Spark 950 & Timbo King — United We Slam EP

Unique act of the Brooklyn hip-hop duo composed of Spark 950 & Timothy "Timbo King" Drayton, who in 1994 shows up in the underground game with a 26-minute EP, 11 cuts and 5 skits, practically every track is followed by a skit. 

Sunz of Man — The Old Testament

In 2006 the Brooklyn hip-hop group Sunz of Man released a greatest hits album to consecrate their journey in hip-hop. The album features songs recorded between 1994 and 2006, taken from a good number of different projects. The guests are Method Man, Raekwon, U-God, Ghostface Killah & ODB of Wu-Tang Clan, Killa Sin & 9th Prince of Killarmy, Madam D, Ursula Rucker, MC Eiht of Compton's Most Wanted and Earth, Wind & Fire. The production is mainly created by the group's historic beatmakers Supreme and Dropsect, along with 4th Disciple, RZA, True Master, Joe Loops, Platinum Brothers, Fatal Son and Wyclef Jean. A couple of years after the release of the previous effort of the group, "Elements", the note cover for this record state that Shabazz the Disciple isn't part of the Sunz of Man, now composed by four emcees, namely Killah Priest, Hell Razah, Prodigal Sunn and 60 Second Assassin.

DJ Krush — Trickster

Solo studio album number 15 for Japanese producer Hideaki Ishi aka DJ Krush. The record is experimental, irregular and not very accessible, fourteen unconnected tracks and forcibly put together for a bloated project up to 53 minutes. Personally, I don't digest at least 2/3 of the wonky rhythms that Ishi proposes, but there are some interesting choices ("Incarnation", "Doomsayer", "Hidden Shadow", "Signs of Recovery", "Bluezone"). 5/10.

Cappadonna — Da Illage

Five months after his last effort, Cappadonna drops his fifteenth album. DJ N-Tense is the main producer of the product, the set is completed by the rhyhtms of Addie Mak, Nottz and True Master. No guest credited.

DJ Krush — 迷走 (Meiso)

The third effort by Japanese producer DJ Krush is trip hop with a bit of rap: it works brilliantly. On the one hand, Krush serves a seemingly simple set of instrumentals, with its usual formula of minimal and poor drum + samples, which this time, perhaps more than before, are ambient, dark and melodic. The soundscape of the record is amazing and in addition, a few MCs arrive to contribute, all from the East Coast: CL Smooth from New Rochelle, The Roots' members Black Thought & Malik B from Philadelphia, Deflon Sallahr and Big Shug from New York, and Guru, from Boston.

Cappadonna — Slow Motion

Studio album number fourteen from Wu-Tang Clan member Cappadonna. There are no production credits for this effort. Amard Divine is the main guest appearing on half the album, along with Kelso, Rollo and Theo RW.

Rockness Monsta — Ether Rocks

Five years after his last effort, Jahmal Bush aka Rockness Monsta bka Rock of Heltah Skeltah is back to releasing something. The tape is entirely produced by Ron Browz.

William Cooper — Beware of the Pale Horse

More than twenty years after his death, the writer Milton William "Bill" Cooper, native of Long Beach, California, and who lived most of his life in Arizona, retains an impregnable hard core of hip-hop fans, and more, which cemented and grew firmly rooted around its only published manifesto, informally known as "The Book". His conspiracy theories are interesting however wild and far-fetched they may be or seem, and when you have a writer's block, an Illuminati verse could always serve: in 1995, Prodigy is the first to mention the historic secret society in a hip-hop song, the remix of "I Shot Ya" by LL Cool J, and he does so after reading Cooper's book several times.

Kanye West — Yandhi [bootleg]

It was supposed to be the 2018 event album, and it wasn't. Kanye returns from Uganda and sets aside the project. It seems to need small adjustments every time and is never finished in the end. His head is going mad crazy again and he refuses to take medications in order to stimulate his creativity and bring out good music. Or something like that. The sequel to "Yeezus", which this time combines the words "Ye" and "Gandhi", is bound to remain in the dark until it's leaked on internet in summer 2019. It would be his best solo album in the last nine years: the production is melodic and ethereal and West offers some of the best performances of him in recent times, aided by a large array of guests. "Law of Attraction" (w/ Dua Lipa) is easily one of the best moments of the year, "City in the Sky", "All Dreams Real", "Chakras", "The Storm" and "Alien" are excellent tracks, despite their raw and incomplete nature. It's a pity that the author didn't find the mental strength to seek treatment and the patience to complete the project, because it had the potential to be one of the albums of the year. 8/10.

