Best of The Month – February 2024

The iconic Brooklyn figure, with a past also as a G-Unit affiliate, Uncle Murda returned with a new album that was long awaited and needed from the streets of the Big Apple, entitled “Lenny Grant Story”. If, in fact, Uncle Murda will perhaps never be remembered for being a super lyrical MC like others that the tradition of BK and the city could boast, few NYC rappers in the last decades can bring an aura of respect, both in the streets and in the music scene, as Uncle Murda. Integrity, charisma and authenticity on the microphone and on the corners have allowed him to still be one of the most authoritative and respected figures on the New York scene. “Lenny Grant Story” exemplified exactly all this through the music and its rhymes: Uncle Murda preaches facts on the current state of the “Streets” and considerations on his present and past life with the charisma of an O.G. now retired from a certain type of life, but with certain principles and values ​​still firmly held. All validated by collaborations of the same fiery caliber, from Jadakiss to 50 Cent, passing through Conway, Benny and Styles P.

A peculiar, distinctive and honorable characteristic of the French rap scene is that of being able to often offer realities that manage to combine public success with the extreme rawness of the music and the harshness of their messages, avoiding filters and compromises. The colonial past and a strongly classist urban reality, where masses of young people from second and third generations of migrants live ghettoized in the blocks of enormous banlieues, perhaps partly paint the picture. Thus rappers like the Franco-Congolese, recognizable also for his albinism, Kalash Criminel became the raw voice of the discomfort and marginalization of millions of young people and not only, uniting under the same cause and representing the anger of both the French children of migrants and of fellow Africans. Kalash Criminel in Bon Courage proved all his talent and experience by interpreting different flows and sounds to his liking, which however maintain the strength of the message and the harsh and violent atmospheres as the common denominator throughout the album.

The New York underground is alive and well thanks also to the intelligence of its protagonists who, after having deservedly managed to create a position for themselves sitting  in the most important conversations and circles of the underground, left the door open behind them, in turn giving other deserving artists the chance to have a seat at the table. Thus an intertwined network of emcees and producers rowing in the same direction was created. This is what, for example, The Musalini did by bringing  to his label Pharaoh Music Izzy Hott who now has an important hand to play his cards. His new project entirely produced excellently by John Dutch, IZ What It IZ, transmits 100% New York vibes with street lyricism and classically raw atmospheres.

The originality of style while respecting tradition is perhaps one of the cornerstones of Hip-Hop culture and is a concept that both the New York emcees YL and Starker, have always embodied with their music both in the different projects created together and separately. The reinterpretation and evolution of some classic canons of the New York school, with sounds sampled by soul and rhythm’n’blues and often revisited down to the essentials, in a drumless or minimal cut, are enriched with new flows and original styles, especially in the case of Starker, but always keeping alive the New York street lyricism tradition. In Diamond Collection the production is entrusted to some of the best producers of the current East Coast underground scene (from DVNT to LookDamien! and Zoomo to name just a few), while YL and Starker alternate on the microphone with their opposite and complementary styles, using their voices like spray cans. It is no coincidence that rapper (with Italian blood) Starker a.k.a Ghostnace Killah also has a solid background in the New York graffiti scene.

In addition to several of the most renowned and prestigious star chefs in the world, Spain can boast, for several years now, two of the most sought-after and tasty culinary excellences in terms of beats and productions, not only on the European scene, but all over the world: the Cookin’ Soul. In their CV they can brag dozens and dozens of mixtapes and collaborations with well respected emcees from all over the globe, as well as hundreds of excellent remixes. Their classic taste immediately led them to become interested in the “new” American underground wave, collaborating with some exponents of this scene. Last in order of release is “Supreme Dump Legend: Soul Cook Saga” in collaboration with the Atlanta rapper Tha God Fahim, known for his past together with the early Griselda Records. The “Dump” Gawd with his unique style meets the samples cooked for the occasion by the Spanish producer duo, serving us listeners delicious dishes.

Imagine finding yourself walking on a windy, dark and cold street in Toronto with the feeling of being followed by some infamous guys: this is the atmosphere that you can somehow perceive while listening to “Filthy Plea”, the latest project by KNG Bondalero, producer and mc of No Face Krew, reunited for the entire duration of the tape. The rough, powerful and menacing beats and raps of KNG Bondalero and his cronies, all with their faces covered, will make you feel the cold in your veins.

The French beatmaking duo Just Music Beats (known for their collaborations with fellow rappers such as Deen Burbigo, Veerus, Akhenaton and Benjamin Epps among others) choose to take us on a dark, grimey and intimidating journey through the blocks of the Parisian banlieue of Quartier Nord in Villeneuve Saint George (Paris), area of ​​the rapper Tookie. The glacial productions of Just Music Beats create the perfect soundtrack for the raw voice and rhymes of the Parisian rapper, giving us a project with dark gray atmospheres and rough bars that perfectly describe the urban environment of the concrete blocks of the banlieue, in one style that winks at the “prime” Griselda, but with a decidedly Parisian flavor.

One of the biggest limits of the Italian scene is poverty in terms of what in the USA usually is known as “Grown Man rap”. Good underground Rap, that is, without commercial gibberish, which neither annoys the listener with depressive cries of any boring pop songwriter, nor is it a continuous loop of clichés on fake criminal behavior or self-referential technicism. Payback, the new album by Rak, a Roman MC member of Barracruda, edited in production by Kamyar, represents exactly what the Italian scene is often missing, in our opinion. Rak in Payback offers that “streets” approach, philosophy and vision that Hip-Hop has in its DNA, with which to deal with complex or less complex issues of everyday reality, telling his own experience , always and in any case “kicking ass” on the microphone with style, and without the need for whining or fake-gangster carnival masks for kids. In short, some good grown man rap.

We know that the music industry in Italy, as in many other environments, if you don’t want to compromise, kiss asses or sell off your artistic coherence or, worse, your moral integrity, relying only on your means, you have to work a lot, maybe harder of elsewhere, to earn at least just one chance. And this is what the members of this newborn “collective”/music label called Stakanov Boys, founded by Montenero and Hvgme, are trying to do, uniting under a single flag the efforts of Italian emcees and producers with the same intentions, artistic vision and morals. All united by the fact that they know that here no one gives anything to anyone for free. This first project features the participation of Jampa Ak, Kazawi, Pessimo 17, Davide Bates, Rotsy Tiem, Terrasanta, Kazawi, Shak3, Doye, Krimson Beats, Ford78, Fat Fat Corfunk, Dj Rage, as well as obviously Montenero and Hvgme. The result? An industrial amount of bars, hustle and attitude!