
This week’s already seen a few great releases from Nok From The Future, Thelonious Martin, and ILoveMakonnen; now, check out these seven albums dropped for New Music Friday:
Atmosphere – Fishing Blues
Rhymesayers duo Atmosphere, which consists of rapper Slug and producer Ant, have been underground heroes for a long time due to impressive, introspective albums like Seven’s Travels and When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold. Today the duo returns with their eleventh LP, titled Fishing Blues. The tape contains more features than any other previous Atmosphere release, with fellow Rhymesayers artists MF DOOM, Aesop Rock, Dem Atlas, Kool Keith, and many more making appearances across the album’s eighteen tracks.
Mallrat – Uninvited EP
Australia’s Mallrat began making waves last year with her debut single “Suicide Blone”, a fun crossover between cloud rap and indie pop. Today sees the North American release of her debut EP, Uninvited. Check out the six-track effort on Soundcloud.
PARTYNEXTDOOR – P3
The OVO camp has always had a penchant for atmospheric soundscapes, so Toronto singer/producer PARTYNEXTDOOR was a logical addition to a label that includes Noah ’40’ Shebib and Nineteen85 among its members. Since his self-titled debut was released through the label three years ago, PND’s established himself as a voice to look out for, appearing on excellent cuts by artists like Drake and Travis Scott. As with PND’s first two albums, Drake is the solitary feature on P3, which clocks in at sixteen tracks (making it the artist’s most ambitious project to date). After the paltry response given to other excellent OVO releases this year by dvsn, Majid Jordan, and Roy Wood$, PND seems the most likely to have real success in 2016.
Rae Sremmurd – Sremmlife 2
Teenage rappers Rae Sremmurd came out of nowhere with their debut single “No Flex Zone” two years ago, which received a nauseating amount of airplay and catapulted brothers Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi into superstar status. Their second album, Sremmlife 2, includes Juicy J, Lil Jon, and Kodak Black among its features, and finds Ear Drummers labelmate Mike WiLL Made It on almost every track (along with DJ Mustard, Skooly, P-Nasty, and others). Early singles like “By Chance” and “Do Yoga” already show a progression for the young rappers, as they continue to develop their individual styles. Swae Lee also recently announced that he’s recording a solo album titled Swaecation.
Troy Ave – Roland Collins
Troy Ave is now more famous for being outsold by Kirk Knight and trying to shoot T.I. than anything else, but he’s persevering after a short prison sentence with his latest release, a mixtape titled Roland Collins. The New York rapper seemed to be a promising new artist, becoming an XXL Freshman in 2014 and releasing an album the next year that counted 50 Cent, Cam’ron, Puff Daddy, and Mase among its features, but he’s failed to garner any significant attention. Roland Collins is an autobiographical work that has no features and even finds Ave producing several tracks himself.
Various Artists – The Get Down OST
Baz Luhrmann’s (Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge) hip-hop drama The Get Down released its soundtrack along with the first six episodes on Netflix.The show, which counts Nas and Jaden Smith among its writers and cast, follows a Puerto Rican teenager in the Bronx who falls in with Grandmaster Flash during the birth of hip hop. Both Nas and Jaden Smith appear several times on the soundtrack, along with Raury, Janelle Monáe, Miguel, 6lack, Leon Bridges, Nile Rogers, and many more.
Wale – Today…i Got Time!
After dropping one of the summer’s best mixtapes with Summer On Sunset, Wale’s returned with a quick 4 (edit: 3) track EP to tide fans over while he completes his upcoming fifth album Shine. The EP features three freestyles, and previously contained a verse Wale had recorded for Suicide Squad posse cut “Sucker For Pain”. Universal quickly removed the song from Soundcloud, but the other three are still up. Check it out on Soundcloud.
Also released today: Of Montreal, Innocence Reaches; Brendan Canning, Home Wrecking Years; The Pack A.D., Positive Thinking; Thee Oh Sees, A Weird Exits