Jadakiss, and Black Thought on their EP—and outpace all three.

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Austin, Texas-based songwriter Christelle Bofale will be the first to tell you the importance of family roots and mental health, considering how much those things aided her own self-discovery. Being the first American born in her family, the rich heritage of the Congo is deeply rooted in her upbringing and relationship with sounds.From singing and dancing with her mother as a child, to praying to Congolese music with her grandmother, to her father, a soukous guitar player and musical director for the Congregation at his church, Bofale’s journey as a musician has been defined in tiny intervals throughout the course of her life. As a songwriter, she infuses hints of the Congo into various aspects of her music, bridging the musical influences of the diaspora with juxtaposed elements of indie rock, soul and jazz respectively. Weightless guitar tangents and lush, aquatic soundscapes are a vital part of what embodies Swim Team, her debut EP that serves a powerful introduction to Bofale’s budding artistry. Somewhere between influences like Joni Mitchell and Alex G, Bofale has found a sweet spot for her sound that lives between both harsh and gentle terrain, achieving a relaxing, yet rugged tonality.Each track pictured on Swim Teamis brushed vividly with colors that illuminate the fear of being honest and doing that much needed personal work. Bofale's earnest and bravery is a snapshot of black mental health and the nuance it carries. Being real isn’t easy, but it’s crucial in cultivating spaces for healthy discussion and giving other black women like Bofale a platform to do the same. www.instagram.com/christellebofale/ twitter.com/bofalebill www.facebook.com/christellebofale

“I was in the fucking pits for like 10 months post my pops dying,” Earl Sweatshirt tells Apple Music. Then he read about the origins of the phrase “feet of clay,” which he first heard in passing from his mom, and which felt like apt description of the apprehension he’d battled while attempting to make music after his father’s death in 2018. “That shit is from the Book of Daniel, and the feet of clay were at the bottom of an idol that the king of Babylon had a dream about,” he says. “And the statue was supposed to represent all the empires of the world, like chronologically. We find ourselves right now going onto that joint. We at the feet of clay right now. It\'s a crumbling empire. Which felt very fitting. We posted up live from burning Rome.” The EP comes out less than a year after *Some Rap Songs*, which itself came three years after *I Don’t Like S\*\*t, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt*. Here, he talks through each of *FEET OF CLAY*\'s seven tracks. **74** “I\'m still on this brevity pack, so I like sitting down to play people this and having it be the first one, because it\'s just like...we doing it. We here to listen to these raps. It’s going up. I recorded that when there was a little break in between tours. I was just wolfing in my living room.” **EAST** “This one is real as hell. There\'s very visceral memories and moments on that joint: \'Ahki hit the horn and beep/Mention my sentence strong, we all that we need/But don\'t call me brother no more.\' Them was real-life revelations in the back of a fucking cab.” **MTOMB** “A lot of this shit is real as hell: ‘Braids brought out my eyes’—I used to get braids when I was little. ‘I saw a light, I was nine/Told my n\*gga Miles we might gon’ be all right, guess I was right.’ He’ll tell you, when we was around that age, we was chilling in my fucking room, I was like, ‘I don\'t know what, but I know when we 18, I\'m going to have an apartment and I\'m going to be smoking in that mothafucka.’ And then lo and behold, I looked up, and me and this n\*gga Miles was in my apartment when I was 18, smoking in that mothafucka! It wasn\'t no furniture, it wasn\'t shit in there, but we was in the apartment, smoking in that mothafucka.” **OD** “‘OD’ is one of my favorite joints. That was one of the ones that brought me up out of my little wreck. I was writing that joint the last time I was in South Africa, and then when I got home I made that beat, when I was out in LA. I was writing to a couple different beats. But I knew what I wanted.” **EL TORO COMBO MEAL (feat. Mavi)** “That song did itself. I woke up, I sent my n\*gga Mavi my part on it, because Overcast sent us both the same beat. So I sent my shit to Mavi like, ‘Yo, listen to this shit,’ ’cause we just be trading music all the time. And then Mavi sent me back what he did on it, and then because we not some weirdo rap n\*ggas, it just made one song.” **TISK TISK / COOKIES** “This is the oldest joint on there. I made ‘COOKIES’ and ‘TISK TISK’ and another song that\'s not on the album all in one little sitting. The transition \[from \'TISK TISK\' to \'COOKIES\'\] was cool, and also it just makes the joint make sense. The math is there. Like, \'tisk tisk,\' run for your life. Shit be making itself sometimes.” **4N (feat. Mach-Hommy)** “Mach, man…n\*ggas know who Mach-Hommy is now. It’s not a secret anymore, you know what’s going on. For a long time I just felt like shit about my verse. Then I was like, you know what? This joint kind of go crazy.”

