July 3, 2026 · This Week in Hip-Hop
Estee Nack x Mike Shabb – Live at the Tabernackle Vol. II
The first Tabernackle came out in September 2023 with a feature list that told you exactly what kind of operation this was: Stove God Cooks, Rome Streetz, Al.divino, Ankhlejohn, Raz Fresco. Vol. II, released June 30 on Bandcamp, stays in the same territory. 13 tracks, 38 minutes, all production from Mike Shabb — a Montreal-based producer who shares creative DNA with Nicholas Craven in how he approaches the sample, the tempo, and the space a rapper needs to operate inside a beat.
The feature roster on Vol. II activates the full network. Al.divino on "Madphilosophies," Crimeapple on "Pinkcandy," Daniel Son and Chris Mercedes on "VPNZ4THEDARKWEB," Myalansky and Raz Fresco on "Students & Teachers," Codenine on "Triumphantallies." A mystery guest appears on "Wintermission," which will draw listeners to the track regardless of who it turns out to be. Shabb oscillates between drumless soul loops and harder, more textured production throughout, and the variation keeps the record from settling into a single register over 38 minutes. Estee Nack's rhythmic precision is what makes the drumless approach work — he finds the pocket in a beat that doesn't have a drum to give it to him.
37 releases on Bandcamp under the Estee Nack (Tragic Allies) name. This is among the best ones.
Mach-Hommy x Playa Haze – 5786 AM: Easy Listen
This one dropped May 31 and has been out for a month without being written up here. That ends today.
The title is the joke and the argument simultaneously. 5786 is the Hebrew calendar year — the "AM" after it stands for Anno Mundi, "in the year of the world" — juxtaposed with the Latin phrase Easy Listen, which is exactly what this record is not. Limited LP and cassette, no streaming release, no standard rollout. This is Mach-Hommy operating in his natural habitat.
13 tracks, all produced by Playa Haze — a California producer whose approach here builds drumless, abstract frameworks that challenge Mach's delivery to carry the rhythm entirely on its own, which he does across the full runtime without flinching. Sam Gendel handled mixing alongside Mach himself. Features from Blu on the A-side, Mavi, Doley Bernays, Spank Nitti James, and Spook. None of the features arrive to rescue the record — they show up into something Mach has already fully established and hold their own inside it.
"Name, Image, Likeness" opens with boasts that fold over each other so densely the full construction doesn't resolve until the third listen. Three tracks have no rapping at all — just Playa Haze production and a voice speaking over it — and none of them feel like filler. "Price of a Kilo" turns a table piled with African foods into a colonial critique and a present-day market observation simultaneously. "Memento Vivere" is shorter and more direct. "Smarty Pants" maps the Arawak genocide before the "cannibals" sample returns the insult to whoever first used it. That range — from street boasting to historical reckoning — across a single record without tonal inconsistency is the Mach-Hommy signature, and 5786 AM: Easy Listen delivers it clearly.
Available on limited vinyl and cassette. No streaming release — which, for Mach-Hommy, is a position, not an oversight. Worth tracking down via his usual channels.
Azad – Modus Rap 2 ft. PA Sports & Kool Savas
The original "Modus Rap" landed in April 2023 on PA Sports' album Life is Pain. PA Sports led, Azad and Kool Savas were the features. Two generations on one track — one of the strongest German hip-hop moments of that year. Part 2 flips the dynamic: Azad is the lead artist this time, PA Sports and Kool Savas support, and Azad co-produces alongside Prodbynoizy and Johnny Illstrument.
That shift says something. Azad producing a track of this profile and stepping to the front at the same time is a statement. The three of them already proved that cross-generational German rap collaborations can be more than nostalgia marketing, and Part 2 picks up exactly where that left off. Kool Savas delivers as expected, PA Sports holds his pocket, and Azad makes his case on both sides of the boards — as a rapper and as a beatmaker. His standing in the German underground remains untouched.
Fat Joe – Victory Lap (HIM) ft. Yung Miami & Jadakiss
The Knicks won their first championship in 53 years. Fat Joe — lifelong Knicks superfan, Bronx institution — turned the celebration into a record. "Victory Lap (HIM)" was released June 11 via RNG/EMPIRE, produced by Cool & Dre, and the official video landed June 26 directed by Eif Rivera. The visual was shot live at the Knicks championship parade through the streets of Manhattan, thousands of fans lining the route, floats and confetti — none of it staged. Eif Rivera just pointed a camera at one of the biggest New York moments in decades and let it run.
Jadakiss delivers the verse this record needed: gritty, pointed, no filler, exactly the tone you want from one of the sharper pens in New York rap when the city is celebrating. Yung Miami handles the hook with her usual confidence. Fat Joe sounds like someone who has waited his entire life for this specific moment and finally got it. For the widontplay radar, this one sits squarely at the intersection of Hip-Hop and Hoops that this blog was built to cover.
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