Backwoodz Studioz US Hip Hop 10 Items

It seemed that if I didn’t somehow repeat the process of greatness, and do so immediately, multiple times away to satisfy playlist and binge watch culture, then I “wasn’t shit”. After a while I was like “nah this doesn’t feel good,… I don’t know if I am finding joy in this”. I would record songs and not release them, obsess over sessions recorded in my home with 30 takes of vocals and wake up only to delete them. When it began to feel right I found solace in an epiphany that I was not obligated to operate at any other wavelength. I am moving on a different type of time, and that doesn’t expire. -Cavalier For heads of a certain time period of NYC hip-hop, Brooklyn born, New Orleans-based rapper and songwriter, Cavalier was the one that got away. The outrageously talented artist whose name and reputation preceded him everywhere you went in the scene. The rapper who everyone knew was so dope that he had to blow, but who never seemed concerned with any of that. The pretty boy draped in Polo who stole every live show with a feather in his hair and a mouth full of gold fronts. The cat so dedicated to his own independence that even indie labels stopped trying to sign him and projects came when they came, but when they came they were undeniable. Cavalier was That guy for a lot of us; a silver-tongued philosopher with an eye for the poignant details of black life and a delivery as effortless as a young Ken Griffey’s swing. All that said, it never really felt like Cav had that moment in the spotlight that we always assumed was coming. After chiseling away through headier cult corners of the NYC hip-hop scene Cavalier was recognized for his memorable co-pilot to Quelle Chris’ 2013 Mello Music debut, Niggas Is Men. The critically acclaimed LP helped propel Quelle Chris into the forefront of indie hip-hop (and also happened to be the first production credits for Messiah Muzik). Cav followed up with his first full length, Chief, which sports a notable Raekwon feature but also early work from producers like Ohbliv and Tall Black Guy. A relocation to New Orleans and partnership with producer/vocalist Iman Omari yielded two more projects: 2015’s Lemonade EP and Private Stock in 2018. Great records all; eagerly sought by collectors and signal boosted by influential media like OkayPlayer, Solange’s Saint Heron, and Pitchfork. Cavalier’s bonafides have never been in question, but his new album Different Type Time feels like a revelation—a sonic suspension bridge between his rich history and the artform’s future. Different Type Time doesn’t sound like the future though, its vibrations are somewhere all their own. It sounds like jazz, like a conversation overheard in roti shop, or a pool hall, or the foyer of your old building on a fall day, front door propped open with a brick. The blues is in there too, and the south—the American South, and the Global South, and South Brooklyn. It’s not that it sounds like the past, but you can hear everything that came before in the thick of the basslines and the yearning of the keys. Different Type Time also doesn’t sound like now, it sounds like Right NOW; the bounce of the lyrics like the staccato of basketball in the park, carried on a spring breeze. Although he doesn’t rap on DTT, Quelle Chris plays a pivotal role; producing eight songs and serving as associate producer/consigliere to Cav throughout the creative process. “There is no time wasted in explaining things when I collaborate with Quelle. He understands the universe I am in and the realities I want to create. He’s in them. And I don’t think I can envision one without him,” Cavalier explains. Messiah Muzik, Wino Willy, Ohbliv, Ahwlee, Child Actor, Fushou and several other producers round out the credits, all lending their talents to the album’s spaciously soulful sound. At the center of all these alchemies is Cavalier, nimbly dancing in and out of pockets like a sidewalk game of jumprope. Different Type Time is a masterclass in this thing we call hip-hop; daring and original, yet always standing deeply rooted in the culture

