What's Good (Week of 7/26/26)
Last What's Good of the month, friends! It's my weekly new music blog, and we've got a lot of heat for you, including
New Albums
- Chandler Ward & Loman
- Dark Lo & V Don
- DOMi & JD Beck
- Nickelus F
- Slick Devious
New Singles
- Blvck Hippie
- Coco & Clair Clair
- Open Mike Eagle & Kenny Segal
- Semiratruth
- Video Dave
And more, along with a very chunky Bonus Beats section full of cool music writing and news from around the web. If it's your first time here and you wanna make sure you get the blog delivered to your inbox each Friday as soon as I hit publish, be sure to subscribe.
Playlists
TIDAL
TIDAL: What's Good Playlist - Week of 7/26/26
YouTube
Bonus Beats
Wino Willy's jazz meets MPC live performance outlet, Leaux Fye Tribe had a rainy day performance at The Chloe in New Orleans. Catch the audio in this video above.
Back at the crib with NAHreally, this time with a few joints from his 2022 album HACKINAWAY.
Questlove welcomed the legendary DJ Muggs onto his podcast to discuss the Soul Assassin generalissimo's early days with Cypress Hill, and how the style he pioneered continues on today through loop-driven sounds of Roc Marciano, Griselda, and others.
In other Questlove Show news, he and Open Mike Eagle tapped in for a mini-episode with KEO, artist, designer, and creative collaborator for DOOM to talk the creation of MF DOOM's mask, his own performing art school beginnings, and more.
After his collab with Knocked Loose, Denzel Curry continues his travels hardcore world. This past Tuesday, ahead of a planned September co-headlining tour with them in September, they just played a free show together at a skate park in Brooklyn, and last week he joined Pain Of Truth on stage for a performance of "The Test" from 2020's No Blame... Just Facts.
Music photographer, zine-maker, producer, and designer suchi collected a series of interviews with other artists to ask them how they reckon with the required social labor of their jobs with the economic realities that complicate said jobs. Whole lot of game here, including from What's Good faves August Fanon and Fielded.
Armand Hammer brought the ruckus to NPR's Tiny Desk, along with Kenny Segal and Human Error Club for backup.
Jonny Auping
Not strictly a music thing, but I wanted to take some space to give the good brother Jonny Auping as he brings his excellent newsletter My Time Back to a close. A great way to add to your To Be Read pile, and get some wonderfully introspective writing that captures a man telling you about where he is and how he got there. Do me a favor and if you weren't already subscribed, head on over to the archives and find something to read. My recs:
Natalie Weiner
Over on Don't Rock The Inbox, friend of the blog Natalie Weiner waxes about the song that in her estimation is a more honest national anthem for a America, "John Henry":
It is odd to me, honestly, that the song has been so widely embraced by mostly white country, bluegrass and folk musicians over the years. It's often performed at a quite rollicking tempo (like this Doc Watson rendition, for example) that can feel almost mocking of its tragic story; I think this is traditional more than sinister — Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson's recent version is uptempo, and there are few interpreters I'd trust more. It still chafes a bit to consider the way that a Black folk hero's tale became most often conveyed by white singers along the country/folk axis. Maybe they just show insufficient reverence, to my ear? Or they've heard the song so often its lyrics cease to have meaning?
Writing for Hammer & Hope, Mankaprr Conteh takes an interview with an up-and-coming singer and expands it into an examination of the misogyny and anti-intellectualism associated with the manosphere's encroachment into R&B.
The manosphere promotes narrow-minded approaches to men’s health, social life, and status, all in the name of reasserting dominance. Often, misplaced evolutionary biology and psychology fuel these ideas, sentiments Huron loosely echoed when he told me that “men are supposed to provide — that’s kind of like what’s natural” and that sex is “really kind of pointless unless there’s like children being made,” adding, “We’re kind of missing the point of the usage of our organs.” Contrary to a previous interview in which he suggests “Fiddy,” the second track on Concubania, is about “treating a sex worker with kindness,” Huron told me that sex work is actually first introduced later in “List Crawler” as “a representation of what it looks like for somebody who is morally unstable to hit something close to rock bottom.” When asked if his religious upbringing influenced his perspective on sex, Huron said, “Not even slightly. That’s pure logic.”
Around the time of No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin's release, Meshell Ndegeocello sat in with Norah Jones for her podcast Norah Jones Is Playing Along, and it's out now ahead of October's Synonym.
