THE GOOD:
1. Blakwizard - Blakwizard: Amazing Seattle beats by Specs with great rhymes from both Silas Blak and Specs (who have solid chemistry together.) LISTEN.
2. Bambu - Brother Hoods: Another quality story-telling entry in Bambu's "Exrcising A Demon" series. The mixture of storytelling raps with spoken word stories is amazing. LISTEN.
3. Dibiase - Bonus Levels: Dibiase is back and he's brought with him some very fun video game instrumentals. He stays true to the theme without letting the gimmick go overboard. LISTEN.
4. Cleen & Kid B - Fresh Air: A slightly darker than normal Cleen album. The general sense of humor is still in full force, however, and Cleen's straight-forward lyricism is about as strong as ever. LISTEN.
5. Mestizo & Meaty Ogre - Barbeque Pt. 1: Meaty's melodic yet muddy beats fit Mestizo's style of rapping perfectly. A nice intermission to the recent more experimental Mestizo sounds (which are great on their own.) LISTEN.
THE BAD:
1. Hines Buchanan & Riddlore - Beat The Shit Out Of You Vol. 3: The third installment in this series lacks the overall quality of the first two. The beats sound a bit too much like unfinished drafts. LISTEN.
2. Skizza - FallSEVENriseEight: Skizza has the bars and ideas to create good albums, but he lacks the conviction and creativity on a lot of these songs. The production is pretty snooze-worthy too. LISTEN.
3. Open Mike Eagle - The New Negroes: There is a lot to like here for sure, but the bad slightly outweighs the good due mainly to OME and his guests rarely being able to get on the same page conceptually. LISTEN.
4. Myka 9 - Prophetic Vision: We are getting so much Myka 9 this year, and there's apparently lots more in store, so it's hard to complain. This EP, however, isn't too memorable. The beats are hollow and the guest list is unimpressive. LISTEN.
5. Scarub - Girls Girls Girls: The poppy beats are pretty cool here as is Scarub's flows and cadences. The content, however, is pretty corny and brings down a lot of the tracks. The hooks are also pretty bad. LISTEN.
[Props to Treidoiuno for hooking Dimxsk with a wantlist entry.]
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