June 19, 2026 · This Week in Hip-Hop
The Alchemist – Liquid Form EP
No long rollout, no pre-save campaign. Alchemist posted the announcement on Instagram the night before release: a new ALC EP called Liquid Form, featuring Kool G Rap, 2 Chainz, Conway the Machine, and Boldy James. That is how Alchemist has operated for years now — when the beats are ready and the right voices are attached, it goes out.
"Gutter Pain" with Kool G Rap is the one that matters most here. Kool G Rap is one of the foundational voices of mafioso and street-narrative rap — practically the blueprint for everything Griselda and the Alchemist's other regular collaborators do — and hearing him over a fresh Alchemist loop in 2026 is the kind of pairing that justifies checking for new music daily. The video is shot by Goldwatch, who has become one of Alchemist's most consistent visual collaborators, with the same recurring surreal hospital-operating-room aesthetic running through the whole EP's rollout.
"On the Spectrum" with Boldy James is the other key cut. Boldy and Alchemist have one of the most reliable creative partnerships in the underground — The Price of Tea in China, Bo Jackson, Super Tecmo Bo — and this one slots right into that catalog. Same deep, unhurried delivery, same trust in the beat to do the talking. "Beat Like a Key" with 2 Chainz is the outlier of the EP, a more melodic, mainstream-adjacent pairing that still works inside Alchemist's sound rather than bending it. A fourth cut with Conway the Machine rounds out the project, though details on that one are still surfacing as the EP rolls out.
This is Alchemist doing what he has built his entire catalog on: pulling from different generations and different lanes of rap and finding the common thread in the loop underneath. Liquid Form is a tight EP, not a major statement, but it is exactly the kind of release that belongs on this radar without question.
Watch "Gutter Pain" and the rest of the EP's videos on the Alchemist's YouTube channel, @alanthechemist.
Boldy James & Nicholas Craven – Trapper's Alley 3: Hell or High Water
This is the other one. Boldy James and Nicholas Craven dropped their fifth collaborative LP at midnight, and Trapper's Alley 3: Hell or High Water is exactly the kind of release this blog exists to put a spotlight on. Detroit's most consistent street narrator paired with Montreal's most in-demand sample-based producer — the chemistry between these two has been one of the most reliable things in the underground for years, and this one does not break that streak.
10 tracks, 33 minutes, all production from Nicholas Craven. Features stay tight and purposeful: 218Bojay on "Mama Maxine," Chip$ and Dave Hill on "Beautiful Snow," Chip$ again on "Hamburger Helper," and Chip$ with Lethalias Grain on "Powerhouse." The tracklist moves fast — short, focused cuts, no posse cuts padding the runtime, no filler verses. Craven's signature is all over it: haunting samples laid under crisp, dry drum work, beats that know exactly how much space Boldy needs and give him precisely that.
Boldy's writing stays in the same lane that made his catalog with Alchemist and with Craven himself so dependable — vivid, unhurried street storytelling that trusts the listener to keep up rather than spelling everything out. "Death & Taxes" closes the album on the right note, no big swing for a finale, just the same controlled, matter-of-fact delivery that carried the whole project. Available now on all streaming platforms, with vinyl, cassette, and CD pressings shipping later this year through Near Mint.
One of the stronger releases of the year from this lane, full stop.
D12 – Forever Vol. 1
Twenty-two years since D12 World. Twenty years since Proof was killed on Eight Mile Road. Kuniva and Swifty McVay are the last two members carrying the name forward, and Forever Vol. 1 is built entirely around that weight. The album includes an unreleased Proof verse on "Proof & Eli," pairing him with newer Detroit voice Eli Ble$$ed across two decades. That single decision tells you what this record is actually for. It is not a victory lap. It is a continuation of something that was violently interrupted, handled by the two people who have spent twenty years deciding how to keep it going.
15 tracks, all production from Jake Bass, and a feature list built almost entirely around legacy: Xzibit and B-Real on the lead single "Tear It Down," Xzibit returning alongside Ice T on "Nightmare Walking," Method Man on "Tenderism," George Clinton on "Dirty Nation," Tech N9ne with King Iso and Sly Pyper on "Still Hatin." Melanie Rutherford appears twice, on "Better Days" and "What If?," giving the album a few points of emotional release between the aggression. "Tear It Down" itself is a loud, rock-inflected posse cut built to fill a room — Xzibit and B-Real both showing up with real chemistry, the kind of energy D12 built their reputation on twenty years ago.
This is not a record for the widontplay core listener looking for dusty soul loops and mafioso bars. It is louder, more chaotic, more rooted in the dark comedy and shock-value tradition D12 always operated in. But Detroit hip-hop history matters here regardless of subgenre, and a group bringing back a fallen member's voice on a comeback album after two decades of silence is the kind of release that earns a mention even outside the usual lane. Approach it as what it is — D12 doing what D12 has always done, this time with an unmistakable sense of why it matters that they are still doing it.
Vado – V.A.D.O. Part 3 Freestyle
paco in action – Westside Gunn "Over Gold" x Pallbearer (Remix)
And one from right here. Pallbearer was built with Westside Gunn's "Over Gold" as the reference point from the start — same pace, same weight, same cinematic darkness — so pairing the instrumental with Gunn's actual vocals afterward was less a remix idea than a confirmation that the beat was reading the room correctly. Two piano melodies, cello, a ruff drum loop at 74 BPM. It fits because it was built to.
The instrumental is available on BeatStars.
Coyote, Shaq & B-Real – Practice
Hip-hop and basketball crossing paths the way this blog likes them to. Coyote — the L.A. duo of Ladies Love Guapo and Ricky Blanco — drop a new video called "Practice" with Shaquille O'Neal and B-Real both on the track. Shaq has quietly become one of the more respected NBA-to-rap crossovers in the game by simply not treating it as a novelty; his run with Coyote on "3 Lokos" a few years back proved that, and "Practice" continues the same relationship. B-Real adds the kind of West Coast pedigree that turns a fun collab into something with actual weight behind the bars. This is exactly the Hip-Hop-meets-Hoops lane widontplay was built to cover.
Die P – Cousine
From Die P's new EP Mach Platz Campus, "Cousine" comes produced by Dienst und Schulter. Die P has had "Boom Bap" sitting in his own catalog as a single before, so the lane is not unfamiliar territory for him even as his broader sound moves between R&B-inflected rap and harder punchline-driven material. This one stays on the grimier end, and the Dienst und Schulter production gives it the kind of weight that holds up against the rest of this week's lineup.
Hit-Boy – Success Is a Dirty Word
Worth a mention even outside the usual lane. Hit-Boy released HITstory 2: Success Is a Dirty Word on June 13 — his first solo album as a fully independent artist after exiting an 18-year publishing deal. The title track samples a 1975 Good Times exchange about what success actually costs, and Hit-Boy turns that thread into a genuinely introspective writing exercise from a producer better known for making other people's hits than telling his own story. 17 tracks, 8 features including Quavo, Ty Dolla $ign, and Ab-Soul. Not the Boom Bap core, but a significant moment for one of the most important producers of the last decade going on record about what the game actually costs.