1. Different Type Time prod. Quelle Chris & Cavalier
2. Custard Spoon prod. Quelle Chris
3. Can’t Leave It Alone feat. Eric Jaye prod. GLassC!ty
4. Come Proper prod. Jacob Rochester
5. Touchtones prod. Aummaah
6. Déjà vu / Tydro ‘97 prod. Messiah Muzik / Quelle Chris
7. Doodoo Damien prod. Quelle Chris
8. Baby I’m Home prod. Wino Willy
9. Yeah Boiii prod. Quelle Chris
10. All Things Considered (prod. Wino Willy
11. Pears (prod. Malik Abdul-Rahmaan
12. Told You (prod. Fushou
13.Badvice (prod. Low Key
14. Think About It feat. Billzegypt prod. Obliv
15. Up From Here / 7th Ward Spyboy prod. Ahwlee / Quelle Chris
16. Manigaults / I Miss Them prod. ruffiankick
17. Lazaroos prod. Vinny Cuzns
18.Bespoke feat. Dominic Minix prod. Hann_11
19. 50 Bags feat. Lord Chilla prod. Child Actor
20. Axiom / My Gawd prod. GLassC!ty / Quelle Chris
21. Flourish prod. Quelle Chris

Blockhead’s upcoming album, The Aux, finds the veteran producer playing matchmaker with some of his favorite rappers and a deep well of his signature production. The result is an indie hip-hop All-Star game of a record; highlight reel dunks, alley-oops, and deep threes coming too fast to count. Blockhead tapped billy woods as an executive producer, and between the two of them put together a tracklist that effortlessly weaves together artists from different eras and scenes. Features include Aesop Rock, Armand Hammer, Danny Brown, Navy Blue, RXK Nephew, Despot, Casual, Akai Solo, Open Mike Eagle, Breezly Brewin, Bruiser Wolf, ShrapKnel, Defcee, and more!

140g black vinyl version in 12" gatefold jacket with artwork by Shane Ingersoll. Includes a download to the digital version of the album.



An alloy is a mixture of chemical agents which forms a new substance that retains the characteristics of a metal. The mechanical properties of alloys often differ significantly from those of its individual constituents. It has been more than two years since ShrapKnel’s debut album, during which time the duo of Curly Castro and PremRock have individually released successful solo albums with Backwoodz Studioz. Fittingly, these two albums were nothing alike; Castro’s incendiary Little Robert Hutton is an high octane soundclash, a stark contrast to the knotty intimacy of PremRock’s Load Bearing Crow’s Feet. A new ShrapKnel album means a return to foundry and forge, the alchemy of turning two into one. Carbon and Iron make steel, rest assured, there will be no sophomore slump. Metal Lung is the evidence. The bulk of the production is provided by Steel Tipped Dove, who has worked with Nosaj, billy woods, Shirt, R.A.P. Ferreira and just put out an incredible album of his own on Backwoodz last year (Call Me When You’re Outside). Additional production comes from Child Actor (elucid, Serengeti, Armand Hammer) & Olof Melander (Moor Mother, Project Mooncircle). Mixed and mastered by the incomparable Willie Green.

Decay, the new album from New Jersey rapper Fatboi Sharif and producer Steel Tipped Dove, is an anomaly. In an era of microwave projects and email collaborations, the duo spent more than a year writing, recording and mixing Decay together in Dove’s Brooklyn studio. At a moment when many independent hip-hop projects are sonically predictable, easily categorized, and derivative, Decay is unapologetically experimental. Love it or hate it, it doesn’t sound like any other record out. Add to all that the fact that, bucking the trend of feature-laden rap records, there isn’t a single guest appearance on Decay. This album is a one-of-one, handcrafted from the ground up by two of the genre’s most esoteric artists, under the umbrella of indie rap’s preeminent record label.

In October 2020 Dove got in touch with Sharif after hearing Gandhi Loves Children, Sharif’s project with Roper Williams.

“I really liked the experimental writing he was doing. The whole vibe was different from the beat choices, the visuals, the lyrics — all unique,” Dove explains. The two of them linked up and hit it off immediately.

