I kept hearing from news outlets that Tyler, the Creator’s new album CHROMAKOPIA was going to be released on Monday, October 27 instead of the now typical new release date of Friday, and thatTyler stated he watned people to “live with the album, go to the gym and listen to the album.” The hype was drummed up to a fever pitch with the beautifully directed videos for songs such as “Noid” and “St. Chroma,” and Tyler was taking it old school hip-hop promotion style by dropping a green container with the album title on it in cities such as Atlanta, not only providing plenty of Instagram fodder but giving fans a place to buy merch. This one release from one of the culture’s biggest stars would have been able to satiate my appetite for quality hip-hop, but it was only the beginning of what would be one of the most prolific weeks of quality rap releases in recent memory. 

After all of the news, CHROMOKOPIA I was besieged by multiple Instagram posts from Westside Gunn stating that he would be releasing not one but two projects on November 1st, Stil Praying and the 11 EP, after giving hints of retirement after his previous album And Then Pray For Me. Out of the two, my favorite is Still Praying, which is a  barrage of constant machine gun sounds and lush soul beats that accompany Westside as he doesn’t rap so much as shit talk. The 11 EP is a great complementary project. Shorter and more focused, the EP is inspired by the stories about Sly Green, an alleged drug kingpin from Buffalo who was a focus of a Don Diva article that interestingly enough included a picture with a young and skinny Westside Gunn wearing a 3X tall tee. 

Westde Gunn’s albums release date would be shared with fellow “real hip-hop” comrade turned opposition (via his beef with Benny the Butcher) Freddie Gibbs’ comeback project, You Only Die 1nce.  Freddie marketed his project with a billboard in Los Angeles that listed a functional phone number for fans to call and be greeted by the childhood trauma-inducing voice of Freddy Krueger (voiced by Robert Englund ) talking about the album. The album continues Freddie’s reign as one of the most versatile lyricists that the hip-hop game currently has. In addition to the album, Fredie released a music video for his song “On the Set,” which is a perfect representation of where he is in his life and the personal demons and missteps that he talks about in most of the album. The cover even reflects this theme, depicting a 90s-style cartoon of Freddie fighting ghoulish demons from the underworld. 

After I listened to this album, I needed a musical palette cleanser to wash away some of the darker themes that Freddie touched on. I did not know my request would be answered in the form of a new Jay Worthy album with DJ Fresh that embodies everything, and I mean everything, about the West Coast sound, from LA to the Bay (which DJ Fresh is from). Jay Worthy and DJ Fresh’s The Tonite Show Part 2 cements both artists as two individual entities with some of the most prolific discographies of all rap (Jay Worthy has EPs with The Alchemist, DāM FunK, and Roc Marciano while DJ Fresh has done albums with Freddie Gibbs and Curren$y). This album brings the best of the underworld rap world and samples that could accompany a 70s movie theater playing a doubleheader. The project combines what Jay Worthy and DJ Fresh are the best at, which for Jay Worthy is  the cinematic depictions of the life of a P and navigating Los Angeles street culture, and for DJ Fresh, picking the exact samples that compliment and bring out the landscapes for the movie scenes that Jay Worthy is crafting.  

Crafting a fully fleshed out body of works seemed like it was an ongoing theme for November 1st rap releases, specifically for IDK’s project BRAVADO+INTiMO. IDK has quietly been one of the best rappers of the 2020s, releasing projects such as the criminally underrated F65 (nd he should have gotten a Grammy nomination for Simple., his project with Kaytranada). BRAVDO has IDK diving into his duality – the BRAVADO side being his rapper identity while the INTiMO is based off of Jason, his government name. The album succeeds clearly by following through with this duality concept and providing some really fun moments along the way. My favorite track from the project is the Joey Bada$$ featuring “Denim,” where IDK flexes his original Pierre Jeanneret couch. 

Three other projects released on November 1st would round out the spectrum of projects. Kodak Black’s Dieuson Octave and Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake 2 were projects that saw established artists from the Soundcloud generation take fans back to that era. Kodak’s album sounds like it could be a continuation of his Project Baby series with all of the reality raps about being a staple in his community, whether he’s willing to accept that title or not. Lyrically, he still has the same depth and sharpness that we expect from Kodak, even though those qualities may not have been reflected in his most recent appearance on Kai Cenat’s stream. On the surprise sequel Eternal Atake 2, Lil Uzi has heard all of the critiques from his core fanbase and has reverted back to his 2016/17 flow. One of my favorite tracks so far (and a crowd favorite) is the song “Light Year (Practice),” in which he raps in rapid succession like a battle rapper from his native Philly.

While there has been a lot of talk amongst the hip-hop community that the genre is dead and that there needs to be a shift if we want to survive as a dominant genre, November 1st felt like a good step in the right direction – an entire slate of projects with depth and, most importantly quality. If hip-hop can string together a couple of more release dates that are this prolific and show off the entire spectrum of the genre, we might see the youth build off of that to create something that extends that spectrum and makes the culture even more vibrant.