So far, 2026 has been a great year for music in the Hip-Hop/Rap scene! We got so many great projects ASAP Rocky’s DON’T BE DUMB, Don Toliver’s OCTANE, Vince Staples’ Cry Baby, and also some long awaited albums like J.Cole’s The Fall Off, and Drake’s ICEMAN. But, that is only a short section of all the awe-inspiring music we have gotten, as there are many hidden gems that have gotten uncovered. Slayr has had some impressive drops this year, and we have also gotten many other great projects from artists like Tiffany Day, ezcodylee, La Reezy, and new internet phenoms AMU Henry Smalls & KAN3KI~CHAN. Now, before we cover some of the bigger stuff, let’s just start this article by saying that-

“Drake did not need to drop 3 albums on the same day”

ICEMAN was really the only good one out of the three, because HABIBTI & MAID OF HONOR just bloated up the day, with HABIBTI once again trying to revive the formula, but also featuring tracks like the unnecessary Rusty Intro, and MAID OF HONOR simply being Drake’s worst album yet. However, is it completely wrong to say that “Drake didn’t need to drop 3 albums on the same day”?

The only reason he actually did is because he wanted out of his label contract with UMG. Drake has been struggling with UMG since 2024, when he alleged they were illegally promoting Kendrick Lamar’s song Not Like Us. In order to fulfill his contract quota, he had to drop 3 albums with 3 different UPC/EAN/Catalog Numbers, as that would identify them as being 3 unique releases. Well, he reached it! All I can say is, if Drake doesn’t start putting his music on either Bandcamp or Subvert, he’s wasting his independence. And speaking of which…

Subvert Launches Label accounts!

Not too long ago, Subvert launched label accounts, opting for label owners and managers to bring their artists to Subvert. While Label storefront pages are not available yet, they are to come in a future update. The developers of the Co-op platform have remained focused on some of the bigger issues, like purging AI generated content and making it possible to sell merchandise through storefront pages on the site.

Half Blood (Bloodluxe) tour in its second half

Slayr’s tour for his critically-acclaimed mixtape is in its second half. The 2026 XXL Freshman is currently on his way to Miami, Florida for the next performance, and throughout the month, slayr will be performing in various locations, including Boston, Atlanta, New York, Silver Spring, and even London!

Another look at Half Blood

Half Blood is slayr’s seventh mixtape, and it fuses Trap, Rage, and Digicore, while also taking influence from video games. Some of the video games that have had an influence on this project include the Sonic the Hedgehog series (namely Sonic Generations & Sonic Adventure), well known RPGs in the Persona series (namely Persona 4 & 5), the Final Fantasy series (namely Final Fantasy VII), the Kingdom Hearts series (Kingdom Hearts 2), the Nintendo DS born Cooking Mama series, J-horror series Corpse Party (inspired the original artwork, pictured left), and multiple other video games. The album was originally released on November 5, 2025, and got attention through social media. It was very well received by critics, including music nerd Anthony Fantano, who whilst wearing the (good) yellow-flannel, gave the project an 8 out of 10.

Keep me going, the crossover that made everyone cross a line…

On the first day of August, slayr released keep me going, a song that samples Birdbrain, a classic Vocaloid song performed by SynthV’s Kasane Teto and produced by Jamie Paige and OK Glass. While the release of song was initially a huge win for all sorts of different people, it didn’t take long before toxic internet culture decided to say otherwise. Comments started appearing on short-form platform TikTok, saying things like “Why can’t all YN rap be like this”, “Playboi Carti but good”, and a lot of other racially motivated comments. This caused a huge stir, and created a controversy that affected Teto fans. Amid the controversy, slayr pulled keep me going from his concert setlists and said this: “done sampling that typa shit idk why ppl gotta be racist and then yall confuse that shit with my actual fans, enough” (slayr, via Twitter). Meanwhile, the original song’s producer, Jamie P, responded (in a series of tweets) by ranting about the insufferability of the community (“genuinely asking myself how much i even wanna keep making music for a bunch of racist fucking white tiktok teenagers with no respect or brains”), expressing a need for unity among all people (“hope these kids can grow and change and actually treat black artists and black people like fucking human beings someday”) and also took time to find her personal solution (“its a far more effective filter if Teto is my mouthpiece for getting obnoxiously cataclysmically woke anyways. and not fox news buzzword woke i mean real Woke”). Other artists in and out of the Vocaloid scene have also took time to defend slayr, such as SAWTOWNE (“In case you don’t know, Miku Beam and fujo miku were created by a black man” via Twitter), who also took the time to express his feelings about being a black Vocaloid producer. AMU Henry Smalls, the young musician behind AroundThaWRLD, had also expressed worry over how this would impact crossovers, while also noting that this behavior was NOT new (“after I dropped AroundThaWRLD CD Extend, people was being toxic in the YouTube comment section… a dude even told me to kill myself… can’t just let a crossover/collab happen, let art be art.” via TikTok). If anything, a lot of the hate towards slayr is from “newgens”, younger individuals who write off their offensive humor as being “edgy”, and we are all hoping that slayr one day gets the motivation to do another crossover.

