This is the 6th studio LP from New York emcee Knowledge the Pirate. Discovered by Will Smith’s former bodyguard Charlie Mack, would sign to Interscope Records for a brief amount of time before leaving the game temporarily and re-emerging in the 2010s as a close Roc Marciano affiliate. His full-length debut Flintlock eventually saw the light of day in the summer of 2018, which was followed up with the sophomore effort Black Cesar as well as the debut EP Family Jewels and his 3rd album Hidden Treasures. My favorite in his discography would be the Big Ghost Ltd.-produced Wolves Don’t Eat with Shepherds and having Marci producing The Round Table raised the stacks exponentially coming off of 5 lbs of Pressure.

“Eating Etiquette” was a great drumless single to start the rollout giving the ultimate fine dining experience whereas “Golden Rules” works in a boom bap instrumental with a prominent vocal sample talking about trying to keep his team together. “Takes a 10” has a significantly funkier vibe telling us what it was like for him in the grittiest parts of the City of Dreams leading into “The Outfit” stripping the drums again to talk about keeping the flame on the stove.

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The always-impressive Buffalo rap classicist Benny The Butcher releases a lot of music, but it sometimes comes out in unpredictable, haphazard ways. Last year, for instance, Benny and his Black Soprano Family crew released their Summertime Butch album. Benny also came out with the Buffalo Butch Vol. 1 EP, which had a Drake collab and which almost immediately disappeared from the internet. Now, Benny’s got a new seven-track project entitled Excelsior available on all digital streaming platforms and it’s an instant classic.

Excelsior, which is named after the New York state motto, has appearances from Styles P, Skyler Blatt, P.R.E.M.O., Sule, and Fuego Base, as well as production from people like Harry Fraud and Daringer. The lead single “Duffel Bag Hottie’s Revenge” features another underground rap workhorse: Boldy James, who somehow had time to record his verse for this amidst his schedule of releasing a new album every other week this year. (I have lost track of whether or not that’s an exaggeration.)

Stream the album and purchase the official merch here.

Young Thug has shared his thoughts on Kendrick Lamar name-dropping him in his chart-topping diss track against Drake, “Not Like Us.”

On the third verse of the 2024 song, K. Dot references Drake’s many collabs with Atlanta artists, saying that he runs to them for street cred.

“You called Future when you didn’t see the club/Lil Baby helped you get your lingo up/21 gave you false street cred/Thug made you feel like you a slime in your head/Quavo said you can be from Northside/2 Chainz say you good, but he lied,” he rapped.

Thugger sat down with GQ this month for his first interview since being released from jail back in October and was finally asked how he felt about it. And he made it clear who he’s rocking with in the beef.

“Yeah, he just spoke on people’s name in Atlanta,” he said. “I don’t know what that was about. I’m a Drake fan.”

Just before “Not Like Us” took over the world last summer, Young Thug’s girlfriend Mariah The Scientist revealed she’d been keeping her man up to date on the beef from behind bars and shared his then-thoughts.

“I play him the [diss] songs over the phone and shit,” she said. “He’s a lover of music in general. He f–ks with everybody. I don’t think he would ever be able to – let me not speak for him. He love music though.”

Read the entire article @ HipHopDX