Flee Lord & Pete Rock — The People's Champ

Studio album number six, in the year of the Flee Lord. Pete Rock produces this twenty-minute project entirely and does a great job. Intro, then jazzy boom bap, dark and regular, good smooth and hardcore slow delivery of Flee Lord, which immediately starts to set the record straight. A simple jazzy boom bap follows, with good samples, lean, slow, tight and syncopated drum machine, and smooth, slow hardcore delivery. "Surfin' Wit a K" has an amazing jazzy boom bap provided by Pete Rock, with soulful vibes, great rhythm on which the rapper delivers with his signature style.

38 Spesh — 6 Shots: Overkill EP

EP delayed several times until the end of July, when it comes out as project number nine credited to 38 Spesh in 2020. The wait was worth it. The artist makes a sequel to his previous EP "5 Shots" (2019).

Tahmell — Home

Debut of Tahmell Griffin, rapper from Long Island, New York. Son of Rakim. Yes, that Rakim. I might as well stop writing now.

Eazy-E — 5150 Home 4 tha Sick EP

Niggaz With Attitude, the most dangerous group in the world, broke up when one of its most famous members publishes its second effort, an EP of about twenty minutes and four real tracks that follow a short intro, full of random lines and laughter without beat. A final evil laugh opens the first cut of this extended play.

K.A.A.N. & Big Ghost Ltd. — All Praise Is Due

Collaborative album between rapper KAAN and producer Big Ghost LTD, on its fourth album this season.

Cookin Soul — Polo Ye

Tape tribute to Kanye West, to represent part of his legacy, and it's an excellent tape. Just over a quarter of an hour in which Cookin Soul collects scattered fragments of the best Kanye and combines them together with a particularly flawless production. The simple, light, essential, jazzy and soulful rhythms accompany Kanye's freestyles, skits and acapellas with the help of splendid soulful samples looped in the background.

Edo. G — Lost Treasures EP

EP of 18 minutes and 5 pieces for Edo G, veteran from Boston, Massachusetts.

Madhattan & IceRocks — Kitchen Chronicles EP

Collaborative EP between rapper Madhattan and producer IceRocks, both from New York.

Wu-Syndicate — Underworld Kings

In the late 1990s, the Crime Syndicate formed by a trio of Virginia rappers had signed with Wu Records and changed its name to Wu-Syndicate.

Westside Gunn — Hitler Wears Hermes III [mixtape]

About two months after the second volume, Westside Gunn doesn't let the game breathe and continues to drop raw bars on midtempo rhythms. The game is in fact holding him under the radar of the underground, and even this third effort of the "Hitler Wears Hermes" series remains hidden until the explosion of "Flygod". Camoflauge Monk is the main beatmaker of the tape, other rhythms are created by Daringer, Tha God Fahim and O.G. Sole. The guests are Keisha Plum (credited as Kiesha Plum), Durag Dynasty, Skyzoo, Vast Aire, Sean Price, Chase Deniro, Benny the Butcher (credited as B.E.N.N.Y.) and Conway the Machine.

Beanie Sigel — This Time

Released from Roc-A-Fella and became independent, in 2009 Beanie Sigel signs with G-Unit and prepares to release an album that no longer comes out. There would also be a collaborative record with Scarface, which never arrived. Finally, Sigel finds a distribution agreement with EMI and releases what is to date his latest solo effort with Ruffhouse Records, relaunched for this very release thirteen years after it closed. This comes just before the Philadelphia rapper is due back in jail, because his troubles with justice aren't over: he's found guilty of tax evasion and has to serve 25 months in prison. It's not over yet, because a few weeks before starting the sentence, Sigel is arrested by the police on other charges, including drug possession, weapons possession, and conspiracy.

Logic — No Pressure

Sir Robert Bryson Hall II announces his retirement from the rap game a week before releasing his latest album.

Curren$y & Harry Fraud — The Outrunners

Studio album number eighteen for Curren$y, sixth project in 2020, fourth LPs, with four different producers. The latest is Harry Fraud, with whom he has collaborated since 2012, and who realizes all the rhythms in this sequel to "The Marina EP" (2018).

Slim Thug & Killa Kyleon — Down in Texas

There was a time when more than one listened to Slim Thug. And the Boss Hogg were something. Yes. There was.

