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.

Westside Gunn has dropped off a surprise remix of “Egypt” featuring some fiery bars from Doechii.

On Friday (May 2), Gunn unleashed the unexpected collaboration on the world, which made sense considering Doechii was technically on the original “Egypt” — or at least, her voice was. In the version of the track that appeared on Westside Gunn’s The Heels Have Eyes EP back in April, he sampled a snippet of Doechii’s Apple Music interview with Ebro Darden.

“One hundred percent/ You know, recently I’ve been into a lot of MF DOOM (OK)/ Rest in peace (Yup)/ I’ve been into a lot of MF DOOM, um/ Westside Gunn (Mhm), love him, he’s so talented (Super)/ So incredible,” she said to Darden in September.