“In the first session we had made two songs that ended up being some of the best work on the album,” Sharif says, “and as we worked on it we knew we had something special that we weren't hearing anywhere else and we kept building on that”

Sharif found himself digging deeply in order to write, which he credits to Dove’s attention to detail and ability to push the boundaries sonically. “Dove’s production kept me in the zone to touch on stories that I never touched on in my past work, from personal situations tucked away that I thought I wasn't ready to unveil yet, to convos we just would have regarding the state of everything going on in the world and beyond”

For his part, Dove was consistently impressed by the young artists’ dedication, as well as his ear for the unusual. “It was almost like a challenge to him, if I had a beat that no one had chosen, or that had kinda strange timing, he would almost always choose that one”

This is Koyaanisqatsi via Rahway, New Jersey. A winding nighttime drive along the narrow, rutted paths of a damaged psyche, dead deer watching from the roadside. Decay is a candlelit spades game in the parlor of a dilapidated mansion, eviction papers pasted atop one another on the front door. A black Woodstock in the wetlands, blotter acid in the headband, as ELUCID might say. Together, Sharif and Dove just flipped on the power to a carousel in the middle of an abandoned amusement park, and every horse has a rider, spinning and spinning in the dark

“Sometimes in life, we feel held down, tested and sought after by an unseen force that we can’t fully explain,” Sharif muses, “this album is a trip into the foundation of the dysfunction that surrounds us all in one way or another”

Only 100 available here so be quick.

Spirit Roaming is Akai SOLO’s first full length collaboration with Backwoodz Studioz. The new album arrives on the heels of his Body Feeling EP, building on its material and existential themes. Here, Akai’s unique palette is applied to a bigger canvas, without losing the intimacy and the sardonic self-awareness that help define him as an artist— alongside a delivery and cadence all his own. “Spirit Roaming is essentially self wandering through various self-engineered hells searching for the silver lining,” Akai explains. “Not quite a shell but not quite full either; rather freshly devastated. I made a lot of foolish decisions and neglected even more important ones. The price for that is being paid in real time. Can I grow post payment or does the crater resulting from the transaction overwhelm me?” Spirit Roaming features an eclectic group of producers, from vets like Preservation, Animoss, Messiah Musik and August Fanon, to emerging talents Theravada, ibliss, WifiGawd, Roper Williams and Junie. Akai lends bits and pieces of his own production to the mix, but goes mostly dolo on the mic, with Armand Hammer as the lone feature arriving just in time for the curtain call. Working amidst a renaissance in NYC indie rap, Akai is both part of that wave and a man apart. The 27-year-old Brooklyn native has collaborated extensively with many of the scene’s stalwarts (including Pink Siifu, Armand Hammer, Navy Blue), but, true to his name, has always navigated his own course

Primarily an instrumental album, Jeff Markey’s Sports & Leisure project also features artists billy woods, PremRock, Fatboi Sharif, Defcee, Skech185, Googie and Shape. Now available on vinyl for the first time, Markey has added some very special bells and whistles: Instrumentals for every rap song on the album (Physically) unreleased Armand Hammer collaborations: Armand Hammer “Native Sun” (Half Measures) “Black Ark” instrumental (Race Music) “Halloween Fell on a Weekend” instrumental (wht Lbl) “Western Education is Forbidden” instrumental (Terror Management) Markey is a longtime Backwoodz collaborator, but while his contributions have always been memorable, they have also been few and far between. The credits tell the tale: There he is producing the very first track - “Native Sun” - on Half Measures, the very first Armand Hammer mixtape (2013). That same year he did “Black Ark” on the duos debut LP, Race Music and then doesn’t pop again on anything Backwoodz related until 2019 when he co-produced billy woods first single for Terror Management, “Western Education is Forbidden” featuring Fielded. In 2022, Markey and Fielded made it 2-for-2 with the slinkily fun “Halloween Fell On A Weekend,” a track on Armand Hammer’s vinyl-exclusive WHT LBL.

While he has put out a few other projects over the years and has an equally long history with Reservoir Sound, the arts collective founded by producer A.M. Breakups, Markey spent most of the past decade on the periphery of the NYC indie scene, as likely to drop heat as he was to disappear for years at a time. Sports & Leisure represents the beginnings of a new era for the Akron, Ohio-born producer who moved to New York City in 2004. The pandemic gave him the time and mental space to re-dedicate himself to music and this project figures to be the tip of the iceberg.