$ha Hef — Numb

Rapper Sha Hef from the Bronx releases a 31-minute work divided into 11 tracks, with a production by 183rd, Antwon C, Trypps Beatz, Wiardon, Ek, Mordecai Beats and Grimm Doza. Benny the Butcher, 38 Spesh, Jay Worthy and Jim Jones are the guests of the project. Sha Hef, who has been riding the mafioso subgenre since before it became a trend with the advent of Griselda, makes a competent album with good rap and a good personality, providing a slow, syncopated and decent flow, sometimes hardcore, not fully supported by production. The set chosen by these guys is erratic overall, hopping between jazzy boom bap and trap rhythms with rarely decent loops and samples, and a lively drum, while maintaining decent musical quality in any case (the only slip comes with the penetrating loop of "Spinnin'"). Among the guests, 38 Spesh and Benny aren't really in shape, but they carry the tracks, Jim Jones delivers with raw and slick style on a poor trap beat, while Jay Worthy is blessed with what is perhaps the best production of the tape: Grimm Doza puts together a snare drum and an ethereal sample, and both performers spit with a fluid flow. 6.3/10.

Boldy James & Sterling Toles — Manger on McNichols

In the year that can mark a new peak of mafia rap, a sub-genre of the gangsta born, raised and proliferated on the East Coast, before a physiological fall, with the music market already completely over-saturated with publications all similar, Boldy James comes out mid-year with a gangsta rap album. When a hip-hop artist publishes a work that can be cataloged in this genre, it's necessary to turn our gaze to the pillars of the past: presenting a jazzy production and soulful vibes, the points of reference are respectively "Reasonable Doubt", first work of Jay-Z, and "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...", Raekwon's debut. You cannot escape from here.

Grand Daddy I.U. — The Essence

Thirty years after his debut, Grand Daddy IU leaves the rappers field and starts to be a producer releasing this tape, inserting a lot of excellent lyricists. Nice surprise record, which brings back the boom bap sound and is a clear homage to the nineties, unfortunately ignored by audiences and critics.

Cookin Soul — Caribbean Bites

Selection of rhythms extracted by Cookin Soul, 19 instrumental tracks, each one doesn't exceed two minutes for a total of just under half an hour of listening. However, it looks like a rather lazy and uninspired selection, unlike the usual beatmaker tapes.

King Blow — Project Zero

OK. There's this guy who says things and does things about... things. The things.

Smoke DZA — A Closed Mouth Don't Get Fed

Honest project by DZA. The production fatally relies on simple, slightly generic jazzy trap beats, and on minimal and dark, tight and simple jazzy hip hop rhythms, on which the rapper delivers calmly and fluently.

Beanie Sigel — The Broad Street Bully

In 2009 Beanie Sigel leaves Roc-A-Fella again and returns to being an independent artist, continuing to struggle with the law and releasing his fifth album with Siccness Records, who labels it a sort of mixtape and distributes it for free. There are no production credits and guests come from State Property, Freeway, Omillio Sparks and Young Chris, as well as Murda Mill. The project is made with discarded tracks from sessions for other albums. Beans rap doesn't work on these cheap beats and he sounds flat in these forty minutes, reciting braggadocio, funny, light-hearted texts and close to street, violence and gangster themes. The tracks are generic and they're saying nothing, everything is normal, the record doesn't sound well, "All for It" steals from The Queen but nobody seems to really care. The product retains some pleasant choices in the final section, coinciding with the arrival of the only production credits. "You Over Did" has a nice demi-mafia mood that is watered down as the seconds go by in a still pleasant jazz noir production, while the last track of this dirty dozen, "The Ghetto", it's also the finest, a rare solo by Beanie Sigel over a dark claustrophobic jazzy boom bap beat, nice carpet carved by Buckwild. The product also has a remarkable sales result for being hardly legitimate, entering the top ten of the independent records chart and reaching the fifth place among the rap releases. It doesn't express the true talent of the artist, fans can avoid that and focus on the emcee's previous releases, like "The B. Coming".

Rating: 5.5/10.

Darkim Be AllahChrist — Sun of Joseph EP

First EP produced by Darkim Be AllahChrist (A.I.G.), rapper affiliated with Killa Beez. The tape is entirely produced by Darkim, with the exception of the last track, whose beat is provided by White Lotus. Bolo, Bronwsville Kbar, Allah Real and School of the Gifted (Rubbabands, Solomon Childs & Shaka Amazulu the 7th) are the guests of the tape.

