New Hip Hop This Week: Apollo Brown & Skyzoo, Kiefer, Blu & Fate, Rapsody and More

The album of the week. Ten years after The Easy Truth, the Detroit producer and the Brooklyn emcee reunite for 14 tracks about the price of ambition, with Elzhi and Blu joining on the standout posse cut “The Blind Spot”.

Pure, grown boom bap: dusty soul loops, heavy drums and Skyzoo writing like he’s keeping a ledger. We went deep on it in our full Luxury Tax review.

The L.A. pianist and beatmaker, who built his name on Stones Throw with records like Happysad and It’s Ok, B U, makes his Blue Note debut as a leader. Memory Bomb is 13 tracks where jazz harmony, hip hop drums and L.A. beat culture meet, co-produced with longtime collaborators CARRTOONS and Shibo.

The guest list is deep: drummer Nate Smith, saxophonist Walter Smith III, Moonchild’s Amber Navran, Relyae, Luke Titus and more. For producers, it’s a masterclass in chords that swing.

Blu and Fate, the duo behind 2016’s Open Your Optics to Optimism, are back together on “Time”. It lands the same week Blu shows up on Apollo Brown and Skyzoo’s “The Blind Spot”, a great reminder that the California emcee is still one of the most consistent writers in the underground.

GENA’s “Lead It Up”, with Liv.e on vocals and drummer-producer Karriem Riggins, gets the KAYTRANADA treatment: bouncy, swung drums and that signature warm low end. Riggins finished J Dilla’s The Shining, so this one has a direct line to the Dilla legacy.

Kembe X teams up with Black Hippy’s Ab-Soul and TDE singer Zacari on an atmospheric, lyric-heavy record about self-control and the moments before a decision you can’t undo. The beat stays brisk and drum-forward, with just enough stray sounds to keep the loop alive.

Yes, new Strange Fruit Project. The Waco, Texas crew of producer-emcee S1 (Symbolyc One, who co-produced Kanye West’s “Power”), Myth and Myone return with a banger built for the cypher, and North Carolina’s Rapsody brings the fire. One of the hardest drums of the week.

The Atlanta duo of Johnny Venus and WowGr8 drops a warm, easy groove made for late summer. Johnny Venus also has a solo record in this week’s playlist, “SARAHTONIN”, if you want more of that voice.

The North London R&B artist keeps his Tottenham roots close on a nine-track EP with KAYTRANADA, Blxst and Jordan Ward. The title track with Blxst connects Tottenham and South Central L.A., and it also soundtracks Tottenham Hotspur’s 2026/27 kit launch. “Kacey” with Jordan Ward is the other one to save.

Toronto’s finest returns with Firestarter Vol. 2, and its second track is a statement: Black Thought trading bars with Kardinal, and Stove God Cook$ on the hook, on a militant reminder that it’s never too late to address the injustices of the past.