The start of the year is always a bit slow. People are simultaneously recovering from the holiday season and preparing themselves for the doldrums of the dead of winter. That said, the first quarter always heats up as it comes to a close. Springtime brings new ambitions and new releases, and that’s been especially true this year.
The opportunity to make a name for oneself is especially present in the first quarter of the year, and that’s because nobody expects it. Look at Bossman DLow, for example. He started to bubble up at the end of 2023, but he has really taken control in the early months of 2024.
While everyone else was sleeping, waiting for warmth, DLow was on the grind, steadily dropping singles, eventually culminating in his breakout tape and its accompanying viral hit, “Get In with Me,” an anthem for creators to add to March Madness highlight tapes for under-the-radar big men.
Anyway, I don’t really dabble much in viral tunes, so that’s enough of that. My point is, the first quarter of any year is an opportunity to turn heads without too much competition, and this year was no exception. It has been filled with releases from newcomers and steady grinders ready to drop jaws with their sonic and verbal idiosyncrasies.
So, yeah, get excited. Here are just a handful of the best albums, EPs, and songs of the first quarter of 2024. If I missed anything, keep it to yourself. And if you don’t like it, keep it zipped and try to become familiar with a few standards of taste.
Albums
Zombieland 2 by Loe Shimmy
Loe Shimmy—closely affiliated with Luh Tyler, Wizz Havin, and the rest of the Florida-based Michigan rap swagger jackers—stands out for one reason: versatility. He’s just as comfortable with tumultuous tough talk as he is with close-quartered crooning. On Zombieland 2, he does both better than most rappers do one of them.
As expected, he keeps it uniquely Loe for the duration, at times to a fault, neatly and intricately rapping about the trials and tribulations of Zombieland aka South Florida. As a rapper, he’s captivating for his charm rather than his technical ability, but his ability to shift moods elevates Zombieland 2 over other, more typical regional fare.
The tape is all hits, no shits, but it’s at its best when Loe drops the act and takes a turn toward the real. Across the tape’s 58-minute duration, Loe Shimmy tackles a variety of beats, ranging from R&B-imbued to airlifted out of Detroit, and he eats every single one.
Hell, he even tries his hand at a few drumless beats—something that few rappers outside of the coastal rap cabal would dare—and he kills them, most notably on “X,” where he transforms his high-pitched flow into something pained and soulful.
Suffice to say, Loe Shimmy is really onto something with Zombieland 2, single handedly revealing that Florida rap can be so much more than just a Michigan clone.
Marciology by Roc Marciano
CELEB SHOT from big boss James Barry!
If you like capital-B Bars, and you’ve never listened to Roc Marciano, then this is a pivotal moment in your life as a rap scholar. The man has a deep catalog stuffed with quotables laid down over timeless beats, and Marciology is an excellent entry point into his oeuvre.
Roc Marci is a tastemaker, a connoisseur, a craftsman. He’s a suave technician whose presence on the mic is one of charisma and authority. And he doesn’t just drop bars, he composes and produces his albums too. If you’re already familiar with the Long Island rap polymath, then expect the same consistency he’s delivered for ages on this album.
When it comes to NY rap, Roc Marci is somewhere between the late MF DOOM, also a Long Islander, and Westside Gunn. He mixes the multisyllabic rhymes of DOOM with the luxurious tough talk of Flygod.
His rhymes call to mind images of spotless white tablecloths, grilled red snapper with asparagus, a copy of the writings of Paul Valéry, Cartier glasses, a couple bottles of Wockhardt on ice, a gold Desert Eagle, and an ashtray full of roaches.
Marciology is the goods. Marci even rips a few new flows out of the plastic. It’s 45 minutes of gasface. If you enjoy real NY rap, it genuinely can’t miss.
What A Fucking Nightmare by The Chisel
Sixteen songs in 36 minutes is a long time in the hardcore world. Thankfully, the oi! technicians in The Chisel have the strength to carry their opus What A Fucking Nightmare for at least twice that.
The London, England-based band was founded by ex-Arms Race members Nick Sarnella and Chubby Manning-Walker (of Chubby and the Gang notoriety), who use their shared experience in the scene to craft some of the most infectious, hard-driving punk ever created.
The Chisel have been building steam since the dog days of 2020 and released their debut album Retaliation—a rabid, raucous affair—in 2022. What A Fucking Nightmare turns down the tempo and ferocity of Retaliation (just a touch, though) while turning up the gang calls and singalongs, and the result is truly masterful.
Even for those outside of the punk and hardcore scenes, What A Fucking Nightmare has something for everyone. Don’t believe me? I dare you to listen to “Cry Your Eyes Out” or “Living for Myself” and tell me that I’m wrong. Be sure to look me in the eyes when you try.
Great Doubt by Astrid Sonne
Astrid Sonne has been kicking for a long time. Well, not a long time, but she’s been well-established for a good while. The Danish-born, London-based composer and violist has been releasing music under her own name since 2018, effortlessly melding acoustic instrumentation with electronic soundscapes without the use of vocals.
However, as the similarly-minded Kelly Lee Owens did in 2020 with Inner Song, Sonne decided to flip the script and incorporate her own vocals into her soundscapes on 2024’s Great Doubt. As complicated as the idea of truly “composed” music sounds, the artist does everything in her power to keep things ground-level, and she manages to pull it off with ease.
If Yëat heard this (he’d probably like it, too), he’d ask, “How does she does it?” And he’d be diligent to ask such a thing. I’ll tell you how she does it.
