LSTNFND, one of the local hip hop labels in Toronto, releases the instrumental version of every track their artists put out. It’s one of my favourite things they do. The beats behind Jon Corbin’s latest EP are some of their most confident work yet.

That’s to say nothing of Corbin himself. “Spark the Flame” is, without a doubt, the best song on the track. His flow is getting better, but ultimately, his storytelling is getting better too. The lyrics are getting better, perhaps, but it’s all in the delivery here.

The guest rapper is also competent on the track, and elevates it to another level. It’s undoubtedly Corbin’s best work, and a new high note for a label that’s getting better with every release.

And ultimately, it’s hard to write about LSTNFND’s artists now without writing about the label. There are few labels so concerned with giving their artists the support they need for success, and you can hear that pay off with each release.

Hearts Set Ablaze is just an EP — it’s only six tracks, and three of those are instrumental. But you can hear Corbin grow, and LSTNFND grows with him.

Give it a listen on Spotify below:

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The Iceberg is the follow-up to last year’s instrumental The Odd Tape and a small EP he released last year called Alwasta. But if you ask me, it’s the first followup to The Good Fight, one of my favourite hip hop records of 2015. “Prolific”, clearly, barely begins to describe Oddisee’s frequent output.

This time around, Oddisee has a lot more to say. Oddisee is a great emcee, but his production has often overshadowed his vocal work for me. His voice often takes a backseat to the instrumentation. (The Odd Tape was the maturation of that style; it was completely instrumental and, of course, excellent.) On The Iceberg, Oddisee’s voice is clearer than it’s ever been.

And he has a lot to say. About “Things” (the lead single) that are bringing him down, politics, race, religion — it goes on. Oddisee isn’t shy. “You Grew Up” is an outstanding song about immigration and racial tension in America. “Rain Dance” is a song about Oddisee’s musical and financial journey — but it’s also a tremendous beat.

And therein lies the difference between The Iceberg and every other Oddisee record. Odd has always been a lyrical fellow; he’s an incredible rapper and a gifted writer. But with his voice sharing equal responsibility with the instruments, it sounds like what he’s saying is more important than ever.

Oddisee is one of the most conscious rappers out there, and The Iceberg sees him growing even more conscious and self-aware. That’s a good thing. In 2017, we need more voices like Oddisee.

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If anything, RTJ3 feels like the first record to be anti-Trump.

But what I haven’t read about as much is how musically sound RTJ3 is. It may be a protest record, if a vengeful one, but it’s an incredibly well-made one. It’s the culmination of everything the duo has been working on over the past several years.

As always, the beats are sharp and tonally dark. “Hey Kids” is a classic El-P production, with a swaggering beat that seemingly hums with its ire. “Stay Gold” reminds me of the beats from Cancer 4 Cure, El-P’s best production effort. “Don’t Get Captured” and “Thieves! (Screamed the Ghost)” are delightful counterparts that exemplify the record’s perfect pacing.

But the guest appearances here are notable for the texture they add to the record. Kamasi Washington’s turn in “Thursday in the Danger Room” adds so much to the song; without his saxophone work, the track would be notably starker and less emotive. Washington’s sax work makes El-P and Killer Mike sing over the beat, rather than rap over it.

There is truth, though, in the reviews that suggest this is RTJ at their angriest. The final track (“A Report to the Shareholders / Kill Your Masters”) is a reflection of Killer Mike’s year as a social and political activist. It’s an essay about the months he spent volunteering for Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail and the disappointment in the establishment’s inability to defeat Trump. That the track is partially titled “Kill Your Masters” is an indictment in and of itself.

My one wish is that RTJ would release instrumental versions of their records. I’d love an instrumental version of Run the Jewels 3 alongside my instrumental version of Cancer 4 Cure to work to.

RTJ3 is many things. It’s a record of revolt and protest, a promise of revolution, and an angry letter from a hip hop duo who’s been warning us all about bad politicians for years. But perhaps more importantly, it’s also a savage hip hop record. The beats are slick, the rhymes are sharp, and the production is absolutely impeccable. RTJ3, like Run the Jewels’ previous efforts, is an easy recommendation that’s easily among 2016’s best.

Image above by Tom Spray. You can download RTJ3 for free on Run the Jewels’ website.

