June’s guide to the best new rap releases to hit Bandcamp includes a Los Angeles poet’s word-nerd manifesto, a New York artist’s anime-rap agenda, and a Dutch duo’s psychedelic sample journey. We also catch up with the latest effort from Singapore’s underground hip-hop gem.
Guardians Of The Boom Bap laces the burly beats of Brooklyn producer Amadeus360 with the impassioned verbals of Kentucky MC and community activist Devine Carama. “All these fake social architects annoying me/ Trying to milk the game,” Carama vents over ominous piano on opener “Mobb Deep Effect,” before saluting the track’s veteran Queensbridge guest MC: “You talk brolic, but in person you act stoic/ Nothing realer than Carama and the Blaq Poet.” Amadeus360 is an unwavering boom-bap disciple, and accordingly the project calls on guest MCs adept at handling chunky heavyweight backdrops: Termanology drops references to Kool G Rap and EPMD on “Crash Test Dummies”; Sadat X opens the mesmerizing piano-helmed “Respect Due”; and Craig G extols a purist’s take on the culture on the uplifting “Hip-Hop Commandments.”
“I don’t care what your list is, I’m killing ‘em all combined/ Dudes be acting like they the biggest, they really small in size/ I keep my distance from broke rappers with the corny vibes/ That’s why you don’t hear any features on many songs of mine,” CRIMEAPPLE raps on “Taste Like Butter,” the introductory cut to the New Jersey rapper’s Rose Gold—a collaboration with New York beatmaker DJ Skizz. That unabashed one-upmanship continues throughout the album, with Crimeapple pursuing C.R.E.A.M. dreams while recalling days spent navigating the underground contraband circuit. An exception to CRIMEAPPLE’s long-running “no guests” stance, “World Famous” invites fellow grimy spitters Estee Nack and Eto to relay their own war stories over a hypnotic Skizz backdrop of bleary horns and agitated drums.
Backed by New Jersey production duo Parallel Thought on Other Blues, Defcee offers an honest depiction of himself and his stock in life. “For those of us with nine-to-fives/ Who rolling our eyes a bit when you ask if we’re rappers still/ Knowing you’re not trying to listen/ I dropped a gang of albums, maybe you might have missed them/ I sold vinyls between drying dishes and diaper missions,” raps the Illinois MC over swaggering funk guitar on opener “Chicago Famous.” Other similarly earnest standouts include “You Still Rap?” which encourages rappers to stop pretending they’re immune from setbacks; “Ben Grimm,” which deals with the effects of addiction; and “Broke,” on which Defcee confesses, “I still owe Rich Jones 20 for some dim sum.”
Metropolis Vol.3 documents the impact that moving from New York to Atlanta in 2023 had on producer ewonee. Across the 10 instrumentals here, the project radiates a soulful, airy charm. “Here He Is” features wavering sampled vocals that waft around pared-down snares and kicks; “Full Plate” sounds like it was crafted from redemptive gospel piano and organ riffs; and the breezy “Fulfillment” is carried by gently bobbing bass. For further conceptual kicks in ewonee’s expansive back catalog, zip to 2022’s synth-focused Source Codee, which was inspired by the producer learning to code.
. 00:10 / 00:58 Consisting of the Amsterdam-based musicians Goya van der Heijden and Tobias Jansen, La Rat is a psychedelic eight-track outing that proudly claims modernist painter Georgia O’Keeffe and original hip-hop futurist Rammellzee as prime influences. Behind the boards, the duo favor grungy loops paired with stripped-down breaks—a potent combination ably demonstrated by the humming funk of “Crab Dish.” Vocally, La Rat is narrated in a spoken-word style that’s processed to sound somewhere between Madlib’s helium-voiced alias Quasimoto and a chipmunk soul sample. “Puppet Show” captures the album at its most delightfully curious, recounting the run up to a bizarre ceremonial parade, over warped strings and gentle flecks of percussion.
Mary Sue’s exquisite 2024 album Voice Memos From A Winter In China compared surviving cold-weather months with navigating downbeat emotions. On Porcelain Shield, Paper Sword—which was recorded with the five-piece jazz-based Clementi Sound Appreciation Club—the Singapore MC and producer travels equally tender emotional ground, this time exploring the way personal events from the past can shape future feelings, goals, and relationships. “When the mist starts to clear, would you rather see an older friend/ Or a stranger you’re not burdened with understanding?” Sue asks, over the crunching drums and lonesome guitar lines of “Mosquito.” Bolstering the MC’s soul searching, the Clementi Sound Appreciation Club combine samples with live instrumentation, striking a bluesy feel that adds to the album’s reflective nature.
A collaboration between the Portland, Oregon duo of MC Milc and beatmaker spinitch, Run For The Arts has a cozy feel that revels in nostalgia. Across its 11 tracks, producer spinitch showcases a canny knack for digging up and repurposing loops of lilting guitar riffs, languid organ lines, and shards of melancholy soul vocals. Over this relaxed backdrop, Milc—along with select verbal assists that include Open Mike Eagle and Blu—relays humble raps underscored by plaintive sentiments. “Show love that wasn’t reciprocated/ Might be affiliated, never initiated/ I ball for anyone outside that didn’t make it,” raps Milc over a backdrop of weeping strings and rustling static on standout “Crayons.” The track sums up the bittersweet atmosphere of the whole album.
New York’s Radicule has been crafting what he happily calls “anime-rap” for a minute now. Rattling off references to animated cartoon culture and video game lore, the self-professed beat horticulturist backs vivid lyrics with production that pairs sizzling, trap-influenced drum patterns with soothing and melodious waves of synth. It’s a heady, kaleidoscopic mix that peaks here with “RADDYS WORLD,” where jittering drums anchor a combination of wavering ‘90s R&B vocals and Radicule’s own amorous braggadocio. Like an inverted twist on Southern screw, sped-up takes of each of the EP’s five tracks are also included, adding a frenetic new layer to the listening experience.
The 20th release from Los Angeles-based, self-styled “poet-etymologist” Rhys Langston plays out like a glorious word-nerd manifesto. “The way my rhymes work up into dins/ Returning from noise in the low-lit mornings/ The interlocked Brocken specter of our limbs/ You intoxicate my means and the very ends,” raps the nimble-tongued Langston over pillowy bass and a comforting guitar riff on “Legal Tender (Sanction What Is Soft),” an ode to embracing a gentle outlook. Fellow erudite MCs and art-rap advocates Mike Ladd, Andrew Mbaruk, and Open Mike Eagle guest on a trio of tracks, with the latter comparing emotional turbulence to running the fictitious aviation business Langstonia Air on “Ate The Tuning Fork While I Taxied In The Crepuscular.”
Ok, the fire. marks the return of Trellion, a maverick figure from Sheffield who has produced songs for Mach-Hommy, become Alchemist’s favorite UK rapper, and disappeared from the scene for years at a time. A collab with fellow slow-flow spitter Danny Lover from Ontario, the album is backed by pastoral production provided by the sadly departed 19.thou$and, whose instrumentals summon misty strings and languid drums for music that resembles the score to a surrealist indie movie. Over the course of 16 songs, the two MCs navigate the doldrums of life, navigate heartache, and lace their rhymes with idiosyncratic humor. “I couldn’t be a different way if I tried/ But I don’t try,” raps Trellion with a shrug over the lolling bass and bluesy, muted trumpet of “Dizzy,” before departing with his own existential send off: “I ain’t trying to live—can’t we just exist?”