Guerilla Toss returns to NNA Tapes with a brand new EP, 'What Would The Odd Do?', an exploration into new territories and an expansion on their recipe for twisted, addictive rock & roll mania: fried funk, damaged dance, and cosmic cacophony. Fans of 70’s prog and rock greats like King Crimson and Todd Rundgren as well as modern torchbearers like Sheer Mag and Deerhoof will be joyfully united by GT's uniquely familiar world of wonder and excitement. For Kassie Carlson -- singer, songwriter, and bandleader of Guerilla Toss -- What Would The Odd Do? is unarguably the group's most personal release in their impressive history as a music-making collective. After open-heart surgery in 2017 to remove a dangerous blood clot caused by a severe opiate addiction, Carlson has found a new joy in life. She has since cleaned up for good, moved to Upstate New York with her partner and Guerilla Toss drummer, Peter Negroponte, and has never felt more inspired. Kassie Carlson is a true poet of punk, the voice of an unheard generation, the leader of The Odd. Few people have been through what she has, and making it out alive is just the beginning. With her band of musical misfits, Guerilla Toss is an unstoppable force of nature. Like all great and challenging art, their message is abstract, yet decipherable. And once the listener cracks the code, they’ll be immersed in a uniquely familiar world of wonder and excitement. What will unite us more than to celebrate the absurd and question what we’ve been told is obvious? Let GT be just one of the many songs among the soundtrack of existential infinity and divine recovery. A portion of the proceeds from the album will go to the Harlem Harm Reduction Clinic, in an attempt to further our reach in the opiate crisis battle.

After turning some heads with their debut 7" entitled "SHUTTING DOWN" released on the high quality Feel It Records label back in 2017, HAIRCUT have finally unleashed their follow up with the "SENSATION" EP. Four tracks of pummeling hardcore punk that retain the velocity and ferocity of the band's previous output whilst adding a decisive dose of meat and potatoes to the sonic formula, all the while Juliana belts out lyrics in both Spanish and English at a feverish pace. As we collectively sit on the cusp of entering the 2020's within a matter of months, HAIRCUT is a wonderful reminder that when it's done with equal parts precision and passion there's just no room for the gimmicks, posturing or other eye roll inducing baggage that tends to afflict the genre of hardcore punk, be it regionally or internationally. Such purity can stand on its own two feet and present itself loud and proud which is something that all enthusiasts can take great delight in as this genre cascades into yet another decade of continuation. Each record comes in a glue pocket sleeve with art and layout done by Colombian punk artist Juan Sebastian Rosillo.

Over the past half-decade Hattiesburg, MS has become a perhaps unlikely center of the international punk scene, a highlight on any band's journey through the American South. Judy and her Jerks are one of the groups at the hub of it all and it's easy to see why — their modern take on a lean, tight, and tuff USHC sound is catchy (CIRCLE JERKS are kin in not just name alone) and their enthusiasm for this music and each other is contagious. After a series of self-released tapes and comp appearances, this is their vinyl debut, as well as the overdue first record to be released from the modern-day Hattiesburg punk scene. Limited to 400 copies on black vinyl.

Family Party is the regurgitation of the tear inducing boredom and ecstasy that is being 15 years old. The album is a medley of violent indifference, sorrow, general nastiness, bitter joy, and the symbolism of dogs.

Tracked live to tape March 2018 by Jack Shirley at The Atomic Garden, East Palo Alto. Mixed and Mastered by Jack Shirley. Cover illustration by Renata Rojo.