“I wanted to make beats that were rugged yet had really warm textures. Previously, I had been making such complicated and left-field sounding shit that I wanted to make something closer to normal rap beats,” Markey says. “I wanted to make shit that was special because good choices were made within an already existing framework rather than completely changing the framework”

Plus One is the brand-new album from Brooklyn-based artist Lindsay Powell aka Fielded. While Fielded has put out several solo projects steeped in their trademark psychedelic R&B, they also has quietly built a reputation as a genre-bending vocalist and sought-after musical collaborator. Plus One turns that dynamic on its head, bringing together an indie music elite on Fielded’s guest list including Armand Hammer, Felicia Douglass, Kenny Segal, They Hate Change, DJ Haram, Wolf Weston, The Lasso, Child Actor and Steel Tipped Dove.

“I’ve offered myself in blips and breaths and moments, sighing under a powerful lyric, or punctuating another vocalist’s breakthrough performance,” Fielded says. “We wanted to see what could happen when I brought those same artists in to add flourishes to my visions and depth to my stories.”

Plus One is executive produced by billy woods, building on a creative partnership that goes back to the rapper’s 2019 album, Terror Management. Since then Fielded has engineered, produced and performed on a slew of Backwoodz Studioz releases, in addition to putting out two projects on the label- 2020’s Demisexual Lovelace and 2021’s Young Medusa- in addition to their extensive outside commitments. That history is reflected in the breadth of Plus One’s collaborations; Fielded stole the show on Small Bills “Safehouse,” the first song on ELUCID and The Lasso’s 2019 album Don’t Play It Straight. Here they reunite, cooking up a slinky R&B banger with “Waves.” Wolf Weston and Fielded traded harmonies on Saint Mela’s 2020 EP all for this strange baptism, and Weston returns the favor to fantastic effect on “Goddess Woes.” In 2019, Fielded joined forces with Fat Tony and Steel Tipped Dove for the Houston rapper’s Don’t Move EP. On Plus One, both artists step into her world and find their footing effortlessly—Tony on the woozy numbness of “Where I Came From,” and Dove with a stumbling cascade of drum and piano on “World’s Away.” Yet, it’s some of the newest pairings that yield the ripest fruit. Kenny Segal and Fielded combine for two album highlights, and A. Billi Free pops up for the record’s biggest curveball (unless you give that to Florida rappers They Hate Change setting fire to an ELUCID beat). Through it all, Fielded holds court, always taking or leaving exactly what the song requires.

“It is an album telling full stories, walking through valleys and cities, landscapes rich and sometimes heartbreaking,” Fielded explains. ”No one is filler. Everyone has been welcomed and valued. Everyone made the work weird, wonderful and honest, and for that I am grateful.”

Save Yourself is the debut solo album from rapper/producer ELUCID, New York’s best-kept secret. He’s worked with some of indie hip-hop’s most celebrated artists, like Open Mike Eagle, Tanya Morgan, billy woods, Beans from Antipop, milo, J*Davey, Busdriver, Small Professor and Rob Sonic. ELUCID has released critically-acclaimed collaborative projects as Armand Hammer with billy woods, and as Cult Favorite, with A.M Breakups, but Save Yourself represents a new chamber from a breakthrough artist. The album is largely self produced with additional production by Willie Green, A.M. Breakups, Messiah Musik and more.

Curly Castro’s album Little Robert Hutton is a paen to the radical imagination. Over the course fourteen songs, the Bajan-American artist fuses his vivid wordplay with a historical continuum of black revolutionary thought and the result is an AfroFuturist vision in 3-D IMAX. This is Castro’s rawest and most uncompromising work, the heat from a thousand ghetto uprisings smoldering in every bar. Lyrical gymnastics take a backseat to the power of the word and the concussive energy of the beats. Little Robert Hutton is hard in every sense of the word, speaker rattling banger after banger. That production is handled by Quelle Chris, Messiah Musik, Blueprint, August Fanon, Locust, DOS4GW and Jason Griff. The album also features guest appearances from Breezly Brewin, Mr. Lif, PremRock, billy woods, Zilla Rocca, Marcus Pinn, ALASKA, SKECH185, Candice Murray and Margel the Sophant

The Blacker the Berry, the Blacker the Blood.
The Blacker the Truth, the Blacker the Panther,
The Blacker the Retribution.
- Curly Castro