UFO Fev & Termanology — From El Barrio, With Love

Daniel Carrillo arrives at his studio album number sixteen, he can now consider himself a veteran, although he has never been seriously considered in the game. Like him, New York native Anthony Ortiz shows up on his second effort of 2020, but for UFO Fev it's also the second studio album in his entire career after the debut with Statik Selektah released five months earlier. In this collaborative project, they claiming to come from the ghetto and putting together honest lyrics on light and simple jazzy rhythms: the production is entirely made by Termanology himself, he doesn't exaggerate and varies the rhythms quite well by inserting calm midtempo sounds alternative to other darker, sadder, and gloomy vibes, sometimes accompanied by an elegant piano. Their delivery style is syncopated, slow and spoken, they do nothing surprising, Styles P turns on a tepid light in "Villains", tearing the jazzy dope beat, with simple skinny drum machine and ethereal female sample looped in the background. The other guests are, like the rhythms, a little more functional to the whole package: overall, it's a quiet listen, decent for East Coast fans, but not essential. 6/10.

Blu & Exile — Miles

Johnson "Blu" Barnes & Alec "Exile" Manfredi form one of the most successful underground groups. Few admit that their debut may be the best West Coast album released in the 2000s. But it may not even be, in any case, it's not known as much as it deserves. After a nine year hiatus, Blu & Exile are back releasing their third studio album, preceded by an explorative EP. "Miles: From an Interlude Called Life" is a double album.

Joey Bada$$ — The Light Pack EP

Eight-minute EP, three songs, he didn't even know how to get back into the game after three years of silence: he doesn't even want this release to be cataloged as an EP, but it's not an album and — despite they tried here, in vain — it's not a single.

Gang Starr — Step in the Arena

The background that precedes this effort involves Spike Lee: the director is a fan of the duo's debut, especially of "Jazz Music", asking the boys to resume the song for his film "Mo' Better Blues": the duo realizes "Jazz Thing”, inspired by a poem by Lolls Eric Elle that Spike Lee offers to the duo and that Guru transforms into rap. Chrysalis Records notices the song and signs a contract with them, however the duo is not willing to make the type of music proposed in "Jazz Thing", a tribute to the director, and decides not to even include the hit single within the second album.

Wais P — T.A.P.A.S. EP

Shortly after his debut album, Wais P proposes an EP of fifteen minutes and five joints.

Hus Kingpin — The Threesome EP

Ninth extended play in Hus Kingpin's career, fourth effort in 2020. It features six different producers, including Stu Bangas, and no guests. The tape features two different softcore covers.

Beanie Sigel — The Solution

Beanie Sigel out of prison after ten months, he's acquitted of a charge of attempted murder, but his legal problems are not over yet. He has to pay child support expenses, reason that brings him back to prison for a short period. Then in May 2006, Sigel was shot multiple times during a robbery in Philadelphia, making it out alive. The emcee strikes a new deal with Roc-A-Fella and starts recording his new album.

Juice WRLD — Legends Never Die

First posthumous album by Juice WRLD, son of SoundCloud among the greatest exponents of emo rap.

20-2-Life — Inside Looking Out EP

Black and Killa Hoe form the Houston 20-2-Life duo, affiliated with the South Park Coalition. The production is simple and minimal, sparse, with some good samples from funky and soulful songs and a sparse and syncopated drum machine, however, the delivery of the duo never gives too much added value to the rhythms. The title track also represents a curious hip house filler, and there are rather good growing strings in the intro, nevertheless, the best rhythm comes in the short cut "Gettin It On", with a skeletal, syncopated and light drum machine, synths dope in the background together with an elegant light piano that make up an excellent boom bap. 6/10.

WC and The Maad Circle — Ain't a Damn Thang Changed

In 1991, WC arrives after giving the classic "We're in This Together" together with the producer DJ Aladdin under the name Low Profile, introducing itself here with a new group, Maad Circle (Minority Alliance of Anti-Discrimination): it is composed by his brother DJ Crazy Toones, Big Gee, who stayed in the background, and the rapper Coolio, former member of Nu-Skool.

