New releases last two weeks: Hip Hop/R&B

Review: Dr. Dre's The Chronic gave rise to such heavy-hitters as 'Nuthin' But A 'G' Thang' and 'Let Me Ride', but what about its many "reimaginings" over the years? With The Ghronic, released in 2023, West Coast rappers 38 Spesh and Conway The Machine can't be said to have laid down their own version more so than they did treat the Dre touchstone as a starting point, dropping a nine-track array of similar G-funk whistling lowrider bumps, readapted for the contemporary New Yorker, and yet with fresh lyrical themes and subject matters. Reissued two years later on green vinyl, after an initially white-sleeved run, the productions are ever clean and the flows lackadaisical. Features from Lloyd Banks, Che Noir, Benny The Butcher and Elcamino cement the bluffing rep of a brag-heavy machine duopoly.

Review: New York emcee Hassaan Mackey (Rawkus 50) delivers sharp, unfiltered lyricism, packing rhymes with onomatopoeia and raw street wisdom. Set to blackout beats by Detroit producer Apollo Brown (The Reset, Brown Study, Gas Mask, Clouds), we've the ideal backdrop here: deep bass set to the the crackle of well-worn vinyl. The result is a record on which we're given much more than our Daily Bread. Lyrical picturebooks of faded spirit photographs return like plasmic ghosts, each booing line steeped in a mood of eerie reckoning. Atonement lingers in every note, experience weighs heavy, yet a fierce hope burns through.

Review: Bay Area producer Dead Perry follows up on the success of The Art of Re-Animation with his dark, gritty solo LP Acoustic Shadows. After impressing with his reimagining of Hieroglyphics' Casual's work, Perry now leans fully into his signature shadowy style and has said he was inspired by a Civil War phenomenon where sound vanishes due to geography for this work. The album's title reflects Perry's low-profile, graffiti-rooted ethos and the tunes feature a stacked lineup with Casual, Planet Asia, Ill Bill, Estee Nack and more all involved on a project that dives into murky sonic terrain. Standout track 'Call Me Snake' evokes John Carpenter and inspired P-Dirt's concept lyrics. A brilliant return.

Review: Among heads, this is of the most hotly championed hip-hop collab records of all time - and yet it is all too unknown. Doomstarks is the fabled collaboration of masked raconteur come rapper MF Doom and one of nine sonic samurai, Ghostface Killah (here known as Tony Starks); Swift & Changeable: The Prequel is their quick-wristed, mic-proximate debut mixtape, released in 2012. Just as some comic books series would prologue their main stories with pre-release strips, The Prologue served as the "unofficial" warm-up to accompany the pair's long-anticipated debut album of the same name. The Prequel hears some of Doom and Ghost's most popular tracks and collabs from various projects, including the original Doomstarks tune 'Vistory Laps'; the album provides a chopped but not screwed experience, playing out in the style of a gapless, scratch-heavy DJ mix.

Review: Ghostface Killah's 36 Seasons, first released in 2014, plays out like a gritty graphic novel; we follow Ghostface's maskless alter-ego Tony Starks as he returns to Staten Island after nine years in solitary. Expecting to reunite with his old life, he instead finds his community in disarray, friends turned enemies and betrayal lurking around every corner. So, fuelled by revenge and a broken heart, Starks becomes a reluctant antihero, navigating a grave landscape of corruption, street politics and lost love. The album unfolds over soul-drenched production from The Revelations, creating a cinematic backdrop for the narrative's descent into movie violence and moral compromise. This reissue through Salvation keeps true to the album's original totting of 14 tracks, eschewing the extra ten on the deluxe edition.

Review: Following the success of Lo-Fi Ghibli in 2022, underground hip-hop head Grey October Sound is back with a new cover album that finds him reimagining iconic Japanese city-pop tracks through lo-fi hip-hop. It is another gem from P-VINE that features laid-back reinterpretations of classics such as Miki Matsubara's 'Mayonaka no Door,' Yasuha's 'Fly-Day Chinatown,' and Taeko Onuki's 'Tokai' alongside songs by Tatsuro Yamashita, Mariya Takeuchi and Yumi Arai. It's. Lush world of carefully hinted at nostalgic melodies with relaxed beats soothing mind, body and soul, all with a lo-fi and retro city-pop charm.

Review: Go-to lo-fi from Grey October Sound, P-Vine's resident hip-hop group and collective vibe queller. Having built a steady beatmaking operation initially from Studio Ghibli thematics and other anime associations, the group now continue to turn their hand to originals, furthering your capacity to wind down after many a long, protracted cramming sesh. Whether flashcards, cats on laps and hot steaming cocoa are or aren't your thing, that's OK, because we can bet the dragging rhythms of 'Tokai', the desultory pocket piano missive '1000%', and/or the closing crepuscule 'DOWN TOWN' will be.

Review: Let The Light will be KAMM's final album - and its most poignant - as it is a tribute to late member Alland Byallo, a beloved name in the underground who suddenly passed in 2023. Surviving members Marc Barrite aka Dave Aju, Kenneth Scott and Marc Smith dip into new sounds here, including jazz, psych funk, soul, golden-era hip-hop and textured electronics, and work them all into a heartfelt final statement that does a fine job of honouring Byallo's creative spirit with real emotional depth and warmth. From the serpentine tones of opener through the bossa-infused boom-bap of 'No Deal', the politically charged jazz burner 'Your Honour' and the sleek electro rhythms of 'How Long?', the album traverses plenty of ground. It also features Byallo's artwork and closes with a chorus of loved ones that makes it all the more poignant.

