The best new hip-hop this week includes albums, videos, and songs from Maxo Kream, Wale, and surprisingly enough, NBA All-Star Kawhi Leonard.
Among the releases this week was a notable new single debut from Flo Milli, who shared “Ice Baby” via a laid-back performance on A COLORS Show.
Friday saw the releases of Big Sean’s “What A Life,” and Lil Tjay’s “Not In The Mood” featuring Fivio Foreign and Kay Flock, and Cozz’s “Fortunate,” along with the releases listed below.
Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending October 22, 2021.
Albums/EPs/Mixtapes
Big Zuu — Navigate
The years-long explosion of new British hip-hop and grime has been impressive, as a once-maligned species of rap music has shown that it can flourish in the streaming era. Big Zuu brings in stalwarts of the genre like D Double E to pay homage as he pushes the genre forward.
BKTHERULA — Love Black
The Atlanta rap rebel continues her mission to utterly upend the conventions of beats and rhymes, delivering a wildly experimental project that shoves the bounds of hip-hop into a whole new corner and bullies them into submission.
Jpegmafia — LP!
After releasing a string of singles and repacking them as EPs, Jpeg finally collects the whole shebang with a few new tracks for his third official album.
Maxo Kream — Weight Of The World
Smartly opting for a traditional Tuesday release, the Houston native left plenty of room to digest his excellent new album, on which he processes the rough past two years and manages to turn pain into poetry.
Mega Ran — Live 95
Among a certain generation of gamers and hip-hop fans, the iteration of the popular game for which this tape is named was the pinnacle of the series. Nerdcore rapper Mega Ran deftly addresses its popularity with this loving homage to a bygone era.
Wale — Folarin II
Wale, Uproxx’s most recent cover artist, has been on a longterm mission to remind fans of the strength of his legacy. His latest album is exhibit A, saluting the records that inspired him and displaying the inarguable mastery of the craft that earned that lofty status.
Various Artists — Kawhi Leonard Presents: Culture Jam (Vol. 1)
NBA star Kawhi Leonard curates a compilation of some of his favorite artists in hip-hop. It’s not bad, featuring a variety of should-be jock jams from a group of some of hip-hop’s finest hitmakers — and some of its burgeoning stars, like BlueBucksClan (who truly belong, with their wild collection of sports references).
Singles/Videos
Dame D.O.L.L.A. — “Right One” Feat. Lil Wayne and Mozzy
The start of the NBA season hasn’t stopped Damian Lillard from getting in one last long-range shot from his off-season hobby, and like many of his logo shots, it’s all money.
Lakeyah — “Loving Me”
Milwaukee’s Lakeyah continues to promote her Gangsta Grillz album, My Time, with another standout.
Dom Kennedy — “Deep Thought”
The LA warm weather wizard releases a fittingly laid-back companion clip for one of his Westside Three standouts.
Problem — “Lionel Richy” Feat. Airplane James
Continuing the narrative from last week’s double dose of new videos, Compton’s Problem drops a flirtatious new single with assistance from another burgeoning West Coast star.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
