APRIL 2020

Welcome to the Monthly post, where I lay out everything you may have missed over the past 30 or so days, name an Album of the Month, a Song of the Month, and give a little “state of the union”. Come look at some other Monthly Posts to catch up on previous months. Thank all of you for reading, and happy listening!

My first full month since I’ve been back was a quiet one for me here on Tha Soup Dude’s Kitchen. I took my time making the posts at my own pace this month, thought about how different things were going to work, and, put simply, I wanted to work from inspiration rather than from compulsion. While that means it took a minute to get back into the playlists, and that I only had one write-up this month, I think what I put out was much more in line with what I felt, which is good. Going forward, I’m still going to be taking time, so, as I’ve said many times, follow me on social media to get notifications on when my stuff comes out.

Musically, the month was a solid one for all levels of hip-hop, but the underground has been like a runaway train. Even at my lower consumption rate of music the past month, I still have about 20 projects that I would recommend to anyone, from people like Flee Lord, Daniel Son, Ransom, Tha God Fahim, and Left Lane Didon, among many other. The mainstream definitely took an off month in April, what with all of the COVID confusion throwing off release timeframes, but we did have a couple artists brave the waters: DaBaby and Tory Lanez said “fuck it” and dropped that shit anyway, Playboi Carti attempted to apologize for taking so long on Whole Lotta Red (didn’t go over well on Twitter, but I liked @ MEH), and 4/20 brought out the likes of Smoke DZA and Wiz Khalifa to celebrate the hallowed day. Use my Weekly Fixes (also listed down below), to go back to some previous weeks and find some stuff you might have missed!

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Westside Gunn

Pray For Paris

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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Flee Lord

Made Men (Feat. Conway the Machine)

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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WEEKLY FIXES

Weekly Fix #14 ('20) (with Conway the Machine & The Alchemist’s Lulu and Tha God Fahim, Left Lane Didon, & Jay NiCE’s Dump Life)

Weekly Fix #15 ('20) (with DJ Drama & 24hrs’ 12am in Atlanta and Tory Lanez’s The New Toronto 3)

Weekly Fix #16 ('20) (with Westside Gunn’s Pray For Paris and Nafe Smallz’s Goat Talk)

Weekly Fix #17 ('20) & Week #17 ('20) Playlists (with Smoke DZA’s Worldwide Smoke Session and Wiz Khalifa’s The Saga of Wiz Khalifa)

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WRITE-UPS

Westside Gunn - Pray For Paris [2020]

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I have my Upcoming Heat page (where I lay out in a handy calendar ever project that I see coming in the future) updating regularly now, so you can use this to mark your own calendars for things you’re excited for. Looking into May, we have a couple of big names coming with projects: Ka is coming with Descendants of Cain (already released digitally and I’ve been listening; ungodly good), Big Ghost and Conway the Machine just announced a new collaboration, and Armand Hammer, the dynamic duo of Elucid & billy woods, have a new Lp called Shrines on the way. Last, and most certainly not least, we have the savior of the rap game NAV dropping his next album Good Intentions; rap is over after that one boys and girls, it will be at it’s peak.

Let’s go through the Social Media here, because I want all of your to be able to follow me on your platform of choice to keep up with the shit I’m dropping. First of all, the birthplace of the movement, Drake’s Hidden Children, is my Facebook group; I post random songs on there all the time, and sometimes it’s pulling teeth getting some discussion on there but it’s always worth the effort. Come join and get in on it. We also have my Twitter, probably my favorite platform to engage with, where I will post updates and whatnot; come follow your boy. I have a much better hold on Instagram now, and I’ll post updates on my story all the time, as well as full-blown posts to keep everyone on the same page. Come follow me on the IG for the deets. Lastly, and this isn’t a social media site as much as it is a hugely important space for me to meet like-minded individuals and keep up to date with the game myself, is my RateYourMusic page; you can see a great calendar of releases, see my ratings for hundreds of projects separate from TSDK (as well as rate them yourself), and just see a great list of almost everything I’ve listened to. A great tool that I recommend everyone looking into.

I’m glad to be back. It’s been a long road for me to get to a point where my writing reaches as many people as it does. I had to take a break for myself, but I’m back now and ready to do my thing and listen to some amazing shit (and tell you about it). I’d like to thank everyone who stuck with me, who came back to get into Tha Soup Dude spirit, and those of you who have given me encouragement from way back when this we me screaming into the void on my Drake’s Hidden Children page until now. Music is a sort of rock in my life, something that I’ll probably always be able to lean on, and to be able to share a connection like that will all of you is amazing. Peace to all of you.