8 min read what's good

What's Good (Week of 6/29)

A blurry photo of Nilüfer Yanya bending backwards and grabbing her heels so she's in a vague box shape. She's wearing a matching blue and white skirt/top, with blue open-toed shoes.

Happy 4th of July, friends. I started this one a little earlier in the week and had a sort of pithy acknowledgment of The Horrors™ like I've done for the past few weeks, but H.R. 1 (the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill" that guts Medicare access, food aid benefits like SNAP, and overall perpetrates the largest transfer of welath from the American taxpayer to the rich in history, in order to give ICE a $175B budget, making it a larger org than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, the DEA, and others combined) making it through the Senate and the House made it very hard for me to even attempt gallows humor.

I would be a hypocrite to tell you not to engage in doomsaying or nihilism. I'm writing this right now (Thursday) after having canceled my plans to go out and be social ahead of the long weekend. It's okay to be angry, sad, and have the wind taken out of your sails. What I will offer is this:

  • The changes to Medicaid proposed in H.R. 1 won't take effect until after 2026—after the midterm elections in the States. That means if the elections can manage to change things in the House and Senate, there's an opportunity to mitigate this, but also that the people responsible intend for you to forget what they did. Look up how your Representatives voted and respond accordingly. Espeically encourage your friends and family in Republican held districts to be loud about how this bill negatively impacts them.
  • In the meantime, find ways to help people that will be impacted by this ahead of time. With cuts to SNAP and food assistance, food pantries will be vital for many folks that need help. Find your local pantry and see what they need.
  • As ICE gets a military budget, it'll be important to support organizations that are supporting the ever-widening field of people who'll be targeted. Consider getting involved in things like ICE Watch Programs to protect the immigrants in your neighborhood. Also helping out organizations like Al Otro Lado in their lawsuit against the Trump Adminstration to restore asylum access at the southern U.S. border. If you're a Latine or Indigenous musician, friend of the blog TV-MA is organizing the ¡Chinga La Migra! compilation to benefit folks impacted by the ICE raids in LA.

Also in a bit of slight self-promotion, my Hip Hop and YA Dystopia TTRPG SHOOT THE GIFT is included in Jes the human's NO ICE IN CALIFORNIA Bundle to benefit RAICES and the Immigrant Defenders Law Center.

To sweeten the pot, if you comment down below with proof of purchase or hit me up on Bluesky, I'll share the "Sample Mix" playlists (TIDAL and YouTube) for the game with you. The game's about kids taking a road trip through different regional rap scenes, using special powers bestowed them by Hip Hop cultural artfacts to fight against an authoritarian corporatocracy. As such, the playlist has a spread of music from each section of the road trip, and the video version has as few bits of video ephemera referenced in the game.

Promo image that says no ice in california. itch charity bundle. over 500 games for $10 donation. There is a QR code that goes to the charity bundle itch page

I won't tell you not to tell you not to despair, but I will tell you that it's worth keeping a fight up in spite of it. If not for you, for the people next to you. Also, in the words of Propaganda, it's okay to tap out for a little bit. Hopefully What's Good will help with that. For this week, we've got:

New Albums & EPs

  • Blonde Redhead
  • Bleachy Warhol
  • Nilüfer Yanya
  • J'Von
  • Teller Bank$

New Singles

  • The Expert
  • Ethel Cain
  • Peyton
  • Paul Wall & Dj.Fresh
  • Teethe
  • YL & Another Planet (Lungs & Phiik)

And a whole lot more. Let's get into it.

Playlists

TIDAL

TIDAL: What's Good Playlist - Week of 6/22/25

YouTube

Bonus Beats

crushed play through a set of their influences over on The Lot Radio.

Cover of Vince Staples' SUMMERTIME '06. A monochrome drawing of dark ocean waves in the middle of a faded black background.

Stephen Kearse wrote about Vince Staples debut masterpiece Sumertime '06 for its 10th anniversary:

Staples packs his entire worldview into “Norf Norf,” a swaggering slapper that questions the hope of the Obama era, mocks the death of Ricky Baker in Boyz N The Hood, taunts enemies of his set, and includes the all-time one-liner, “I’m a gangsta Crip, fuck gangsta rap.” Staples is unapologetic and unromantic: proud of his past, blunt about its costs, and cognizant of the real enemy. “I ain’t never run from nothin but the police,” he chants for the hook, floating over crisp hand claps, a droning synth, and a seismic bassline. The song is anthemic and weary, steely but not invincible.
RAPS + CRAFTS #40: Cavalier
1.
Caltrops PressCaltrops Press

Cavalier runs down his process for Caltrop Press' RAPS + CRAFTS series:

7. How much editing do you do after initially writing a verse/song? Do you labor over verses, working on them over a long period of time, or do you start and finish a piece in a quick burst?

I often labor over verses, particularly the ones I am writing for myself or my own projects. There are sometimes, a bunch in fact, where a verse will write itself. A lot of times I feel like I am not even writing it, but that I am listening for it. It is almost like fine tuning yourself to pick up a specific broadcast channel. And then once you really tap into it, you kind of capture it.

L.A. Witch stopped by KEXP for a short set of joints from their latest album DOGGOD.