Armani Caesar — Caesar's Palace [mixtape]

Armani Caesar releases this tape as an independent through her own label. The disc leans heavily on a somewhat generic trap production that doesn't reward the artist's performance in the first half. "No One" might be an exception: on a nice mainstream beat with a good melody, Armani rap is focused and she can carry the track all the way, pity that the hook is left to an overly compressed chipmunk soul sample. After a bit of interchangeable rhythmic selections, slow rapping, a few rnb tracks and a few touches of autotune, in the second part of the tape there are bouncy boom bap rhythms that lift the project a little by fitting the girl's rapping style better. From "Dreams Worth More Than Money Freestyle" onwards it's practically another record and each song sound better than the previous one until the end. Even in this effort there are flashes of talent, although it's not an essential listening in the season.

Logic — Everybody

Logic is on his third studio album, produced almost entirely by himself and 6ix, along with No ID, PSTMN, Vontae Thomas, Bobby Campbell, Deats, DJ Khalil, Wallis Lane and J. Cole. Guests are Chuck D, Black Thought, Killer Mike, Alessia Cara, No ID, Big Lenbo, Khalid, Lucy Rose, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ansel Elgort, Damian Lemar Hudson, Juicy J and J. Cole, uncredited in the final song.

Phillie — Welcome to the Detroit Zoo

Bronze Nazareth is the main guest and the only producer of this record released by Phillie, rapper from Detroit and member of the Wisemen together with him, a group affiliated to the Wu-Tang Clan. Bronze also takes care of the cover, whose color could be reminiscent of Purple Tape or its sequel, although it's probably more a reference to the Purple Gang that operated in Motor City from the 1910 years to the years of prohibition. The other guests are the Wisemen members Salute da Kidd, Kevlaar 7 and Illah Dayz, the members of the Sunz of Man Heaven Razah & 60 Second Assassin, the Wu-affiliate 5 Star (part of Almighty), as well as Boldy James, Venus Sky, Foreign and Jessiah Allah.

Kaos — Fastidio

Debut album by Marco Fiorito aka Kaos, first breakdancer, then writer, finally MC. He's considered to be one of the pioneers of hip-hop in Italy, having started in 1984. After releasing two albums in English with Radical Stuff and collaborating with Sangue Misto and Colle der Fomento, in 1996 Kaos releases his first solo album and his first in Italian. The guests are Sangue Misto members Neffa, Deda and DJ Gruff aka Lowdy NCN, as well as ex Radical Stuff Sean. The production is almost entirely created by Neffa aka Piscopo, one beat each is created by DJ Skizo and Deda.

Del the Funky Homosapien & Kool Keith present FNKPMPN — Subatomic

2022 was musically a good year for hip-hop, a great year if you will. But it got off to a bad wack start, with this thing released on the first day of the year, a collaboration between two veterans with several prestigious records in their respective discographies, Del the Funky Homosapien & Kool Keith. The quantity of material isn't excessive, a dozen songs and about half an hour of listening, but the quality isn't there.

Bo$$ — Born Gangstaz

Lichelle "Bo$$" Laws was born in Detroit, Michigan, she grows up in a middle-class Catholic family, got into hip-hop when she was young, graduates from high school in Detroit and attends college for a few years in Oakland, where she meets her own DJ Irene "Dee" Moore. With Dee, Boss — the artist's name is originally the name of the duo formed by Laws and her friend Moore, an acronym for Bitches On Some Shit; personally, I will use it in reference to the Laws alone for purely practical reasons — she decides to pursue success in her musical career through gangsta rap.

Cookin Soul — Diggin' Stories

Cookin Soul brings together some instrumentals he had published in previous years and offers this fresh new project made up of twenty excellent rhythms.

Nicholas Craven — Craven N 2

Second tape in the "Craven N" series by the producer born in Aylmer, Quebec, Canada. The guests are Styles P, Mach-Hommy, Dark Lo, Sha Hef, Billy Woods, Ransom and D-Track.