if you like beats &/or hip hop at all this is one of the most important things you can read this year

2026 gonna be “Sartre in heels,” according to the One Who Got Away.

Elmattic has some good lists for the year, I was especially glad to see this one focused on instrumental hip hop. The Sound Conspirator's album is in such a weird headspace, reminded me a little bit of Dymaxion, so glad to know about this!

I wrote a ton of stuff this year, starting with that weird one-of-a-kind Wu album. elmattic.substack.com/p/what-we-th...

The Best Rap Singles of 2025 www.passionweiss.com/2025/12/26/t...

ILL TRUE MENTALS :: BEST OF 2025 Once again on my Bernie Sanders shit asking you to listen to instrumental hip hop. Top five of the year: @soundconspirator.bsky.social You're All Cowards Tenshun DDay One Kassa Overall elmattic.substack.com/p/ill-true-m...

You're probably not going to find my No. 1 album of 2025 on anyone else's Best Of Hip-Hop/Rap list. But I can tell you that the artists who've topped some of CABBAGES' previous year-end lists are now staples of other outlets'/journos' year-end lists. So... www.cabbageshiphop.com/2025-best-hi...

Elmattic doesn't miss when it comes to the 'best of' writeups.

Highly recommend this new joint from @soundconspirator.bsky.social Dark beats and paranoid samples. Beauty in the murk. (Also I did the cover art.) thesoundconspirator.bandcamp.com/album/ingrai...

FEAR & LOATHING IN CHARM CITY :: BEST OF 2025 Wrote about my five top albums of the year--the most necessary, the dimension of the present: Infinity Knives x Brian Ennals DJ Haram Sunmundi x Sasco billy woods Gabe 'Nandez x Preservation open.substack.com/pub/elmattic...

Killah Priest just out here Killah Priesting to the fullest extent

Stella Maris

Decided my autobiography should be called “One Ball Ache After Another.”

RAP DREAM JOURNAL, 2023-2025 Other people's dreams are boring, but dreams with rappers in them are pretty good. open.substack.com/pub/elmattic...

They’re also running ICE recruitment ads. It took me five minutes to transfer playlists to YouTube Music—and the sound is noticeably better too. You have no excuse.

Look what I became, god don’t make mistakes see youtu.be/6TX0kaDKBzo?...

The Passenger

Moloch whose love is endless oil and stone! Moloch whose soul is electricity and banks! Moloch whose poverty is the specter of genius! Moloch whose fate is a cloud of sexless hydrogen! Moloch whose name is the Mind!

Yes, it's October, but we're opening up the CABBAGES Readers' Poll ballot box to take your votes for the year's best of the best in independent hip-hop/rap music. www.cabbageshiphop.com/announcing-t...

Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men!

The Sound Conspirator el pánico de Satanás October 2nd Bandcamp October 3rd streaming

DOPE OF THE MONTH CLUB :: AUGTEMBER 2025 Wrote about ten recent joints from: Gabe 'Nandez x Preservation @premrock.bsky.social x Curly Castro x co. Fatboi Sharif $ilkmoney Tokyo Cigar x Son Raw Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire Cool Calm Pete elmattic.substack.com/p/dope-of-th...

an extensive (with links) guide of resources for movement resistance compiled by various collectives & individuals that might be of use to those on the front lines & on the ground. suggest you keep this separately in a searchable bookmark format.

I was OK with all the “I was -5 years old when Criminal Minded dropped” people but having a tough time with “I was -5 years old when The Cold Vein dropped.” (Those people are 19 years old btw.)

Uploads e-books directly to app stores too. Get ready for a tsunami of slop, everywhere in everything.

New @shitaobeat.bsky.social joint remixing AKAI SOLO with some Odyssey type beats, check it shitao.bandcamp.com/album/lone

I know time happens…things happen…actors are not their characters…but just really depressed to learn the (now grown up obviously) little girl in Ghost Dog has an OnlyFans now.

There’s no algorithm here. Just your book in front of real readers. Submit to #PIL now. #PromoteIndieLit 🔗

Album of the Week: Shrapknel have delivered three new albums with three different producers - 'Lincoln Continental Breakfast,' 'Saisir le feu', and 'Armature', each showcasing a different side of their overwhelming, thrilling hip-hop sound www.treblezine.com/s...

Madlib (except for the DOOM records.)

We back up. What's Good is live with new joints from Gabe 'Nandez & Preservation, Evidence, Marissa Nadler, Sudan Archives, Recoechi, The Cool Kids, and much much more. Tap in with me, if you would. blog.djregular.tech/whats-good-w...

Eyeopening walkthrough of DC by this creator. If you aren’t in DC, worth a watch all the way to the end—

This is why AI can never replace genius copywriting and where can I stream this show immediately

"This is why those 'P.S.K.' drums had to be so huge, so block-rocking [...] The drums thud, they echo, they overlap, they stop and start, Godzilla foot drums" elmattic.substack.com/p/saturday-n... @elmattic.bsky.social

Words of advice for young people youtu.be/aia3b1AFcTU?...

SATURDAY NIGHT! THE PHILOSOPHY For the 40th anniversary of “P.S.K.,” I wrote about Schoolly D, my man Psycho Willie, the Apollonian and the Dionysian, and doing dumb shit as a philosophy. open.substack.com/pub/elmattic...

been saying this a lot in interviews lately, but i really think convincing ppl to offload putting any thought into what they want to listen to via chatbot-style prompts is as corrosive to culture as the existence of the velvet sundown or whatever (from spotify blog post)

Movie fans do this bullshit too, but I never seen anyone criticize a novelist for not getting bookstore end-of-aisle placement or claim James Patterson is the GOAT novelist because he’s the highest selling. Same for Jeff Koons in the art world. Shut the fuck up.

“Beside Myself” is a top 5 of the year for me, so definitely gotta tap in with this.

She’s Gotta Have It (dir. Spike Lee, 1986)

TODAY’S MATHEMATICS Everyone can go fuck themselves

Today I learned there was an MC in Grand Wizzard Theodore’s group called “Waterbed Kevie Kev.”

On the 30th anniversary of Raekwon’s OB4CL, I pulled from the archives and re-upped my full talk with the chef where he revisited his masterwork and broke everything down track-by-track. davidma1.medium.com/ob4cl-turns-...

I miss Immortal Technique. youtu.be/v6MfVELJYDg?...

The New York Times really wrote about hip hop in 1987 in an 1877 style. I love the insistence that it’s “L.L.” and elsewhere in the article “D.J.”

Decimal decider at Pitchfork, whether an album is 7.6 or 7.7.