New Hip Hop This Week: Armand Hammer, Aesop Rock & Blockhead, Westside Gunn, Offset and More

The album of the week came out with no warning on Wednesday. Armand Hammer is billy woods and ELUCID, two New York rappers with some of the most demanding writing in rap, and Snakes & Ladders follows last year’s Mercy, their second album with The Alchemist. This time there are no big guest lists: sixteen tracks written and recorded over the winter, and a different producer on every one.

For beatmakers, the credits are the point: clipping., Sebb Bash, Animoss, Child Actor, Messiah Musik, Preservation and Kenny Segal, the LA producer behind billy woods’ Hiding Places and Maps. Start with Segal’s “Send for Me”. It’s out on Backwoodz Studioz, the same label as Mike Ladd’s Nonechosen from Vol. 006, and Ladd plays the record-release show in Brooklyn on November 15.

Two old friends, one sampler. Blockhead made the beats on Aesop Rock’s classic early records, and in 2021 they finally put out a full album together, Garbology. Trouble Mountain is the second one, seventeen tracks on Rhymesayers, loosely built around the TV ads for vacation resorts in the Pocono Mountains that they used to see as kids in New York.

Guests are few: Open Mike Eagle, Hanni El Khatib, Cavalier, Baby Dayliner and 4-IZE. “Coyote Summer” was already in Vol. 003, so this week we play the lead single, “Trouble Trouble”: listen to how Blockhead keeps the loop warm and dusty under all those words. On vinyl, CD and cassette.

The Buffalo boss is back, and this time on a new label: HEELMATIC is his first album with Mass Appeal, next to his own Griselda. Sixteen tracks full of the wrestling jokes he loves (“KOKE SLAM”, “HURT + HEEL”, “TOMMY HEELFIGER”), and a title that winks at Nas’ Illmatic.

The first single, “ZILLA”, with a beat by Denny LaFlare, was in Vol. 004. This week we open the album with “GRANT HEEL”, the first track.

Eight years after the first A Friend of Ours (2018), Benny brings back the crew tape. It is credited to him, his Black Soprano Family and the rapper Fuego Base, who already made Ashes In The Safe with him in April. Ten tracks, short and tough, with Elcamino, Rick Hyde and Sule all over it.

“Elevate” was in Vol. 005. Our pick now is “20 Dollars”, with OT The Real, who had a Harry Fraud record in the playlist last week, and Flames Dot Malik.

Boldy James likes to make whole albums with one producer, from The Alchemist to Nicholas Craven and Conductor Williams. This time it is Roger Goodman, of Royal House Recording in Detroit, who had already produced Boldy’s “Jacksonville”. Twelve tracks, and a cover that looks like the start screen of an old video game.

“Love Me Now” was in Vol. 004. This week we play “50 Summers”, a Detroit posse cut with Icewear Vezzo and Sada Baby.

The West Coast pick. MED is from Oxnard, California, and grew up in the Stones Throw circle next to Madlib; in 2015 he made Bad Neighbor with Blu and Madlib. Believe And Never Grieve is a new solo album, fourteen tracks with BJ The Chicago Kid, ICECOLDBISHOP, Big Twins and the bass player MonoNeon.

Our pick is “Elevation”, with Blu back next to him. MED shows up again below, on “Top Tier” with The Musalini and Khrysis, and Blu too, on André Mego’s “Stay”. On vinyl and CD.

The R&B pick. Snoh Aalegra’s first album since Temporary Highs in the Violet Skies in 2021: thirteen songs written over about two and a half years, about a love that never quite happened.

“I Love You”, with Nile Rodgers and Raphael Saadiq, was in Vol. 004, and “Karma” and “Just Friends” came before. This week we play the title track, “Legendary Love”. On vinyl (180 g LP).

The big release of the week, three weeks late. GMFU was announced for October 23, missed that date and finally lands on Motown: eighteen tracks with Don Toliver, Gunna, Tommy Richman, OsamaSon and, twice, Quavo.

Our pick is the opener, “R4W”, with Quavo. The two Migos already met again this fall on “Away”, from Quavo’s QRÖMELIFE.