New Music Friday!

musicjunkiegreg said:
New Music Fridays are winding down for the year as we quickly approach AOTY season, but there are still solid albums dropping! Enter Aesop Rock's 10th LP and new album Integrated Tech Solutions (ITS) that just dropped today. Taken right from his Bandcamp page, ITS is "a concept album about an organization offering “lifestyle- and industry-specific applications designed to curate a desired multi-experience."" After just one initial listen, there was so much to ingest on this 18-track, 64-minute project, but I know I will be coming back to this one a lot in the next few weeks to pick through all the lyrical layers. ITS just adds to the already large list of solid/excellent rap/hip-hop albums that have dropped this year. And with AOTY season breathing down our necks, the album will more than likely find me adjusting and reorganizing my AOTY list, yet again, with another solid late-in-the-year release ✌️





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His strongest album in a minute!
 
musicjunkiegreg said:
ITS just adds to the already large list of solid/excellent rap/hip-hop albums that have dropped this year.
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If you wouldn’t mind putting together a short list of 5 to 10 of these albums (or a Spotify playlist of 20-25 tracks) I would appreciate it. I have not found much interest in the genre recently.
 
Beirut has a new album Hadsel out today. I guess he decamped to an island in northern Norway (Hadsel) and wrote a lot of it in winter isolation. Based upon my first listen, it's maybe a bit more atmospherica than some of his other stuff. I thin it's going to be my warm blanket this winter.



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Hadsel Limited Edition Icebreaker LP

Hadsel by Beirut on limited edition icebreaker vinyl. 1. Hadsel 2. Arctic Forest 3. Baion 4. So Many Plans 5. Melbu 6. Stokmarknes 7. Island Life 8. Spillhaugen 9. January 18th 10. Süddeutsches Ton-Bild-Studio 11. The Tern 12. Regulatory
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TenderLovingKiller® said:
If you wouldn’t mind putting together a short list of 5 to 10 of these albums (or a Spotify playlist of 20-25 tracks) I would appreciate it. I have not found much interest in the genre recently.
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Gladly!

Some of my favorite rap/hip-hop albums of 2023 include:

Aesop Rock - ITS
Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips
billy woods & Kenny Segal -  Maps
Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist - VOIR DIRE
JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - Scaring The Hoes
Killer Mike - Michael
McKinley Dixon - Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?
Sleaford Mods - UK Grim

And Danny Brown is dropping his next solo album next Friday the 17th (which I'm obviously highly anticipating).
 
musicjunkiegreg said:
Gladly!

Some of my favorite rap/hip-hop albums of 2023 include:

Aesop Rock - ITS
Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips
billy woods & Kenny Segal -  Maps
Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist - VOIR DIRE
JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - Scaring The Hoes
Killer Mike - Michael
McKinley Dixon - Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?
Sleaford Mods - UK Grim

And Danny Brown is dropping his next solo album next Friday the 17th (which I'm obviously highly anticipating).
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I haven’t listened to Aesop yet. I did not listen to Mcakimkey. Of the rest Killer Mike and Sleaford Mods are the only ones I returned to. I’ve become less interested in hip hop in general through the years.
 
musicjunkiegreg said:
Gladly!

Some of my favorite rap/hip-hop albums of 2023 include:

Aesop Rock - ITS
Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips
billy woods & Kenny Segal -  Maps
Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist - VOIR DIRE
JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - Scaring The Hoes
Killer Mike - Michael
McKinley Dixon - Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?
Sleaford Mods - UK Grim

And Danny Brown is dropping his next solo album next Friday the 17th (which I'm obviously highly anticipating).
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Good list. I would add MIKE - Burning Desire and Navy Blue - Ways of Knowing.

Also looking forward to Blockhead and H31R next week.

Edit:
Oh and I'd add Kofi Flexxx, but that is at least half instrumental and borderline a jazz record.
 
musicjunkiegreg said:
Gladly!

Some of my favorite rap/hip-hop albums of 2023 include:

Aesop Rock - ITS
Armand Hammer - We Buy Diabetic Test Strips
billy woods & Kenny Segal -  Maps
Earl Sweatshirt & The Alchemist - VOIR DIRE
JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown - Scaring The Hoes
Killer Mike - Michael
McKinley Dixon - Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?
Sleaford Mods - UK Grim

And Danny Brown is dropping his next solo album next Friday the 17th (which I'm obviously highly anticipating).
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This is great! Thank you!