Subsonic Eye shared an initimate live recording of three songs from their new LP Singapore Dreaming.

Ela Minus shared footage of her performing COMBAT live at Estéreo Picnic, from her January release DÍA.

“Pity The Downtrodden Landlord (Slick Rick Remix)”
The Ruler has returned—and he wants the damn rent. +reviews of YL & Subjxct 5, Chubs & Fumes The Threat
CABBAGESGary Suarez

The almighty Gary Suarez of CABBAGES Hip Hop reviewed Slick Rick's entry into Mass Appeal's Legend Has It... campaign, his first album in 26 years, Victory. Gary paid special attention to the track "Landlord" and its utter failure to read the room:

As one might both expect and dread, Walters is anything but sympathetic to their circumstances or excuses. He opens the song with a dedication to "all the landlords in New York City" and "all across the world" before laying into the very same people who provide him with his livelihood. (Un)like other hip-hop songs about occupational hazards such as "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp," he comes across as fundamentally cruel, resorting to name calling and eviction threats while campaigning on his own hardscrabble roots. As much as fans might love hearing him go in, with anecdotes arguably falling somewhere between fact and fiction, his sentiment is dark, embittered, ice cold. He scolds his tenants for promiscuity and drug use, plays up stereotypes of Latinos and displays exasperation at welfare recipients coming up short on the first of the month.

There's nothing all that new about legacy artists being out of touch or out of step with the people, obviously. Will Smith's cringeworthy recent single "Pretty Girls," for instance, seems designed to sell overpriced hard seltzers to blissed-out EDM festival-goers in various states of undress than to rekindle the love his older Fresh Prince fans had for He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper–another impactful 1988 LP for yours truly. Yet we're talking about someone whose fame was forged in the five boroughs, with the material support of working class and poor people, many if not most of whom are Black, Latino, or otherwise designated minorities. Hearing Slick Rick lay into those who conceivably could be the children or even grandchildren of his proverbial Day Ones conveys a terrible taste from one of rap's greatest tongues.

Music

Bad Snacks - show me how u do it! (From MIDNIGHT, out on 8/29. Preorder: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Paul Wall x Dj.Fresh - Blantons Tonite (From Paul Wall & DJ.Fresh - The Tonite Show, out on 7/25. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

YGTUT - ALL SUMMER (From I NEED $, out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Kipp Stone - Intrusive Thoughts (From I Ain't Want Nothin', out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Larry June & Cardo Got Wings - Ya Feel Me feat. E-40 (Out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Ozer - Drive Slow (From Fog City, out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Venna - Day x2 feat. MIKE & Marco Bernadis (From MALIK, out on 9/5. Preorder: Physicals via Rough Trade (UK) | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

YL x Another Planet (Lungs & Phiik) - UPTWO (From BAD NEWS, out in August. YouTube only for now.)

Nilüfer Yanya - Kneel (From Dancing Shoes, out now. Purchase: Signed Vinyl via Nilüfer;'s store | Vinyl and Digital via Ninja Tune | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

CW: I'm...not sure? I'm assuming the title got flagged, as it's just footage of woods/outdoors, power lines out in the woods, and a road in the middle of nowhere.

Ethel Cain - Fuck Me Eyes (From Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You, out on 8/8. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Teethe - Hate Goodbyes (From 'Magic Of The Sale, out on 8/8. Preorder: Physicals and merch via Winspear | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Peyton - Red Flags (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

CW: Nudity (folks running through the woods with no clothes on)

Disinblud (Rachika Nayar & Nina Keith) - Disinblud (From Disinblud, out on 7/18. Preorder: Physicals via Smuggler's Way | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

John Glacier - Fly With Me (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Fat Tire (TB$), by Teller Bank$
from the album leftside
Teller Bank$vektrx

Teller Bank$ - Fat Tire (TB$) (From leftside, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp)

Blonde Redhead - Rest Of Her Life (Choir Version) feat. Brooklyn Youth Choir (From The Shadow of The Guest, out now. Purchase: Vinyl and Digital via section1. | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Grace Vonderkuhn - Into The Morning (From Into The Morning, out on 8/15. Purchase the single: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Eiko Ishibashi & Jim O'Rourke - Pareidolia (Single Edit) (From Pareidolia, out on 8/29. Preorder: Drag City | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

The Expert - Remember The Summer feat. Defcee & Jehst (From Vivid Visions, out on 9/29. Preorder: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Kent Loon - Don't Shake Hands (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Brainorchestra - Aurora Borealis (From the forthcoming Jet Force Orchestra. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

J'von - oh well brother i guess (From Brown Suit EP, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Case Arnold - Stillness Freestyle (Out now, YouTube loosie.)

Mansur Brown - Faded (From Rihla, out on 8/1. Preorder: Physicals and Digital via Bleep | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

Bleachy Warhol - Old Wounds (From A Bruin Running Like Water, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)

That'll do us. As always, thank you for visiting the blog and tapping in with me each week. If you enjoy what I do or any of the music on the blog, be sure to subscribe or add me to your RSS feed to make sure you get it as soon as it's published. Take care of yourself and each other, and make good choices.

DJ Regular

DJ Regular

Game and Music Lover. Writer. Unfortunate optimist. "Spare me the Hallmark Karl Marx."
SF Bay Area