Chopped it up with Boots Riley about the difference between activism as spectacle and organized collective action that's focused on tearing down exploitative systems

This guy can write

Honestly Fantastic Damage was the bigger record from this era for me but can ox is a monolith and who better to write about it than @elmattic.bsky.social Great read elmattic.substack.com/p/iron-galac...

Read this, had to immediately fire it up. Mt Rushmore level record

IRON GALACTUS :: ON ‘THE COLD VEIN’ For Can Ox’s 25th (?!), I used Gaussian splatting on its cryptophasic language, reincarnation cycles of b-boy alphas and omega reds, how it created a Mithraic cult, Ubik, pigeons, Music for Airports on 9/11, and so on. open.substack.com/pub/elmattic...

ICYMI: New blog is up. Along with the tunes, there's live sets from Gelli Haha, By Storm, and aja monet, @elmattic.bsky.social on ELUCID & Sebb Bash, @sonraw.bsky.social on POW Radio for dublab, and Fatboi Sharif on The Truth Hurts. And it's the last weekend for my charity giveaway, come through!

SYMPHONY OF THE WORLD :: E L U C I D x SEBB BASH'S 'I GUESS U HAD TO BE THERE' Applied a Eusebian apparatus to the new new by ELUCID x Sebastian Bashmolean. NY nostalgia, cyanometers, Doordash waiting, the soil from your grave is in the karaoke room, etc. open.substack.com/pub/elmattic...

Mentioned this in Dope of the Month Club yesterday, and it's reappeared, so go cop it before it vanishes again. Best instrumental album I've heard in a long while. pawnbroker138.bandcamp.com/album/unadul...

DOPE OF THE MONTH CLUB :: JARCHUARY 2026 Quick one on 10 fire instrumental records: @killerkane.bsky.social @soundconspirator.bsky.social @qnorapname.bsky.social @sascomusic.bsky.social Ol Burger Beats Mr Dibbs Giallo Point @shitaobeat.bsky.social Tenshun open.substack.com/pub/elmattic...

OK FINE I WILL WRITE ABOUT EPMD WHILE DRUNK ON NEGRONIS Came home drunk last night and wrote 1,000 words about the rotisserie chicken of hip hop. open.substack.com/pub/elmattic...

Tardigrade Poplock Monoprint, drypoint etching print, acrylic February 2026 More at www.instagram.com/landof10000t... #printmaking #mixedmedia

Bandcamp Friday is over, but as always, the music don't go stale. Plus, the Bonus Beats section has: - Live sets from Kassa Overall and Digable Planets - Squadda B's audiobook - Newsletter drops from @natalieweiner.bsky.social & @jonnyauping.bsky.social - @elmattic.bsky.social on Dilla And more!

That RZA/Juice Crew record finally came out, it's pretty good? music.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

the first boat always hovers at hand to assist its consort

DON'T SAY GOODNIGHT :: ON DILLA'S "DONUTS" Twenty years since we lost J. Dilla and got "Donuts." open.substack.com/pub/elmattic...

Eating the AI art in protest is ironically more Art than whatever the fuck the ai guy was doing

The Basquiatification of MLK

Found a very early piece of rap writing I did from 2009 on a track from ‘Donuts.’ Holy shit it’s bad, will not be sharing. The point is that some things still live on the internet forever.

Renee Nicole Good’s award winning poem. The last lines are particularly resonant. poets.org/2020-on-lear...

The one tried and true authoritarian trick Trump hasn’t deployed yet is turning off the internet. But he doesn’t need to, because all US tech/social companies have already bent the knee if not gone all in on the agenda. If he does though, check out Bitchat: boingboing.net/2026/01/07/d...

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