This music should be so inaccessible, but Sonne uses everything at her disposal to ensure that it isn’t. She grabs elements from other genres and, at times, specific songs in order to de-mystify her music, like she does with Mariah Carey’s source material on “Give my all.” She combines her heady, full voice with gentle viola, monolithic bursts of bass, and lighthearted piano stabs. Her lyrics are simple and easy to think about, but they’re never daft, instead encouraging deep exploration.
Sonne worked to ensure that Great Doubt was real music for both real music heads and common folks, and it paid off.
#HEAVENSGATE by evilgiane
SURF GANG, the New York rap collective who stormed the internet in the late 2010s and early 2020s, might be over, but bandleader evilgiane is still doing what he does best: refusing to clear samples and making off-kilter Sample Drill beats at the highest level. His full-length mixtape #HEAVENSGATE is proof of it.
#HEAVENSGATE features a lot of song-flip-type drill beats and drill rappers, but evilgiane uses the tape to show off his range, inviting his friends, both new and old, to join him. In the span of just three songs, he might skip from his classic sound over to Plugg, only to jump right to Jerk, never once crossing his path.
Some of his partnerships don’t make sense (03 Greedo makes two insane appearances), but all of them somehow work splendidly. Everyone brings their A game, from FLEE and K$upreme to LUCY (Cooper B. Handy) and Bear1boss, and each of them helps to make evilgiane’s twisted, pulsating dream become a reality.
100% by LUCY (Cooper B. Handy) and I.V.
Speaking of LUCY, he had his own album drop early in the year. It’s called 100%, released in collaboration with producer I.V.. LUCY has the uncanny ability to drop high quality music at a near-constant clip, and this album is no exception.
LUCY, as ever, is a delightfully challenged singer, and I.V.’s production fits him like a glove. He effortlessly matches every beat’s mood, and keeps things lively by jumping from singing to “rapping” with abandon.
Thanks to I.V., LUCY is at his most unbridled, creatively speaking, on 100%. I mean, why else would he ever attempt to sing and rap on Plugg beats like this?
Extended Plays
Catching Chickens by Nourished by Time
Music “heads” always describe Nourished by Time’s sound as “bedroom pop” or “alternative R&B,” but I couldn’t disagree more with such done-to-death descriptions. The project, helmed by Baltimore’s Marcus Brown, is simply rock music for youngins, viewed through a lens of the late age funk that now-60 and 70 year olds used to enjoy.
Catching Chickens is the perfect continuation of the sound that Nourished by Time introduced with 2023’s Erotic Probiotic 2, priming the act for another stunning full-length release in the near future.
Magic as Usual by ICYTWAT
ICYTWAT is rap’s journeyman producer. He struck gold as the soundsmith for internet rap wunderkinds Divine Council, producing the sensational “DECEMBA” featuring André 3000 back in 2016. Once that ended, he bounced around the scene, only to join A$AP Rocky’s creative group AWGE, providing beats for the likes of Playboi Carti, IndigoChildRick, and Unotheactivist along the way.
Now, he’s struck off on his own as a rapper, and his newest release, Magic as Usual, is the best work he’s ever released. His deconstructed take on the Detroit sound (à la his frequent collaborator Top$ide, the young legend) and his slurred trapper flow make Magic as Usual required listening.
Communique by Clique
Bay Area hardcore luminaries Clique are always pissed off, and rightfully so. Life in the United States ain’t all that cracked up to be, to say the least. So they did the thing that made the most sense for them and created one of the angriest, most impassioned works of musical resistance.
It’s called Communique, and it really isn’t to be taken lightly. Just take a moment and listen to the lyrics (if you can) and instrumentation. Force yourself to learn as you witness what La Clika does best. In other words, this shit fucking rules.
DIME by DIME
DIME appeared out of nowhere in the dead of February. People truly believed that DIME was the reincarnation of Title Fight, but, given that the band is from Miami, Florida, not Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, they were largely mistaken.
They weren’t totally wrong, though. DIME specializes in heart-on-their-sleeve melodic hardcore. They’re damn good at it, too, and it’s only their first record. The tape has everything. It’s snotty, abrasive, angsty, and, above all else, perfectly over-dramatic.
Mo Music by Swoozydolphin
Mo Music is hard to pin down. I mean, it’s obviously hip-hop, but it’s also not. At the heart, Swoozydolphin is a scientist who has dedicated his life to altering the essence of hip-hop into something a little more free-flowing and strange.
Swooz calls this brew “urban surf,” and his newest release Mo Music is a great showcase of what urban surf entails. It has all the bounce and slick talk of hip-hop, but it’s been filtered through a ray of light going through a waterfall.
Singles
“Icy” by Erika de Casier featuring They Hate Change
Houston rap sound distilled into Garage-tinged R&B handwrought by a woman from Copenhagen? Make this one a priority.
“30s” by Soudiere and Lil Xelly
Phonk is a tricky genre to digest, given its association with white-backed internet racism, but France’s Soudiere pulled it off beautifully on “30s,” his Sade-sampling team-up with SoundCloud folk hero Lil Xelly.
“SC-9” by Yahir Saldivar
Yahir Saldivar is a brujo if he can make heads turn the way he did with “SC-9 .” Clearly, his brand of cumbia belíca is not to be overlooked.
“Back2Serve’n” by El Snappo
El Snappo could tell me anything over the bassline of “Back2Serve’n,” and I’d have no choice but believe him.
“Think About It” by Mari Montana, G40, and Yody 4x
Picture this headline: Florida Men Mari Montana, G40, and Yody 4x Run the Three-Man Weave, Detroit Style, Thanks to Producers AngelSzn and Wayne Glenski. Beautiful, isn’t it?