Review: Accomplished US star Lil Baby celebrates the five year anniversary of his breakthrough album My Turn with a special Tangerine reissue via Quality Control Music. The record was originally released in 2020 and very much launched the Atlanta rapper into superstardom and was the first long player of that year to go double platinum and eventually earn a rather impressive 7x platinum status. Famous for its era-defining hits like 'Emotionally Scarred' and 'We Paid,' the album cemented Lil Baby's status as a generational voice in hip-hop and listen back now, despite how fast this genre moves on, it still stands up as an album that marked the moment Lil Baby took the lead.

Review: London-based New Zealander Arjuna Oakes impresses hugely with this debut album, a contemporary soul and jazz fusion, global folk, electronica and post-rock motifs all woven in. Like any good LP, While I'm Distracted is a deeply personal journey exploring common themes of vulnerability, identity and hope in a world shaped by ever-more existential angst and social media stress. We're told that Arjuna approached this full-length album like a filmmaker crafting a feature and aiming to evoke emotion over concept. Performing vocals, piano, synths and arranging strings himself, he also leads a talented ensemble of collaborators who help him on this emotional odyssey.

Review: It's been a while since we've heard from high-end hip-hop helmers PartyNextDoor and Drake. The two superstars usually work together to make ethereal stopovers on otherwise damn hard rap records, especially by the latter former Young Money megastar. Though the pair have never worked on a full-length album together before, Some Sexy Songs 4 U tots up to the third in an unsaid series of Drake collab albums, following ones between 21 Savage and Future. Dealing in themes of sexual jealousy and ongoing personal feuds - especially amid tumultuous fallouts between the larger private-jet-bound artist and various smaller up-and-comers such as Ice Spice - the record offers a stylistic range on an wide trap smorgasbord, working in Mexican rock samples and alt-rock progressions.

Review: Puma Blue, the project of South-London-born, Atlanta-based Jacob Allen, moves in a starkly different direction with this latest release. Stripping away the layered trip-hop, jazz, and electronica influences of previous works, he now focuses on a more direct and vulnerable form of songwriting. With just his guitar and voice, Allen crafts an album that feels intimate, raw, and deeply personal. Each track is a careful balance of simplicity and complexity. On 'Tapestry', the narrative unfolds like a dense, aching reflection, while 'Hotel Room' captures a moment of quiet melancholy with an almost confessional tone. In contrast, 'In the Absence of You' is stark in its honesty, delivering a minimalist sentiment that resonates with painful clarity. The absence of the full band setup places the weight of emotion solely on Allen's shoulders, allowing his vocal delivery and guitar work to shine. The result is a profoundly affecting listen, one that's less about expansive sound and more about the intimate space between notes, where every breath and pause feels significant. It's a deeply personal exploration of solitude and longing, executed with haunting simplicity.

Review: Tha Alkaholiks, often stylized as Tha Liks, are a West Coast hip-hop group known for their party-igniting lyrics, witty wordplay, and funky, jazz-infused beats. Formed in early-90s LA, E-Swift, J-Ro, and Tash would prove a gregarious group, making short work of charming scene and industry folk alike through various collabs, with such friends as fellow West Coast MC and mentor King Tee. 'Daaam!' stood out on the gang's second record Coast II Coast as one of its core hits, with vibey production by E-Swift contrasting twin moods of wellness and hardship. Now a full studio album takes the same name, while reimagining some 'Daaam!' alongside other classics such as 'Make Room', as well as securing several new songs. Hard-hitting, fun-loving.

Review: Kali Uchis has always had a gift for building dreamy, insular worlds, but her fifth studio album feels like a quiet reckoning. She channels existential uncertainty into lush, open-hearted pop i a mix of glittery r&b, woozy soul, and downcast slow jams that seem to float between time zones. Written in the aftermath of what she's described as a "life-altering" experience, there's a newfound stillness here. 'Sunshine & Rain...' is all candlelight and quiet yearning, its soft-focus production the perfect backdrop for a voice that's more hushed and inward than ever. 'ILYSMIH' (short for "I love you so much it hurts") doubles down on vulnerability, with lyrics that feel read straight from a diary, tangled up in delay-drenched strings and pillowy keys. There's punchier stuff too i 'Territorial' and 'Daggers!' lean towards funk and psychedelia, but the tempo never really rises. Instead, the energy folds inwards. 'Silk Lingerie,' 'Lose My Cool,' and 'It's Just Us' feel like whispered confessions, suspended between dream and memory. Across all 14 tracks, there's a strong sense of intimacy and solitude: of letters written and maybe never sent, of a person quietly finding the strength to stay soft in a world that rarely offers the same back.

Review: Shockingly, "(Hurry Up Tomorrow) is probably my last hurrah as the Weeknd." With speculation that this could mark the final release under his stage name, Abel Tesfaye returns with his sixth studio album, doubling as the soundtrack for an upcoming psycho-thriller film of the same name, where film and album are to be released in tandem. A known cinephile, and widely applauded for his screen debut in the OPN-scored Safdie Brothers sensation Uncut Gems, Tesfaye's upcoming directorial collaboration with Trey Edward Shults presents an insomniac musician on the verge of a mental breakdown, pulled into an existential odyssey against his best volition. 'Timeless', 'Sao Paulo' and 'Cry for Me' lead the charge, in the aftermath of a vocal injury sustained on tour in 2022. Blending r&b, synth-pop and trap with flourishes of Brazilian funk and hip-hop, the new record doubles as the film's soundtrack, and pushes the Weeknd's palette ever further out into unsettling neon pop territory, contradictorily into the early hours of the weekday.