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Corbin told me R & R was six years in the making, and put together entirely digitally over two countries in that time (Corbin is Canadian and Harmon is from Tennessee). As life changed for both rappers, so too did the record. Corbin and Harmon met each other at Flavor Fest in Tampa in 2010, and immediately knew they wanted to work together.

So this collaboration began in an effort to work long distance, put it together, and get it done. Six years later, after a number of highs and lows, the collaboration is over. There’s no chance you’ll see these guys tour together — the logistics won’t work — but making the project was a victory for the two family men.

And it’s a tremendous record. It might have taken six years to come together, but it doesn’t sound like it took that long. There are no signs of gestation anywhere.

More importantly, these two sound great together. They’re both great rappers with positive outlooks on life, and it’s refreshing to hear rappers who are focused on positivity.

In one telling moment on “Real Thugs” (my favourite track on the record), the duo samples Count Bass D. They turn the rapper’s one-off line “Real thugs don’t rap” into a fantastic, honest chorus. “Real Thugs” is one of those songs that works because of its reference to vintage hip hop. It strips the genre bare and naked, removes its showboating, and focuses on reality.

“Still Building” is my other favourite track on the record. The beat is great, the lyrics are clever, and the message is poignant.

I love it.

Lyrically, this is Christian hip hop. But I don’t think non-Christians would be bothered by it. If anything, this is a call for us to all get along together. It’s a reminder that we’re all humans, and that we all have to live and work together. The message is simple: we need to stand together when times get tough, and rejoice when things are good.

The whole album feels like a long period of rejoicing. There’s no negativity to be found here. These two guys are just glad to make music, and you can tell when you listen to it.

The album also packs together instrumental versions of each track, which is a great way to hear the record. The beats are definitely vintage, but they’re excellent. They sound ‘90s, but that style is still in, right? I’ve made a playlist with the instrumental tracks exclusively for work, and they make excellent music for focusing.

For a couple of independent rappers, R & R is a surprisingly strong record. It sounds indie — after all, this project spans six years and two countries — but it’s also at another level of creativity and talent. Travis Harmon and Jon Corbin have made a tremendous and positive record — and it’s nice to hear that music like this in a genre like hip hop.

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It’s a pretty simple concept. Lock your phone’s orientation and watch the video by rotating the phone as the camera angles change. It keeps you engaged in the video, but it feels like it solves a pretty simple problem: what on earth am I supposed to do while I watch a five minute video on my main communication device?

It turns out, I just needed to fidget.

It’s a great video too. Shot entirely on an iPhone, the video is energetic despite its black and white. Chance fans will love this. Everybody else will find it novel. It’s just plain old cool.

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But to ignore Knxwledge, whose name is a big part of the NxWorries title, would be a major mistake. His production serves as the vehicle that .Paak hasn’t had yet in the hip hop world.

In short, Knxwledge is the reason that .Paak is about to explode from being an R&B saviour to a hip hop king.

It’s not that .Paak can rap (although he demonstrates some tenacity in that regard). It’s more that the beats on display here owe more to hip hop than most of the production on .Paak’s last record did.

This makes for a beautiful record. For .Paak, it’s jubilant. His voice is impressive throughout, but he’s clearly having a ton of fun. Tracks like “Livvin” and “Get Better/Do U Luv” have qualities to them that wouldn’t have existed on Malibu, the .Paak record that came out in February. .Paak knows he’s rising in the ranks.

Knxwledge has found a natural complement to his rhythms and beats. His beats haven’t flowed this well or felt this natural in a long time. The vocals lend them some charm, even when they feel too old-school or offbeat for their own good (pardon the pun).

There have been a few people who have compared the partnership to Dilla and Madlib. To me, it’s more directly related to the partnership between Madlib and MF Doom that resulted in Madvillainy. (Coincidentally, or perhaps not, Yes Lawd! was released on the same label as Madvillainy was.) These are two seemingly disparate voices who are able to come together and create something better as a whole than they are apart.

With all that being said, the question I’m left with isn’t whether or not Yes Lawd! is a great album. It’s an impeccably made, joyful record. It’s the record you make when you know you’ve finally “made it.”

No, the question I have is this: is Yes Lawd! the best Anderson .Paak record of the year? Malibu, I think, edges it out only a little bit. But the fact that it’s such a close contest is a remarkable testament to both Knxwledge and .Paak.

