Noname - Telefone [2016]

In a by-gone era, when visiting the ridiculously big (and now non-existent) Virgin record store in Manhattan was one of the highlights of my life as a young music enthusiast, the first thing that would have drawn me to Telefone would have been the cover. Like many great album covers, the art that accompanies the mixtape makes a statement without words, a statement that, more or less, lets the observer know what the content of this project will be. It's a simple, but powerful image: a young black girl, with flowers in her hand and a skull on her head. She is young, innocent, but weighed down by death - mourning. Telefone is a mixtape that deals with innocence, youth and growth. However, the most interesting - and at times heartbreaking - aspect about Noname's debut is how she juxtaposes the innocence, sonically and lyrically, with the harsh reality, which comes in the form of racism, police brutality and loss.

Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool [2016]

Radiohead knocked it out of the park when choosing the two singles, "Burn The Witch" and "Daydreaming". Outside of the context of this album, they are both quite stellar, and in the case of "Daydreaming", hypnotically beautiful. Aside from that, a listen to this record reveals that these two songs were probably the two most effective, in terms of being a near-perfect teaser trailer for this album. The songs that introduced the public to A Moon Shaped Pool didn't give away too little or too much - they revealed just enough.

Aesop Rock - The Impossible Kid [2016]

Aesop Rock has been at it for a very long time now. The New York native, who is known for his lyricism, which includes crazy rhyme schemes, abstract wordplay and an impressively large vocabulary, released his first record, Music For Earthworms, in 1997. Since 1997, as is natural with the passing of time, Aesop Rock's music has gone through many changes. Over the years he eventually traded the beautifully gloomy beats by Blockhead that were part of what made Labor Days such an intriguing, and generally extremely well received album (to this day the consensus seems to be that it is his "classic") for a relatively faster and harder hitting, albeit still at times quite dark, production style. The key in this change being, that with Skelethon (2012), Aesop, for the first time in his career, handled all of the production himself. Skelethon, one of the best records of its year, confirmed many fans suspicions (he had already produced a good number of beats on his earlier records) that Aes' skills behind the boards are not that far behind his on the microphone.

Kendrick Lamar - Untitled Unmastered [2016]

In the interviews surrounding To Pimp A Butterfly, Terrance Martin revealed that there was an extremely high number of unfinished tracks that were scrapped from the album. In addition to this, during various live performances Kendrick Lamar performed "untitled" songs that were not present on his recent masterpiece, and were, until the release of this "album" believed to be tracks that the general public would never hear outside of those live settings. Those that have followed his TV performances will immediately recognize "untitled 3" and "untitled 8". "untitled 3" remaining a captivating song that explores racial stereotypes, although the recorded session lacks the fire of his Colbert Report performance, and "untitled 8" being a great song with extremely funky and soulful instrumentation, with Kendrick's verses being accompanied by background vocals which sing throughout the entire track.

Oddisee - Alwasta [2016]

It's always nice to see people like Oddisee, a great rapper, producer and a fantastic live performer, drop a free EP out of nowhere. Oddisee has been releasing nothing but quality for a while, with his most recent projects, Tangible Dream and The Good Fight, being very enjoyable. Those records featured a noticeable improvement from him in the rapping department, with Odd growing even more in synch with his production while being more adventurous with his flow and rhyming with well written and thoughtful lyrics. On this EP, we find Oddisse continuing this trend, delivering intelligent, well crafted rhymes over lush production that features tastefully used live instrumentation provided by his backing band, which is comprised of Ralph Real (keyboards and vocals), Dennis Turner (bass), Jon Laine (drums) and Oliver Saint Louis (guitar).