NOVEMBER 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!
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We have reached the end of another long (it just kept dragging on and on didn’t it?) and partially miserable month, one that has, again, tested our limits. However, like all of the other months this year, there was something out there that was able to keep us tethered to sanity, or rather large quantities of somethings, usually released on Fridays: music. NO I am not talking about fucking Christmas music, which once again has flared up like a bad hemorrhoid, but rather I’m speaking about hip-hop. When I think about shit that has gotten me through some of my worst times, hip-hop music is always there at the top of the list, and this month was absolutely no different. It seems like music is almost a requirement for me at this point during the holidays, the worst time of the year in my personal opinion as a retail worker by day, music scholar by night… and by day… it’s very tiring.
But yeah there was a lot of music this month, and like most months it shakes down between the mainstream and underground portions of the genre pretty even if I do say so. The trap/pop records came out in force: NAV and Wheezy started off the month great with Emergency Tsunami, SAINt JHN followed up his last Ghetto Lenny tape with the bombshell While The World Was Burning, NLE Choppa got somewhat spiritual on us with his From Dark to Light album, Rory Fresco has a fascinating new LP with CashMoneyAP (a close runner up for my Album of the Month I might add, check the shit out), and, last but certainly not least, Russ has a new EP that shows a rapping skill (and cosign garnishment skill) that he has never shown before.
There was an evenness like I said, so the Underground (The Abyss for those of you who remember) responded in kind: Flee Lord got No More Humble Fashion in for November (making it his 11th for 2020), Rome Streetz and Farma Beats assembled once again to make Kontraband, Aesop Rock has another hit with Spirit World Field Guide, Nicholas Craven and Ransom dropped another project of absolute flames, Statik Selektah brings back those smooth hip-hop vibes on his album The Balancing Act (congratulations on my Album of the Month award by the way), and Roc Marciano steps out from the shadows again to deliver another sterling product with Mt. Marci.
I want to make sure that attention is brought down to my Single of the Month, a track called Stockholm Syndrome off of Russ’ new EP CHOMP. Russ’ rapping ability is mighty impressive on this track, I’ve got to give him credit… but goddamn that KXNG Crooked verse might be one of the best things I’ve heard this year. It’s more than just fast or technical rapping, the shit is enlightening to the ways of the music industry. I don’t think I’ve heard a more perfect verse this year if I’m being honest, so you go make sure to check out that track.
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Russ (Feat. KXNG Crooked)
Stockholm Syndrome
Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music
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WEEKLY FIXES
Weekly Fix #45 ('20) & Week #45 ('20) Playlists (with NAV & Wheezy’s Emergency Tsunami and Primo Profit & Michaelangelo’s Ransom Blvd)
Weekly Fix #46 ('20) & Week #46 ('20) Playlists (with Rory Fresco & CashMoneyAP’s Rare Form and Ransom & Nicholas Craven’s Deleted Scenes)
Weekly Fix #47 ('20) & Week #47 ('20) Playlists (with Roc Marciano’s Mt. Marci and Russ’ CHOMP EP)
Weekly Fix #48 ('20) & Week #48 ('20) Playlists (with Statik Selektah’s The Balancing Act and Juicy J’s THE HUSTLE CONTINUES)
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SINGLES
Week #45 ('20) Singles (with JID’s Ballads and Vado’s Checkmate)
Week #46 ('20) Singles (with Your Old Droog’s Pravda and RJ Payne’s Beautiful Murder)
Week #47 ('20) Singles (with Hit-Boy’s Salute and $tupid Young’s Supposed To)
Week #48 ('20) Singles (with D Double E’s DON and SAINt JHN’s Smack DVD)
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ART APPRECIATIONS
Week #45 ('20) Art Appreciation (Featuring work from le_daltonien)
Week #46 ('20) Art Appreciation (Featuring work from Huey P. and Jacob Rochester & Jack McKain)
Week #47 ('20) Art Appreciation (Featuring work from KidSuper and RLX)
Week #48 ('20) Art Appreciation (Featuring work from Manuel “Cep” Concepcion)
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And there you have it: the month of November come and gone. Fuck you Thanksgiving! I can’t wait to stress about you next year…
December has some great projects lined up that y’all should have your eyes on. Trust Gang and their affiliates are set to have this month packed: Che Noir already got an album out, but we’re still waiting on 38 Spesh to drop two different albums (1995 and Interstate 38), Ransom has another one with Craven, and Planet Asia & The Musalini have a joint project on the way. Recognize Ali and Verbal Kent have a new Dueling Experts album on the way, Boldy James has an album with Real Bad man coming out soon, and Jack Harlow is set to drop his first project since becoming a superstar. Check out all of this stuff and more over on my Upcoming Heat page, a calendar of projects that I see on the horizon that you should be keeping track of. There’s also a list for people who don’t fuck with calendars.
Let’s get these social medias out of the way for all of you guys: come follow me on any of these platforms if you want to stay up to date on what I do here. This time let’s start with the Twitter (@tha_soup_dude), what I think is the funniest platform on the internet while simultaneously being a dumpster fire. Everything I do is posted on here, and might even tweet something every once in a while, so come follow your boy. Next is Instagram (@thasoupdude), where I update my story with everything I’m doing, a well as post a little Weekly thing to keep people informed; follow that shit. My Facebook group (@ThaSoupDude) is a smaller one, but all of the newest info gets posted there too. I also have my own little personal group called Drake’s Hidden Children, a place where I used to torture my friends with my original writing and post a track every now and again. Lastly is my RateYourMusic, not really a social media as much as it is a tool for me to keep up with things that are coming out and dig back into artists’ discographies with ease. Make and account here if you fuck with music, because the scope of information you can find here is invaluable to all of you audiophiles.
I want to thank every single one of you for both your time and your patience this month. I know reading isn’t always the most fun medium to find new music, so I appreciate all of you for going through my posts every week (and if you missed any of them, well, that’s what this post is for). I say patience because there were a lot of setbacks this month in terms of time and… well, motivation: working retail during the holidays is a lot like being tortured, so being able to simultaneously manage the affairs here at Tha Soup Dude’s Kitchen is a tall order, but one I’ll keep making efforts to fill.
December is the last month of 2020, thank Jesus, but will probably be one of the hardest. Album of the Year season if just around the corner folks; I gotta buckle down and iron out this list before January or I’m fucked.
Peace to all of you
