AUTOMatic
The producer/rapper duo AUTOMatic haven't been quite as active over the last few years as they were near the early 2010s, when they were one of the city's more visible hip-hop acts, but they're still at it, and though they're not releasing new material at a fast clip anymore, when they do it's almost always worth the wait. Their latest is a five-song EP called Arising, which brings their '90s-styled hip-hop a little bit closer to late-'90s, when Mos Def and Talib Kweli inherited the Native Tongues mantle and when producers like J. Dilla and Hi-Tek discovered new ways to make beats bump. Def and Kweli's Black Star recordings loom large over the record; rapper A.P.R.I.M.E. has even adopted some of Def's rubbery cadence on these tracks, which feature guest spots from Speech of Arrested Development and El-Shareef and Vincent Van Great.
You can stream the EP below.
