What's Good (Week of 6/8)
It was my birthday this week, but you're getting the gifts with a new edition of What's Good. Plenty of great joints this go 'round, including:
New Albums
- Chris Crack
- Dummy Thicc
- Maiya Blanley
- Rhys Langston
- Subsonic Eye
New Singles
- AJ Suede
- DEBBY FRIDAY
- FloFilz
- QRTR
- Zilla Rocca w/PremRock
And much more. As usual, playlists up front if you're in a hurry, and then Bonus Beats, followed by the drops in full. Before we get into all of it, if you can, do me a solid on my birthday week and show some support for people out on the front lines of protest (or those who are simply subject to raids by ICE) in L.A. and elsewhere by donating to jail/bail support. Here's a few that could use your help:
- Jail Support L.A.
- NorCal Resist Bail Fund
- Immigrant Defenders Law Center
- National Bail Fund Network - Community Justice Exchange
- Al Otro Lado
Also, via Chad Loder on Bluesky:
"Organizers in LA are raising money to do tamale buyouts from local tamale vendors who are unable to safely vend on the street due to ICE kidnapping vendors. The tamales will be distributed to unhoused neighbors. Please consider donating — I personally vouch for this one."
Now with that out of the way, let's get into the music.
Playlists
TIDAL
TIDAL: What's Good Playlist - Week of 6/8/25
YouTube
Bonus Beats
Little Brother hit up Noochie's Live From The Porch for a quick set of joints from across their career, all the way back to The Listening.
Fly Anakin spoke with Dash Lewis for Richmond's Style Weekly about his excellent, Quelle Chris executive produced album (The) Forever Dream:
Dash: You refer to “(The) Forever Dream” as “mindless music” because you didn’t come to it with any set concept. It feels like the warmest, most inviting Fly Anakin album, and there are moments on the record that feel more like you’re giving a little bit more of yourself to the audience. Was that a conscious thing? Did you feel so free working without a concept that you ended up writing a little bit more about your own life?
Fly Anakin: It’s the product of being comfortable working with someone, because if I’m not comfortable, I’m gonna bar up. This is the cheat code to get a personal verse out of me, bro: The beat gotta hit my spirit, and it got to just be us in the studio. Because then, I’m gonna think as personal as I can, and I’m not thinking about performing this around nobody. But if I’m uncomfortable, I’m just gonna go stupid. That’s literally why the shit with Quelle makes so much sense. The whole time, we just kicked it, played the game, smoked weed, and ate shrooms. I feel like the songs just made themselves after that.
Like the intro, “Good Clothes,” to me, that’s my version of mindless music. It just got passionate towards the end, because I’m talking about my come up and shit like that, because that’s me pulling off the rail, like I always do. But, yeah, it’s mindless. I’m not trying to make a song about nothing! This is just supposed to be a vibe. A better example of what mindless music is for me, is the trap shit. I love music about nothing. I don’t want to hear n*ggas talk about they struggles. I got my own struggles! For example, you know the UGK song, “It’s Supposed To Bubble“?
Dash: I do.
Fly Anakin: And what is that song about?
Dash: I honestly don’t know.
Fly Anakin:Thank you. [Laughs]
San Jose's own Scowl ripped through a few joints from Are We All Angels for KEXP.
Zach Schonfeld covers the downfall of Vinyl Me Please for Stereogum:
Like many online, direct-to-consumer businesses, Vinyl Me, Please did well during the early COVID years. With concerts on pause, music fans stayed home and ordered records, and vinyl demand skyrocketed. In June, 2021, Billboard reported that VMP had seen a staggering 74% growth in membership in one year and boasted 80,000 active customers. Schaefer told the publication that teens and twenty-somethings were signing up and that, by 2020, VMP’s growth had “outpaced that of overall US vinyl sales.”
