Still one of the best indie hip hop labels going. I have alerts set for Bandcamp to let me know when new projects are dropping, but even then things still get by me due to the sheer volume of music dropping.

Inspired by the next Mello Music Group compilation album dropping April 2nd.
Bandcamp: https://mellomusicgroup360.bandcamp.com/album/bushido

First two singles dropped the last few weeks (both streamable at the link above)
Joell Ortiz, Namir Blade, Stalley & Solemn Brigham - Black Rock
Oddisee - No Trouble

L'Orange & Namir Blade - Imaginary Everything dropping May 7th. First single "Corner Store Scandal" is streaming on Bandcamp: https://lorange360.bandcamp.com/album/imaginary-everything

While we wait for those, anything MMG dropped in 2020 stand out?

they have some pretty good artists on their roster.

shout out to their store too. i ordered two albums last november. i reached out for updates in january with no response. i opened a ticket with paypal and mello refunded me but still sent out the albums. they said they had sold out and were waiting on restocks. i got them a couple weeks ago. i do wish they had responded before i reached out to paypal. i would have just waited but its still cool that they sent out the records. it makes me more likely to reorder and i will be more patient next time if needed lol

...great label, have supported them from virtually day one. That said, they are starting to slip quality wise. Don't think I have purchased anything from them since the INCREDIBLE Pete Rock/Skyzoo joint. They set a high bar with all those great Oddisee releases. More him, being more picky about their releases/artistic signings, and I'm sure they can bring it back...

>That said, they are starting to slip quality wise. Don't
>think I have purchased anything from them since the INCREDIBLE
>Pete Rock/Skyzoo joint. They set a high bar with all those
>great Oddisee releases.

I mean... Retropolitan's only a year and a half old and their major releases since then include:

Quelle Chris - Innocent Country 2
Marlowe - Marlowe 2
Apollo Brown and Che Noir - As God Intended
Apollo Brown - Sincerely, Detroit
Homeboy Sandman - Dusty
L'Orange and Jeremiah Jae - Complicate Your Life with Violence
Joell Ortiz & KXNG Crooked - H.A.R.D.

(I'm sure I'm missing some)

Plus branching out into some new more r&b-ish terrain with:
Seba Kaapstad - Konke
Namir Blade - Aphelion's Traveling Circus

None of those are bad to my ears and a few are really good to great. I'd say that's a pretty good track record.

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

The beats seemed too much like generic electronic dub on first listen, but maybe it's just because I'm used to Elucid over stuff that's rougher around the edges.

I really liked:

Marlowe 2
Innocent Country 2
As God Intended
Don't Feed the Monster
H.A.R.D.
Both Dueling Experts albums
Your Birthday's Cancelled
Milestones

That's a solid output for any year.

And I'm really looking forward to the new comp. and the new L'Orange and Namir Blade.

What in the FUCK???

Was that line something about baby dicks? I remember it in passing and thinking, "I might need to go process that later..." lol

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

"I'm only sucking baby dicks when they're circumcised"

I've tried and tried to get into this guy and he is just a fucking dweeb.

Not good at picking beats, not good at writing actual songs, couldn't compose a hook to save his life, etc.

Now he's adding terrible/gross shock raps to his style?


Big yikes.

Not really feeling the rest of these besides the Nottz Zero Fux Remix which is from 2019.. This LP needs some harder drums and less tippy toes beats

I'm thinking they could have either left this one on the shelf or trimmed it by half -- there's some straight filler here and a few songs that might be cool the first time but feel more like novelties than anything (Turnt Garveyite -- I hope Murs and GAM work together again soon, though).

The number of tracks that stand on their own is ... on the smaller side.

Or maybe it just needs some resequencing -- or maybe some of these tracks just don't go well together.

BUT

Oddisee's No Trouble is *great* and both verses are top-notch, probably marking a few of my favorite verses so far this year. That second verse especially has a couple lines that just hit right.

The other Oddisee tracks and the Open Mike Eagle, Skyzoo, and Marlowe tracks are great, too. And I like Iron Steel Samurai (Quelle Chris/Alchemist) but it does feel a bit out of place here. (Again, sequencing.)

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

https://mmg-skyzoo.bandcamp.com/album/all-the-brilliant-things

he had mentioned about a year ago he was basically done with it. he even played a snippet of a song from it back then which sounded dope.

it seems this is one he feels he has put more into than his previous albums. pretty much all his previous albums have been dope too. his two EPs last year were among the best music released last year.

yep, im excited.

Bandcamp: https://apollobrown360.bandcamp.com/album/lovesick
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0IGhLu87d8JEwnk3qJ2VHx?si=cH3ZfhxRSKaKcasMXHq9fA

finally got around to it and i love all of it. it does have some corny/cringe lyrics but its still pretty great.

That just jumped off the page at me on first listen.

Is all R&B like this now? Did those absurd late 00’s R. Kelly songs become the standard?

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I don’t care how good the music/singing is, I can’t take this shit seriously at all.

there are some songs that are completely ridiculous others only have a couple of lines.

it did give me a late 90s vibe. i think recent R&B has had the ladies being very explicit and vulgar. i dont know if anymore than the guys are but i think that wasn't a common thing before. id say this album is further out than most typical current R&B albums but not by a lot.

we'll see if the lyrics end up killing the replay value for me.

I was a big R&B fan in the 90s/early 00s, but I was also a kid/college student so the growing lyrical absurdity that you’d get from some of the artists didn’t bother me.

These days I basically only listen to Foreign Exchange when it comes to R&B related music, so I really don’t know what’s out there anymore.