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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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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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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Over the years, she’s recorded a number of solo records that each have their merits. But you can trace her career on a curve: the more records she releases, the more comfortable she becomes with singing. Her last record, Parts of Speech, was more or less a pop record.

A Badly Broken Code is her first record, released in 2010. And it’s filled with delicious and delirious hip hop. Dessa’s voice is seductively powerful and clearly very expressive, playing almost-sung hip hop lyrics, but she’s got a bit of venom in it at this point.

That’s not all to say that this is a pure hip hop record: Dessa is blatantly experimenting. Tracks like Dixon’s Girl expose not just her abilities behind a mic, but also her abilities as a songwriter and a singer.

Dessa is one of those artists who’s got bad timing: I think ten or fifteen years ago, she would have been way more popular. Tracks like Mineshaft II are potential radio hits, but Nicki Minaj beat her to it by 2010 and became the Queen of Rap.

But Dessa’s doing things that are more inventive and original without disrespecting hip hop’s past. She’s an artist that both hip hop fans and “regular folks” are going to love.

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Illadelph Halflife is often labelled R&B, which is strange: it’s as R&B a record as To Pimp a Butterfly is a jazz record. While it features prominent R&B musicians, and a lot of jazz players too, Illadelph has more stone-cold rap on it than most rappers dare play with today. Although the rap group experiments with all sorts of other genres, they remain consistently interested in hip hop as a craft.

The Roots also never shone brighter as a conscious hip hop group, with songs that rebel against stereotypical gangster ways and encourage responsibility. Instead of focusing on the braggadocio or their street cred, The Roots make a name for themselves on Illadelph Halife by separating their behaviour from that of their peers. It all amounted for a watershed moment in 1990s hip hop, particularly in an era where it felt like every week a new gangsta rap record was dropping.

Historically, Illadelph Halflife was The Roots’ breakthrough record that got them the claim to fame they were looking for. Today, it sounds a little rough aroung the edges — but that’s just the dated production values. Give this a whirl and it’s old-school vibes will have you bobbing your head like it’s the 1990s all over again.

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