New Hip Hop This Week: Statik Selektah, Che Noir, KXNG Crooked, Lucky Daye and More

The posse cut of the week. The Boston DJ and producer puts three very different voices on one sample-heavy beat: Ab-Soul from TDE, Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan and Freddie Gibbs, who has been on Statik records since Population Control in 2011.

It’s the new single from Expensive Taste, his next album, out November 6 on Mass Appeal. The first single, “The Louvre”, had Joey Bada$$, Westside Gunn, Stove God Cooks and Rome Streetz, and the album also lists 2 Chainz, Bruiser Wolf, M.O.P., Killer Mike and Styles P. A month to go, and the cover says it all.

Buffalo’s Che Noir and Black Thought of The Roots have history: he was already on “Hustle Don’t Give”, from her Mello Music Group album with Apollo Brown, As God Intended. This time the beat is by Mathematics, the Wu-Tang Clan’s longtime DJ and producer.

It’s the last single before It Takes A Village, out October 23 on her own label, Poetic Movement. The tracklist is a crate digger’s dream: Havoc, Conductor Williams, Nottz, DJ Design and Chuck Strangers behind the boards, with Ransom and Bruiser Wolf on the mic. “Grandma’s Cookies”, from the same album, was on our Vol. 002.

The Long Beach lyricist, Crooked I before the name change and a former member of Slaughterhouse, goes back to the year he first showed up on wax: his discography lists a 1996 guest spot on the Low Life Gangstas’ “G’s Come Out At Night”.

Eleven tracks, almost all solo. The title track sits right next to “West Coast ’26”, then and now back to back, and the album opens with “Intro - Dayz of the Past”. If you like him over sample-based beats, remember he made a whole album with Statik Selektah as Statik KXNG.

Not a rap record, but made for anyone who samples. The Atlanta-born multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer calls his sound “Hood Jazz”: swing and gospel next to R&B and hip hop, with producer tags, interludes and spoken word in between. He grew up in the church, and his father led a gospel group.

Seventeen tracks with real jazz players: Sun Ra Arkestra leader Marshall Allen does the introduction, Keyon Harrold and Eric Wyatt play on “LOOK TO THE SKY”, Kebbi Williams and bassist Dezron Douglas are in too, and “STAY” with donSMITH was produced by Down To Mars. Grab it for the horns alone.

Stereogum called Blockhead’s beat “idyllic boom-bap”, and that’s exactly it. Singer-songwriter Hanni El Khatib trades the hook with Aesop, and the video, directed by Evan Gütt, sends him on vacation.

It’s the second taste of Trouble Mountain, out November 13 on Rhymesayers: the duo’s second fully collaborative album after Garbology (2021), a concept record about the Poconos resort ads they used to see on New York TV as kids. Open Mike Eagle is on it too.

Illa J is J Dilla’s younger brother, and Calvin Valentine is the producer who made his whole 2018 album John Yancey on Jakarta Records. Calvin has also produced for De La Soul, Nas and IDK.

“20 Years” puts the two of them back together, with 6ix, on Thursday Night Records. A new chapter for the Detroit lineage. More Dilla family in our Dillagence II story.

The R&B album of the week. The New Orleans singer’s first album since joining Warner Records has 15 tracks, and the title plays on “allowed” and “aloud”. Ratings Game Music sums it up as steamy R&B with messy relationship stories.

The guests cross over to rap: Pusha T on “Mouf Say”, Leon Thomas on “Fly U Out”, Muni Long and The Paradox on “Knockin”, Akeem Ali on “Woman First”. The single “Talk To Me” was co-produced by Dimitri McDowell, Corey Cooper and The Hefty Don. The CD ships in November.

The big name of the week, announced on Instagram on Monday with only a few days’ notice. Seventeen tracks, a year after Episodes, which came out on October 17, 2025 with a memoir of the same name.

No big rollout this time: just Gucci, with Summer Walker on “Last night in ATL”, his old partner OJ da Juiceman on “Lambo pass by” and ICE DAVIS on “Priorities”. The cover goes straight for the classic 1017 look.