Clearly, .Paak has arrived. With Yes Lawd!, he continues to surprise. Knxwledge’s role in the record is the cherry on top of the cake.

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The Easy Truth is the first time the two rappers have collaborated together. It’s an interesting mix that won’t be obvious until you listen to it, but putting these two together to rap over vintage, often piano-laced beats is a stroke of genius.

Brown’s beats are sensationally old-school. There’s no other way to put it: if you’re looking for old school rap, there’s no better record this year. There are obvious similarities between the beats Brown makes and the ones Kanye was making for Common fifteen years ago.

Tracks like “Jordans & a Gold Chain” even feature Nina Simone-style samples reminiscent of “Diamonds Are Forever”, but with a strong dash of morose sentiment. Apollo isn’t making a “happy” hip hop record. As often as we long for the golden days of hip hop, he’s preserving them with the knowledge that things haven’t improved.

If anything, the Brown and Skyzoo are interested in talking about how the music, the culture, and the realities of blackness in America is getting worse. That either sits well with you or makes you giggle. It mostly makes me giggle — nothing is static in life, and the record’s longing for the “golden days” of hip hop feels a little silly. But it doesn’t ruin the music: as much as it’s about hip hop, it’s also a discussion about the way the black community has frayed over the past decade and a half. Or perhaps how things have mostly stayed the same.

On the first track (“One in the Same”), Skyzoo raps about avoiding the back of a cop car growing up. It sounds like a challenge. Sadly, things haven’t changed. And at that moment, that’s the point: things haven’t changed for black people, particularly our black youth.

On the flip side, Skyzoo brings incredibly flow and poetry to the game on The Easy Truth. There’s a clear emphasis in the mix — and in the styling — on his vocal performance, and it doesn’t disappoint. Maybe it’s the melancholic beats, but Skyzoo’s performance is elevated throughout to become something truly special.

And that’s the saddest part of The Easy Truth: it’s a tremendous record, made by two brilliant minds who play well together. But it doesn’t feel of this time. It feels very much of a time, but that time was over a decade ago.

If I’m being honest, I love that sound. I love the ’90s hip hop sound. But I don’t love it in the nostalgic sense. I just love how inventive it is within its own constraints. The Easy Truth feels inventive, even if it is an echo — and that’s what matters the most.

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There’s a reason people love mixtapes. They’re fast and lose, and often bursting with the creative energy of an aspiring and hungry guest list. Noname’s record harkens back to the brilliance of the early Chance the Rapper mixtapes, and to a certain extent, Kanye West’s early records.

Despite that, there’s a clear difference here: Noname’s gender is an obvious differentiator. There’s a dearth of women in hip hop. It’s a stain on a genre that needs to be spending more time celebrating its diversity.

As a result, Telefone is a massive breath of fresh air. Noname is an excellent rapper, and her voice is easy to listen to.

There are so many standout tracks on the record. It would be shockingly easy to write something positive about every track. “Yesterday”’s breezy piano is charming. “Sunny Duet” is melodically stunning; “sunny” is a perfect descriptor.

For my money, though, “Diddy Bop” is the earliest standout track that might buy Noname more of an audience. The guest spot from Raury (who’s one of my favourite up-and-coming rappers) is great. The two of them have a similar style; their beats often feel like they straddle the sometimes-thin line between hip hop and R&B.

They both also share another important vocal quality. Noname, not unlike Raury (or Chance the Rapper), floats over her beats. Even when she’s being more rhythmic with her intonations, like on “Reality Check” (which features the sensational Eryn Allen Kane), it sounds easy and natural.

Like many Chicagoans before her, Noname is naturally proud of her city. But it feels like she’s more aware of its darker side, perhaps because she’s a woman. “Casket Pretty” is a heavy song about how many of her friends end up in caskets, and how “nobody’s safe in her happy city.”

That ironic twist is both a clever and sad line. The song is a telling moment for Noname: she’s not just incredibly skilled, but also self-aware in ways that some of her peers aren’t.

I would be remiss not to mention the mixtape’s closer, “Shadow Man”. I don’t have words to describe my affection for this piece. It’s the longest, most fulfilling track on the record. There’s a beautiful moment on the record that’s heavenly, and Noname never feels more on beat.

There’s a remarkable amount of restraint on Telefone. Noname saves the best track for last. But she also raps at the right times, and somehow “floats” when it’s appropriate. She opens the doors to collaborate with peers, and isn’t afraid to give them the space to do their own thing.

