HipHopDX is back with another edition of New Music Friday, a weekly round-up of the best fresh albums from Hip Hop and R&B.
With Thanksgiving around the corner and the new year inching closer and closer, this mid-November list features artists pumping out a bit more heat as the weather continues to cool. Kicking things off this week is West Coast rapper Roddy Ricch with the third installment of his Feed Tha Streets series.
From there, we head to Memphis where Key Glock honors the one-year anniversary of his cousin Young Dolph’s tragic death with his new PRE5L EP. Also included on this list is Saweetie’s comeback EP The Single Life, Busta Rhymes’ The Fuse Is Lit and a double dose of BROCKHAMPTON music with The FamilyTM, their supposed final albums.
AD LOADING...
Check out the full list of new albums released on Friday (November 18) below.
Roddy Ricch — Feed Tha Streets 3
Roddy Ricch ascended to rap’s hierarchy with a blistering pace. His Feed Tha Streets II helped propel him from a local influence in Compton to a true force to be reckoned with. But it was his verse on Nipsey Hussle’s “Racks in the Middle” and Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial which proved that Ricch was capable of functioning at the highest level in all of Hip Hop.
AD LOADING...
After a tepid reception to his 2021 project LIVE LIFE FAST, Ricch vowed to make fans right. His latest album, Feed Tha Streets 3, aims to do just that: recenter the “Ballin'” rapper as one of the game’s most elite.
Saweetie — The Single Life (EP)
Busta Rhymes — The Fuse Is Lit (EP)
Ahead of the release of Busta Rhyme’s latest drop, an EP titled The Fuse Is Lit, the 50-year-old New York legend dropped the lead single “Slap” alongside Griselda’s Conway the Machine and one of rap’s most heralded godfathers, Big Daddy Kane.
AD LOADING...
The Fuse Is Lit, aside from last year’s rerelease of The Coming on its 25th anniversary, marks Busta’s first new body of work since 2020’s Extinction Level Event. Before that, one would have to scroll back to 2009’s Back On My B.S. to find fresh tracks. Busta has been rapping and releasing music since the mid 1990s and his new resurgence gives hope that he has no plans of stopping any time soon.
Key Glock — PRE5L (EP)
Key Glock and Young Dolph were one of the most exuberant and thrilling duos in all of rap. Their natural chemistry oozed out of the music, revealing that the two rappers, also cousins, shared an intense bond. Following the horrific murder of Dolph in 2021, Glock has made it a mission to keep his legacy alive, frequently dedicating new releases to him and speaking his name wherever possible.
AD LOADING...
PRE5L, the latest drop from the PRE rapper, continues to uplift his lost partner in a way he would know and appreciate: hard raps over trunk-rattling beats.
Rod Wave — Jupiter’s Diary: 7 Day Theory
Rod Wave’s a rapper, but at times his booming melodic sound more closely resembles blues. All fans of the Florida MC know of the songs which first broke him through (“Heart On Ice” and later “Rags2Riches 2” with Lil Baby), but his discography runs far deeper than a few loose singles.
AD LOADING...
Through albums such as PTSD and Ghetto Gospel from 2019, 2020’s Pray 4 Love and this year’s Beautiful Mind, Wave has stood apart from the crowd as one of the preeminent voices in the game. Now he’s back with Jupiters Diary: 7 Day Theory, his second album of 2022 which is nice and tight with eight tracks.
BROCKHAMPTON — The Family
BROCKHAMPTON, the boy-band/rap group which first took off through the three volumes of the SATURATION series, which contained songs like “BLEACH,” “FACE,” “BOOGIE” and “SWEET,” has tossed back and forth the idea of retirement. While it seems that frontman Kevin Abstract (and potentially some of the other members in the large crew) will continue releasing music in a solo capacity, their latest album, The Family, will serve as the group’s last.
AD LOADING...
Spanning 17-tracks, The Family aims to end the circle the same way it started: through bouncing, exuberant raps, quick hand-offs and playful melodies.
BROCKHAMPTON — TM
Juicy J & Lex Luger — Crypto Business
Dave East & DJ Drama — Book of David
Dave East is the star of his latest album Book of David. He handled the entire 17-track project without a feature, backed completely by production from Buda & Grandz and Mike Kuz. But the highlight of the project is still the inclusion of Gangsta Grillz Boss DJ Drama.
AD LOADING...
DJ Drama experienced a career renaissance after his work on Tyler, The Creator’s masterful CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST. In the following years, Drama when on a prolific run, working with everyone from YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Dreamville to Jeezy and now New York’s Dave East.
38 Spesh & Harry Fraud — Beyond Belief
Rochester, New York-born rapper 38 Spesh is dedicated to connecting his unique contemporary sound with the styles of classic boom-bap rap. His appreciation for Hip Hop’s canon can be clearly seen on past projects such as Interstate 38, The Trust Tape and TimeServed, where he rapped alongside MCs such as French Montana, Chinx, Gucci Mane, Griselda’s Benny The Butcher and many more.
AD LOADING...
On Beyond Belief, Spesh’s most recent offering, the rapper has teamed up with sample-heavy producer Harry Fraud for a tape which will please new fans and old heads alike.
Destroy Lonely — NS+ (ULTRA)
When he first began to bubble-up from rap’s underground, many saw Destroy Lonely as a Playboi Carti biter. Of course, the Atlanta rapper is signed to Carti’s Opium Records, so it’s only natural that his sound is similar. But despite their similarity, calling Destroy Lonely a clone is a crude reduction of the rapper’s ethos.
AD LOADING...
Following the release of his latest album NO STYLIST, which featured breakout hits such as the album’s title track, “VETERAN” with Ken Carson and “VTMNTSCOAT,” Lonely is now back with the deluxe edition titled NS+ (ULTRA).
Westside Boogie — More Black Superheroes (Deluxe)
Dougie B — Nobody Bigger
Kaash Paige — S2ML
Rich Homie Quan — Family & Mula (Reloaded)
Fousheé — softCORE
Phony Ppl — Euphonyus
There are also several highlights in this week’s New Music Friday singles coverage, including new tracks from Pharrell and Travis Scott, Don Toliver, Chance The Rapper, Chris Brown, the late Young Dolph and more.
AD LOADING...
Stay up-to-date with the latest Hip Hop and R&B releases here and peep HipHopDX’s2022 Rising Stars update, highlighting the achievements of Doechii, Nardo Wick, Coi Leray and others.
