The Best New Hip-Hop This Week includes albums, videos, and songs from 42 Dugg, Eminem, and Killer Mike.
Holiday weeks are notoriously slow for new music releases, but that didn’t stop several hip-hop artists from taking advantage of the open window to get some new songs out there. Notably:
Eminem continued his rollout for The Death Of Slim Shady with the Spider-Man-influenced Michigan posse cut, “Tobey,” featuring Big Sean and BabyTron.
Quavo teamed up with Lana Del Rey after months of speculation to release “Tough,” the pop star’s latest hip-hop collaboration.
French Montana, Fabolous, and Fivio Foreign celebrated the impending launch of their Gotta See It To Believe It Tour with “To The Moon.”
Killer Mike addressed his Grammy Awards arrest in the reflective “Humble Me.”
Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending July 5, 2024.
42 Dugg — 4eva Us Neva Them
The Detroit rapper’s momentum may have stalled as a result of ill-timed incarceration, but that hasn’t stopped him from releasing what he’s calling his official debut album anyway. After his release earlier this year, Dugg hit the ground running, dropping videos for tracks like “Wock N Red” and “N.P.O.” featuring Sexyy Red. The album is 21 tracks with features from CMG labelmates Blac Youngsta and EST Gee, Jeezy, Lil Baby, Meek Mill, Rylo Rodriguez, and the aforementioned Sexyy Red.
P-Lo & Kool John — Moovie! 2: The Yequel
Bay Area indies P-Lo and Kool John link up for 13 tracks of post-hyphy lyrical shenanigans. This probably isn’t your project if you’re looking for a lot of introspection or thought-provoking wordplay; it’s an unabashed party album, with plenty of upbeat bops and bangers to keep you going dumb through the rest of the summer. Guests include fellow Norcal stalwarts ALLBLACK, Iamsu, Kamaiyah, and Nef the Pharaoh.
YTB Fatt — On Zai
West Memphis, Arkansas native YTB Fatt has been on my radar for a minute, slowly but steadily building a buzz in the Southern underground over the past year or so. That buzz has garnered him a few notable co-signs from fellow Dirty South artists like GloRilla, Lil Baby, NoCap, and Rylo Rodriguez, but on his latest, he handles business himself for the majority of the project’s 19 tracks.
Big Moochie Grape — “Fun” Feat. Young Dolph
The owner of one of the best stage names in all of rap music drops a video for a standout from his album, East Haiti Baby: Incarcerated, featuring a posthumous verse from his mentor, Young Dolph. It’s stunning how hard a new Dolph verse can still hit so long after his untimely death, and Mooch makes the most of the moment with this rib-bruising banger.
Chow Lee — “Practice!”
The “sexy drill” movement has been picking up steam lately — largely as a result of the efforts of rappers like Cash Cobain and Chow Lee. The latter makes a play on his new single, “Practice!,” with a video referencing one of the most infamous basketball-related memes of all time and verses addressing just how grimy the dating game can really be these days.
Kyle — “Dirty” Feat. Hit-Boy
Although he’s got a few years of rep as a lightweight pop rapper under his belt, Kyle zigs instead of zags here, employing a soulful instrumental produced by Hit-Boy to address one of his favorite topics — a defunct relationship whose end took him by surprise. Hit-Boy chips in a topical verse of his own, making this something of a departure for both artists — but not too much of one, as they sound completely cozy even outside their supposed comfort zones.