Noname is the most exciting rapper since Raury and Chance the Rapper. Telefone is sensational. It’s unfair to say this so early in her career, so I want to make it clear that I mean this to be encouraging and hopeful — but I desperately want to see Fatimah become the female role model in hip hop.

She could actually do it.

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The results of that Kickstarter campaign are finally here, and they come in the form of and the Anonymous Nobody…, the hip hop trio’s first legitimate record since 2004’s The Grind Date. And boy, is De La Soul back: and the Anonymous Nobody… is one of the year’s most impressive hip hop records. It’s a wide canvas of imaginative ideas and well-written statements that capture De La Soul’s wit and creativity for a new generation of listeners.

When they’re at the top of their game, that’s exactly what and the Anonymous Nobody… does. “Pain”, the first single, has the vibe, lyrical approach, and swagger of vintage De La Soul. It’s the sort of song fans have been waiting ten years for. The following track, the jazzier “Property of Spitkicker.com”, sounds like a twist on their vintage sound. It’s trying to push boundaries and experiment with new sounds — all the things that we loved hearing De La Soul do before.

At other times, it’s easy to wish the tracks were longer than they are. “CBGB’S” is an album highlight, but ninety seconds is much too short for the track. It’s got such a great vintage beat, and it’s a shame to waste it.

But the album is enough to bring the best out of everybody: even Usher has a good track here, contributing an excellent vocal performance to “Greyhounds” that complements the rapping surprisingly well.

Everything comes together in “Exodus”, though, the final track and the song where the title of the record is finally explained. As De La Soul encourages people to chase their passions and their dreams, they sign off at the end as the “nobodies” who became somebodies. It’s an aspirational moment that feels like a reflection on a long, storied, successful career. Their message: if they can do it, anybody can.

We should have guessed that would be the message all along. and the Anonymous Nobody… was crowd-funded. If there was a metaphor for the fundraising process, it’s one of democracy. By contributing to the Kickstarter campaign, we decided as we wanted De La Soul to stick around. We decided we needed more music from them. And true to De La Soul’s point, it could have been anybody.

The music industry is becoming more democratic every day. Decades into their career, De La Soul are still leading the charge.

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If you don’t know Watsky, you might remember seeing him perform in season six of HBO’s Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry for his slam poetry. He also became popular for a YouTube video in 2010 called “Pale kid raps fast” (which is no longer available), which got him the attention of Verizon, who asked him to appear in a commercial to promote a new product with a speed rap. Not only did Watsky decline, he felt it was such an insult to his artistic integrity that he made another video making fun of Verizon.

That attitude — an attitude of passion and artistry — seeps into his hip hop. x Infinity finds Watsky calling us to be more real with each other.

That attitude is evident in hard-hitting tracks like the anti-Trump (and anti-Clinton) “Pink Lemonade”, or the emotionally involving “Stick to Your Guns” — a protest song about gun violence, news networks, and politics. “Hit me with your truth,” Watsky raps, almost pleadingly, on the song. It’s an observation of the lack of honesty from reporters and politicians, but it’s also a cry asking us to get better at this.

If you want to hear his speed rapping, Watsky unleashes it on the virtuosic “Don’t Be Nice”, which he uses to joke about hot moms and seriously tell people that he doesn’t have time for “fake friends”.

Throughout x Infinity, which features as many bangers as it does pop-infused moments of quiet beauty, Watsky continues to plead with us to be more honest and vulnerable with each other. He leads by example on songs liked “Talking to Myself”, when he opens up about his personal struggles.

It can be hard to hear his messages through his rapping, though: Watsky’s ability is second-to-none, and five albums in, he’s only getting better. Without a doubt, he’s one of the most skilled rappers in the world right now. His thoughtful lyrics are almost a bonus.

Whether he’s speed rapping or cleverly finding ways to adjust his intonation to match the instrumentation surrounding him, every track has moments that are worth discussing. On the previously mentioned “Don’t Be Nice”, he plays with his sample and raps against it, creating lines and verses off the sampled words “Don’t” and “Don’t Be” in an astonishing display of prowess and technical mastery.

x Infinity is the album that could elevate Watsky to household name. But he’s already got the attention of hip hop fans everywhere. With x Infinity, he continues perfecting his craft.

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