Akira’s Storm downloaded over 1500 times over SoulSeek

Speaking of AMU Henry Smalls (real name Akira “Dotty” Ryōsuke), the now 17-year-old rapper released his album Akira’s Storm last month on Bandcamp, Mirlo, and Subvert. Interestingly enough, the alternative hip-hop album has gotten 1534 downloads over peer to peer file sharing network SoulSeek. So, what makes people want to pirate this album?

The 10-track album features a whole new style of Hip-hop, which Dotty has subbed with words like Storm, or Sublime. The lyrical style is quite paradoxical, as themes commonly alternate between flexing, and being honest. It concerns themes of depression, anxiety, substance misuse, clingyness, and false hope. The beats were produced and mixed to feel roomy and atmospheric, and Dotty’s delivery brings the style together quite nicely. The album was self-produced (as DJ RdottyBoom) with some of the songs being produced by others. The features (SiNJ0sh5 on Zany, luvdigita & lil Akemi on Not So Bad, Hatsune Miku, Kasane Teto, & GUMI on Talk, and GUMI on Blow) also add fresh voices to the album’s narrative, telling Akira’s story though the eyes of others. The album just started selling on CD, with Vinyl and Cassette versions coming soon.

Claim a free download for Akira’s Storm on Bandcamp!!!

Dotty’s next album

AMU Henry Smalls is already working on his next album, LSD, which he describes as “an album that will transcend music today”. LSD is going to become more than just a musical work, it’s meant to be an art movement designed to combat the disposability of modern streaming culture. This will be achieved through Physical-Exclusivity, meaning that this will be Dotty’s first album to not receive a digital release.

“I don’t want it to feel disposable. I want it to actually feel special… I want it to feel different when you hold it in your hands; You’re actually going to be holding it in your hands too. Okay? You can’t hold digital music in yo’ hands like that. … This is art!” (Dotty, explaining his motivation, via YouTube)

Dotty has already gotten KAN3KI~CHAN on the album, and he also suggests that YungLex, MoneyBoss, Lil Nep, and some of his other collaborators will also be on the album. He has also expressed strong interest in working with Athens-based alternative artist Messiah Cartiye (whose most recent project, Abnormal, is on Bandcamp), as well as Ace Hashimoto (formerly known as Brandun Deshay), slayr, Grimes, Lil B, lazydoll, Thundercat, Lucy Bedroque, Lilniina, Moe Shop, 16:9 Krollo, Kianna, DevStacks, killwiz, khel, STARKIDS, and Yung God, who Dotty has all named as inspirations for the sound of this rare project.

If you’re wondering what LSD stands for, don’t, because you will be sitting for a long time. Dotty is leaving certain things up to fan interpretation, including the acronym. Dotty has also cited inspiration from Hiroko Nishikawa and Osamu Sato, the mind behind the 1998 PlayStation game of the same name.

Lil bit of spotlight on midnitekore

Artists in this recently formed Nitekore collective have been getting lots of attention on Instagram since their formation announcement. The current roster is: mira, kuribu, fuse, kowzah, salza, ayxn, & sfxx. While their sound isn’t exactly defined, all of these artists commonly incorporate anime aesthetics into their style.

And that’s all for now

Thank you for tuning in!