Eric B. & Rakim — Paid in Full

«Rakim was the best of all in the only thing that really matters in rap: saying bullsh*t about how much better one is than the others.»

Eric "Eric B." Barrier was born in East Elmhurst, Queens, a music passionate, he played trumpet and drums in high school, also approaching the turntables in the last years of school, to then become a DJ for the radio station WBLS. Here, the boy goes in search of an artist to rap with over his DJ performances and turns to the promoter Alvin Toney, who recommends Freddie Foxxx: unable to find the emcee from Long Island, the promoter recommends William "Kid Wizard" Griffin.

Beanie Sigel — The B. Coming

Philadelphia center forward Beanie Sigel is expected to release his third album in three years with Roc-A-Fella in 2002, however, the disc starts to be delayed, because the rapper begins to have numerous legal problems. In 2002, he was arrested and charged with a federal weapons charge in Philadelphia. In January 2003, Sigel was arrested for a fight and the following summer he was charged with attempted murder after firing at the club door, wounding two people. In 2004, he was sentenced on federal weapons charges to one year in prison. At the same time, things are stirring within Roc-A-Fella: the three founders of the label, Damon Dash, Kareem Burke and Shawn Carter sell their shares to The Island Def Jam Music Group, which becomes the owner of the entire Roc-A-Fella. Unlike the others, Carter retains full control of the label and ousts his two former partners. Beanie Sigel ends up with an album he managed to complete before his prison sentence began in mid-2004 and the label split: on one side Jay-Z with his Roc-A-Fella, on the other Dash and Burke with the newly formed Dame Dash Music Group. Sigel would like to release his third LP on both labels, but he can't, and chooses to sign with Dame Dash. He would also like his State Property group to follow suit, however, the boys prefer to stay in Hova's Roc-A-Fella and this marks the definitive end of the group.

Gucci Mane and the New 1017 — Gucci Mane Presents: So Icy Summer

Compilation by Gucci Mane, who makes this sort of mixtape with half of his tracks and another half split between the rappers of his 1017 label: five each for Pooh Shiesty and Foogiano, two for Big Scarr. While the first half of the tape is made almost entirely by Gucci Mane with no solo cuts, the second is split between the other three rappers, with Big Scarr getting the final two cuts. The production is made by Zaytoven, Mike Will, Wheezy and a dozen or so people I've never heard of, while rapping features Young Thug, Lil Baby, 21 Savage, Young Nudy, So Icy Girlz with a solo song, K Shiday, Key Glock, Ola Runt, Moneybagg Yo, Tay Keith and Big30.

Pop Smoke — Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon

Posthumous debut studio album of Pop Smoke, released less than five months after his death. Like most posthumous albums, it's clearly incomplete and 50 Cent entrusts himself with the task of finishing it. The production is made by 32 different beatmakers, on average there are two and a half per track. Guests are Quavo, Lil Baby, DaBaby, Swae Lee, Future, Rowdy Rebel, 50 Cent, Roddy Ricch, Tyga, Karol G, Lil Tjay and King Combs. This is followed by a deluxe edition, released three weeks after the record, on the day Pop Smoke would have turned 21, which is practically another LP of over forty minutes: fifteen tracks with thirty beatmakers and numerous guests, such as Fivio Foreign, Dafi Woo, Dread Woo, Davido, PnB Rock, Jamie Foxx, Gunna, Young Thug, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Queen Naija, King Combs, Calboy and Burna Boy.

Westside Gunn — Flygod Is an Awesome God 2

Fifth studio album by Westside Gunn, comes about a year after the prequel and is more a mixtape than an album. The production is created by Sadhugold, Daringer, Conductor Williams, Streetrunner, Denny LaFlare, JR Swiftz, DJ Shay, Chuck Inglish and Tarik Azzouz. The guests are Armani Caesar, Keisha Plum, Benny the Butcher, Stove God Cooks, AA Rashid, Boldy James and Rome Streetz. Here Flygod Meets Stove God.

38 Spesh — Speshal Blends Vol. 1

Fifth effort of the year 38 Spesh, instrumental tape that collects some of his best rhythms as a producer.

Comptons Most Wanted — Straight Check N'Em

MC Eiht finds himself alone as a rapper of CMW, one of the most pezzonovante groups in the West Coast gangsta scene of the early nineties, because MC Chill is in prison after being convicted of some crime.