Best of The Month – June 2024

As demonstrated by the recent super shoml organized by Kendrick Lamar, together with practically almost the entire Los Angeles scene, Hip-Hop in L.A. it probably has never been so strong and united. K-Dot’s hood of Compton itself is the epicenter of this cultural earthquake which symbolizes the incredible redemption of an area too often marginalized and pointed as a panacea for all ills of Los Angeles. In fact, from Compton’s concrete solid and fertile roots have been growing up and they are leading California and hopefully the entire country. So when we talk about Compton, we can’t forget Hip-Hop legend DJ Quik, who returns with a new album together with his fellow citizen rapper Jason Martin a.k.a Problem, entitled CHUPACABRA. Obviously, with a lot of guests. Here comes half of Compton’s rapper (from The Game to Jay Worthy, passing through Big-Hit) along woth Suga Free, Larry June, Ab-Soul, Bun B, Curren$y, Wiz Khalifa, and Funk and Jazz L.A. icons like George Clinton,  THUNDERCAT, Channel Tres or the Free Nationals. CHUPACABRA could symbolize the definitive return of G-Funk and there couldn’t be better timing for us than the beginning of summer.

What a golden moment for Boston, culminating with the triumph in the NBA finals and the coveted conquest of the ring. As well, for a few years now  we have been telling you how from an artistic and Hip-Hop scene point of view, an incredible cultural renaissance has been involved in its streets. The Feed The Family (made up of Bori Rock, Shaykh Hanif, Dun Dealy, TOP HOOTER and Tremendiis) is certainly one of the most representative collectives of this movement today. While waiting for the follow-up to their classic 2022 album, the members of FTF are setting the table with gourmet individual projects as Dun Dealy’s Jimbo’s World, produced entirely by Chef Bogey. This is one of the most successful street storytelling this year.

The roster that has put together BENNY THE BUTCHER for his Black $oprano Family has several sharpshooters who in their arsenal have bars as sharp as butcher’s knives, especially when it comes to curling drugs and moving bricks. This is definitely the case with this project Moving Base Ot that put together the rapper from Connecticut Fuego BASE and the one from Kensington (Pennsylvania), OT The Real. Both set every track on fire with killer bars about coke and street life, with the credibility of those who saw things about what they speak. Get ready to move your neck and jump out of your seat with every verse.

We all know Onyx Fredro Starr‘s caliber and firepower as an emcee, but let’s admit that we didn’t yet know his great qualities as a producer. STRAPPED, the new UFO Fev album entirely produced by the Queens rapper, represents an incredible surprise for this reason. UFO Fev continues, however, to confirm the idea we have of him in these years that have seen him emerge from the underground scene: excellent emcee and ,above all, a solid and real individual. It’s no coincidence that legends like Fredro Starr and Fat Joe took him under their wing.

VINNIE PAZ like the real Vinny Pazienza has a fire inside him that prevents him from hanging up his gloves so easily. The Philadelphia legend from the days of Jedi Mind Tricks continues to step over the rings of the beats in his own way, as a pure fighter who attacks his opponent from the first to the last round, without gimmicks or tricks, but aiming straight at his goal, to knock out the opponents. He may take heavy blows or be knocked down, but you can bet he will get back up to complete his mission. Hard 2 die as Bruce Wills with the resilience of Rocky Balboa. JACINTO’S PRAYING MANTIS is yet another project of his glorious career.

The rapper from Rochester (NY) with Italian origins Pounds448 claims to have very high votes in the art of vacuum-packing substances and from the way he tells the details about his past on the streets, we have no doubt that he is not referring to food ones. However, his ability to write about his story in an almost cinematic way makes it clear that POUNDS448 is one of the most underrated rappers on the scene today.

Nowaah The Flood has taken 2024 very seriously, flooding the market with its raw product straight from underground. Star Messenger is, in fact, the fifth or sixth project released just on streaming platforms this year and represents the essence of rap and the vision of the Texan rapper, which always raw, contains within it multiple layers of understanding. If looked at through with the right keys it can open some visions of Knowledge. 

In the cities of the greater English-speaking countries where there are large communities of Caribbean migrants such as Canada, the United Kingdom or the USA, it is not uncommon to come across small Caribbean restaurants that prepare recipes of what they call Soul Food, food that fills the soul as well as the stomach. From Toronto, Canada, Belizean-born MC Asun Eastwood and Jamaican-born producer/MC Wizdome Bunitall cook up their Soul Food fare in audio format with the second chapter of Let Me Talk Sh*t. The honest rap and the beats, which draw heavily from funk & soul samples are those that make you reflect about life’s meanings.

Borders and walls are an artificial construction that limit men and close them within false and illusory securities. Culture, Knowledge and art are among the most difficult elements to imprison and lock up in these open-air cages. Thus Hip-Hop culture and Rap music, when they represent and respect the essence, can like a fluid penetratate walls and tie apparently distant identities to a single thread that crosses different continents. The French-speaking rapper from Geneva with Moroccan origins, DI-MEH, with a background also as a skater and graffiti writer, beautifully embodies this free and multicultural spirit. His latest project OV3-2 looks at overseas boom-bap influences, also forming collaborations with the Canadian producer Nicholas Craven, known to fans of the US underground scene, but winks at different sounds with different musical colours and backgrounds.