Music
Rico Nasty - Frenzy (From RX, out now. Purchase: Vinyl via Rico Nasty's official site | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Pearl & The Oysters - Stratford & 52 (From Monkey Mind, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Vinyl via Stones Throw | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Mike Shabb - Buckshot 26' (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Youtube Music)
B-Movie Millionaires (Lee Scott & Black Josh) - TTO feat. Bill Shakes, Sly Moon, & King Grubb (From It Made Sense At The Time, out on 8/14/26. Preorder: Bandcamp | Vinyl via Blah Records, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Navy Blue - Next Life (From Sir Render, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Blu & Sndtrak - LA (From the upcoming LA. Purchase the "LA" single: Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Youtube Music)
Rome Streetz - Marathon Or Race feat. Westside Gunn (From Sock It 2 My Pocket, out now. Purchase: Physical, digital, and merch via Mass Appeal | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Nate Mercereau - Fantastic Thoughts (From Fantastic Thoughts, out on 9/11/26. Preorder: Bandcamp | Physicals and digital via Leaving Records | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Coco & Clair Clair - Coldplay (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
8485 - Buzzbands (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Lily Juniper - One Night Blues (From Bloom Gloom, out on 9/25/26. Preorder: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Blonde Redhead - Blood Spilled (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Kwes Darko - War in these sTreets (From A CancelXd Generation, out on 8/21/26. Preorder: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Zo Zhit - Tokyo Complex (From Theater of Life, out on 8/5/26. Preorder: Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Youtube Music)
Steve Lacy - doom (From Oh yeah?, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
TW: Flashing lights, rapid cuts.
The Difference Machine - Mind Trap (From Some of Us Never Die, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Physicals, digital, and merch via Full Plate | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 9, 2025
monti (fka Chester Watson) - horchata in the fall (From sometimes words aren't enough, out now. Purchase/Stream: Bandcamp)
Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 12, 2024
Chandler Ward & Loman - Touch Grass feat. LORD JAH-MONTE OGBON (From Cold Pressed, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple)
Nosaj Thing & Daito Manabe - LXR (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Semiratruth - Tudo Bem! (From S!M, out on 9/25/26. Preorder: Bandcamp | Physicals and digital via Sooper Records | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Blvck Hippie - Joshua Fought The Battle of Jericho (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Bandcamp Album of the Day Apr 29, 2025
Nickelus F - Acid Rain (From Hardboy, out now. Purchase/Stream: Bandcamp)
Winter - without you (mixtape version) feat. Soccer Mommy (From Romantix Mixtape, out on 9/18/26. Purchase: Bandcamp | Cassette and Tshirt bundle via Winspear | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
TW: Flashing lights
lilith - WRITHE feat. Dottovu (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Dark Lo & V Don - Cabin Fever (From MADE OF GOLD, out now. Purchase: Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Youtube Music)
S!LENCE & TENTEN - MEANWHILE... (From DRY CLEAN ONLY, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
NORTHSIDE LORD - GRAM LOVER (Out now. Purchase: Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple)
DOMi & JD Beck - PUZZLE PiECES (From WHO ASKED?, out now. Purchase: Physicals and digital via Blue Note Records | Physicals and digital via DOMi & JD Beck's shop | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Open Mike Eagle & Kenny Segal - She Swear I'm Colorblind feat. billy woods (From DOOMED!, out on 8/14/26. Preorder: Bandcamp | Physicals, digital, and merch via Backwoodz Studioz | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Lt Headtrip & steel tipped dove - Ya Heard (From Hostile Engineering, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Nick Bruno - Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis feat. Boldy James (From the upcoming Brutality. Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Slick Devious - Numbers on the Board feat. Dobleon (From The I-5 Corridor (Life in the Willamette Valley), out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Linda May Han Oh & Melissa Aldana - Cyclic Episode (From Beneath Lifted Skies, out on 8/21/26. Preorder: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Video Dave - EXTRA! extra!! (hidden bonus track) feat. STILL RIFT & Open Mike Eagle (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple)
Roy Rutto - miles feat. Lundey (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Chris Keys - voices (From yardwork, out now. Purchase/Stream: Bandcamp)
Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 23, 2023
ILL-Sugi - _Summer (Out now. Purchase/Stream: Bandcamp)
Wiles Martyr - BEACHOUSE (From A AS IN ALBUM, out now. Purchase/Stream: Bandcamp)
And that'll do us for this week, and for this month. Thank you for rocking with me, and if you enjoyed the blog be sure to share it with your friends. Don't hesitate to let me know what you think either down here in the comments, or over on my socials.
Have a good weekend, take care of each other, and as always make good choices.
Comments ()