I should really give some of these artists another try. Aes and Killer Mike I am super familiar with and enjoy a great deal but Armand Hammer, Earl, Woods & Segal I gave a shot but they didn’t grab me initially and I’ve never ventured back. I’ve enjoyed some tracks from Danny Brown in the past but not whole albums and JPEGMAFIA never did much for me. I hadn’t considered Sleaford Mods as Rap but I suppose they would fit in a post-punk mash up sort of way. Never heard of McKinley Dixon so I will check that one out too.
dhodo said:
Good list. I would add MIKE - Burning Desire and Navy Blue - Ways of Knowing.

Also looking forward to Blockhead and H31R next week.

Edit:
Oh and I'd add Kofi Flexxx, but that is at least half instrumental and borderline a jazz record.
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Thanks! I will check these out also!
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
This is great! Thank you!

I should really give some of these artists another try. Aes and Killer Mike I am super familiar with and enjoy a great deal but Armand Hammer, Earl, Woods & Segal I gave a shot but they didn’t grab me initially and I’ve never ventured back. I’ve enjoyed some tracks from Danny Brown in the past but not whole albums and JPEGMAFIA never did much for me. I hadn’t considered Sleaford Mods as Rap but I suppose they would fit in a post-punk mash up sort of way. Never heard of McKinley Dixon so I will check that one out too.
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I hope you're able to get to them all before AOTY list time is upon us. You'll have to let me know what you think! As of right now, at least two of these albums are in my Top10 👀... Also, FYI (in case you didn't know), Armand Hammer is another project of Billy Woods' alongside ELUCID 👍
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
This is great! Thank you!

I should really give some of these artists another try. Aes and Killer Mike I am super familiar with and enjoy a great deal but Armand Hammer, Earl, Woods & Segal I gave a shot but they didn’t grab me initially and I’ve never ventured back. I’ve enjoyed some tracks from Danny Brown in the past but not whole albums and JPEGMAFIA never did much for me. I hadn’t considered Sleaford Mods as Rap but I suppose they would fit in a post-punk mash up sort of way. Never heard of McKinley Dixon so I will check that one out too.

Thanks! I will check these out also!
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It's took me a solid while to click with billy woods, but I kept at it because he's one of my buddy's faves and we overlap in tastes far more than we don't, it's only been since Maps that things really came together for me, but last year's albums started to turn the page a bit for sure.
 
Lee Newman said:
Confession time, I've never really paid much attention to Cat Power, this Royal Albert Hall cover thing is MY FUCKING JAM!
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You need to give The Greatest a listen ASAP. That album she cut with a band comprised of expert Memphis/Stax session men. It’s absolutely beautiful and presumably right in your sweet spot.

I really love her two albums just prior to that Moon Pix, and You Are Free but those are more along the lines of lo-fi American gothic indie rock similar to Songs: Ohia, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and (her ex-boyfriend) Smog.

She also has 3 covers albums and of those the best one is Jukebox.

Give The Greatest a listen you won’t be disappointed.
 
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TenderLovingKiller® said:
You need to give The Greatest a listen ASAP. That album she cut with a band of a band comprised of expert Memphis/Stax session men. It’s absolutely beautiful and presumably right in your sweet spot.

I really love her two albums just prior to that Moon Pix, and You Are Free but those are more along the lines of lo-fi American gothic indie rock similar to Songs: Ohia, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, and (her ex-boyfriend) Smog.

She also has 3 covers albums and of those the best one is Jukebox.

Give The Greatest a listen you won’t be disappointed.
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I think I will end up listening to all of it. I've heard some stuff here and there and liked it all. While I'm not that into Songs:Ohia, I do dig Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Smog. Something about full Dylan covers man, it was the breaking point with Old Crow too. That Blonde on Blonde tipped me from casual fan to fucking obsessed.
 
Lee Newman said:
Oh shit, @TenderLovingKiller®, you know what other rap album I like this year? The Black Thought/El Michels Affair album. Also, I see Young Fathers listed as Rap quite a bit. Not sure I understand/agree with that, but I really like Heavy Heavy, will most likely be in my top ten.
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I was meaning to post that one yesterday and didn't get around to it. Playing that one a lot.
 
Roots fans should check out the latest season of the What Had Happened Was podcast. Questlove is the guest and is going through the history of the first four albums or so.

Every season is incredible for fans of hip hop history if you haven't heard them.
 
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