But behind the scenes, these were tumultuous, tense years during which female employees say they were routinely undermined, distrusted, and, in some cases, retaliated against by the men who ran the company. Sources say the power structure at VMP was largely gendered; the “director” level, which was largely women, did much of the hard work of keeping the business going while the men in the C-Suite took credit, traveled around, and generally reveled in the lifestyle of music-industry success. Former employees also say that high-ranking female employees were routinely excluded from executive team meetings and left out of decision-making processes.
“There were no women on leadership for over half the time I was working there,” Ram says. “It felt like a boys’ club most of the time.”
Another former employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, corroborates this perception, “Ultimately, yes, it was a sexist workplace,” the former employee says. “My opinion wasn’t as valued as men’s in the room. I was told once that I was too emotional to have certain conversations, which was total bullshit.”
Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory touched down at KCRW HQ for a set from their self-titled album.
QRTR blessed The Lot Radio with an hour long set focused on her recent production inspirations, including some unreleased originals of her own. Be sure to check out her latest single "Não Fala" in this week's drops down below.
Music
Lexa Gates - Latency (Out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Larry June & Cardo Got Wings - On The Unda (Out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Mavis Staples - Godspeed (Frank Ocean cover) (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Braxton Cook - All My Life feat. Marie Dahlstrom (From Not Everyone Can Go, out on 8/29. Preorder: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Radamiz & Fortes - Step, Step, Step (From LIGHTMAN, the album, out on 7/18/25. Preorder: CD available early via Big Enough Home, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Gelli Haha - Normalize (From Bounce House, out on 6/27. Preorder: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Orange 9mm - Turn It Up (Out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Kehlani - Folded (Out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
T.F. & Khrysis - Nostalgia feat. Curren$y (From The Green Bottle, out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 17, 2023
Sunk Giants (Junk Science & Lars Viola) - Wave Pool (From the You Don't Deserve This Beautiful Art 10th Anniversary label compilation, Beauty Knows No Pain, out now. Purchase/Stream: Bandcamp)
Low End Activist - Wave 01 (From Superwave EP, out on 6/20/25. All proceeds of the EP will go toward Medical Aid for Palestinians. Preorder: Bandcamp)
Subsonic Eye - Sweet (From Singapore Dreaming, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Topshelf Records, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
FloFilz - Setagaya Samba (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Marta - Out The Way feat. Tricky (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
DEBBY FRIDAY - Lipsync (From The Starrr Of The Queen Of Life, out on 8/1/25. Preorder: Bandcamp | Sub Pop Mega Mart, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
The Doppelgangaz - All in Your Mind (From Still Left, out on 7/4/25. Preorder: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
AJ Suede - Autonomy (From Throne Away, out on 6/24/25. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
V Don & Estee Nack - Carvel (From the upcoming BRAP 2. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Leon Bridges - Hold On (Out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Dummy Thicc - Life Can Get In Your Ass (From Aw Shit!, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
QRTR - Não Fala (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Wiles Martyr - Easter Island (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp)
Kim Gordon - BYE BYE 25! (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Accompanying T-Shirt with proceeds going toward Noise For Now: Kung Fu Merch, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Sonnyjim & BexBlu - China White (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Knowledge The Pirate - Golden Rules (From Eating Etiquette, out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Robert Glasper - Breathing Underwater feat. Meshell Ndegeocello (From Let Go, out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
The Jack Moves - Miss You (From Love Machine, out on 7/25/25. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Rhys Langston - Pale Black Negative (Cruciate Ligament) (From Pale Black Negative, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Chris Crack - Don't Take Financial Advice From Alicia Keys (From Time Travelers Keep Tryna Kill Me, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Zilla Rocca - Bourbon Generals Theme, Pt. 3 feat. PremRock (Out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Maiya Blaney - "Affirmatively" (From A Room With A Door That Closes, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Lex Records, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 4, 2025
Onry Ozzborn aka The Ybor Ripper - drip pope three (From charadesep, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp)
That'll do us for this week. Thank you for checking this out. It's extremely scary hours outside, so I hope that if I don't do anything else, I provide you with a place to breathe and enjoy yourself. Take care of yourselves and each other, and make good choices.
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