While they never really spent any time apart, both working together in Subtle, this is Jel and Doseone’s first album as a duo since 2002’s The No Music. After the promise of the freeHoudini mixtape gave us a glimpse of things to come, it feels great to finally have the album. While their work is Subtle was extremely interesting, and incorporated a lot of different sounds, Themselves is more stripped down and raw, much more immediate and forceful.

Way back when, Greenhouse Effect was Inwell, Blueprint, and Manifest. These days, they are just Greenhouse, and it’s a collaboration between two of Columbus, Ohio’s finest, Blueprint and Illogic. Blueprint handles the production duties, and brings his usual fare of spaced out down tempo beats. Both Illogic and Blueprint share a similar delivery that is slightly slow but clear and strong that gives an extra emphasis to their lyrics.

That’s right, Murs and Slug are back at it again. The third in a series of collaborations they’ve done, each time with a different producer and b-movie actress namesake. The first go round was with the Grouch, the second with Ant, and this time they’ve enlisted the help of Aesop Rock.

Fans of Edan have been waiting for a follow up to 2005’s Beauty and the Beat for some time now, and while he still hasn’t given us a proper full-length follow-up with original material, he has given us quite a mix tape to tide us over.

This album is why I still believe in the power of the record store.

I had never heard of Fashawn when I walked into a record store, looked around, and went over to the listening booth. After being disappointed by a few artists I already knew or had heard much hype about, I moved on to Fashawn. Much to my surprise, he was right up my alley. “Cheech Hop,” as my girlfriend likes to call it -- Laid-back, funky soul samples with socially conscious lyrics. Not that I don’t like anything else, but “That’s my bread and butter, man.”

I feel like I need to preface anything I write about Brother Ali by saying that I am a huge fan, and his music has meant a great deal to me personally. That said, I also pride myself on being able to objective and taking my heroes to task when the need calls for it. Which is great, because one of the things I love about Ali is that he takes criticism as a challenge and tries to rise up to it.

After years with Jurassic 5, Ozomatli, and countless guest appearances, we finally get a Chali 2na solo album. That’s right, that distinctive laid-back smooth baritone voice is striking out on his own. And while I’ve always enjoyed his verses and his voice, I was never so sold on his all around abilities that I’ve been waiting for him to strike out on a solo career.

Before I even listened to this album, I was already planning out how I was going to write this review - about how Ugly Duckling never blows you away, but they are always enjoyable and I’m always happy to hear a new UD album, etc. Something happened, though. It’s not that this album is a huge departure or so challenging it’s not accessible or anything like that, it’s more that this album just nestles its way under you skin and really grows on you. As I’d drive around in my car with an assortment of new and old CDs strewn around, I’d find myself picking up Audacity more and more.

If you know Toki Wright already, it’s probably because you’ve seen him as a hype man at some other Rhymesayers artist’s concert. What you probably didn’t know was that Wright was honing his skills and writing his own rhymes in preparation to be the next great underground emcee. I say this in part because he has a song on the album called “Next Best Thing,” but also because this is one of the stronger debut albums I’ve come across. Wright comes across as a thoughtful, soulful, musical emcee, obviously influenced by artists like Lateef and Mos Def.

Doseone and Jel, who make up Themselves never took a break from working with each other, even though their last album under this moniker was released in 2002. In between then and now, they joined forces with other musicians, most notably as part of the group Subtle, who reached a fair amount of success over the course of several albums. This mix tape, mixed by Odd Nosdam and mastered by Daddy Kev, was put out to get the name back out there while Jel and Dose get their next full length ready. The thing is, this mix tape is better than most artists carefully crafted full length albums.