What's Good (Week of 8/23/26)
The weekend approaches, so you know what that means. Time for my round-up of all the dope music for the week in What's Good. We've got a pretty stacked line-up this time with:
New Albums
- Busta Rhymes & J Dilla
- Erykah Badu & The Alchemist
- Hakushi Hasegawa
- Mastodon
- Russian Circles
- Saul Williams
New Singles
- Brainstory
- Dexter Story
- Jeremiah Chiu
- Nadine El Roubi
- Rich Jones & steel tipped dove
- Sour Widows
And a whole lot more to get the party live for you and yours. Do me a favor and subscribe to get this delivered to your mailbox every Friday as soon as I hit publish (or when I publish other stuff, like I did yesterday).
If it's your first time with us, Playlists are pretty self-explanatory, Bonus Beats are stuff like music writing and live performances from around the web, and Music is like my own personal MTV or Much Music VJ block, including purchase and streaming links for everything featured. Let's get into it!
Playlists
TIDAL
TIDAL: What's Good Playlist - Week of 8/23/26
YouTube
Bonus Beats
Chattanooga continue to stand up! Isaiah Rashad made his way onto NPR's Tiny Desk for a set of catalog spanning joints.
Pearl & The Oysters brought Monkey Mind and Planet Pearl to the KEXP studios back in July and the video's up now.
Hiero was also in the building at KEXP on July, with Souls Of Mischief dropping a few joints off for a quick live set.
Patrick Clarke
Ahead of the release of today's Honest Feeling Album, Patrick Clarke interviewed Hakushi Hasegawa about the album, and their dedication to operating outside of assigned boundaries in music.
If Hasegawa has an artistic ethos, it stems from this: not restricting themselves to only the sounds one “must” include in any given genre. “One of the purposes of writing songs for me is to make unnecessary necessary,” they say. “It’s hard to describe, but for certain things, they have to be that way, even if they’re unnecessary.”
“Unnecessary” is not the only word with a negative connotation that Hasegawa seeks to reclaim – they’re also intent on taking pride in “illegitimacy.” Theft and stealing are common motifs across the record, enough for the songwriter to call direct attention to it in the liner notes. In Hasegawa’s world, there comes a kind of freedom in actualisation beyond gatekeeping strictures, in operating outside arbitrary decisions for the “correct” way to move about this life. “When you do something,” they elaborate, “I don’t believe it has to be approved by everybody. You can do things illegitimately.”
Natalie Weiner
Dolly Parton left us this week at the age of 80, and while she's being deservedly honored by everyone across the spectrum, friend of the blog Natalie Weiner notes in her debut for The New Republic that Dolly's life and strengths were a bit more terrestrial than the deifying praise might suggest.
Considering how much she gave, it is shocking how much she also kept to herself. Her marriage, chiefly, and other aspects of her personal life (whether or not her entire body is covered in tattoos has been subject of considerable debate). She was candid about putting on the costume of Dolly Parton, about the world knowing the one version of her that she was ok with sharing and only her intimates knowing the all the rest. It is hard to fathom that with all she was for her fans and popular culture as a whole, there was still so much that she intentionally left a mystery—a mystique that only made her seem more superhuman. She left space for people to make her whatever they needed her to be, and they certainly used her that way up until the end. Two of the biggest recent Dolly books, Sarah Smarsh’s She Come By It Natural and Lynn Melnick’s I’ve Had to Think Up a Way to Survive—are as much about what her fans got from witnessing her as the icon herself.
That projection is how we get over-the-top conceits like Dolly Parton’s America, and the idea that she’s our last “great unifier” or some kind of supernatural presence right here on earth—almost overcompensating for all those years of snide comments. “It took me probably years longer to be taken serious, but I wasn’t willing to change,” Parton said. She tried to diffuse some of the reverence—“There ain’t nobody that good. I’m not all that… I’m not even all there,” she said in the same interview—but it only grew, and probably will grow faster now that she’s gone.
al.divino's live beat set for Room 303 Radio in Tokyo is now up on his YouTube channel.
Puma Blue antichamber tour from last year is captured in the concert film aftrchamber, with stripped down versions of joints from that album, as well as Holy Waters, Swum Baby EP, and more.
Music
Ozer - Fihhh feat. Danny Ali (Out now. Purchase: Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Youtube Music)
Blaq Kush - Uncle Tom's First Apartment (From Unregistered Kush, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Mansur Brown - Eyes (Out now. Purchase: Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Youtube Music)
Brainstory - Blend (From Shoebox Days, out on 11/13/26. Preorder: Bandcamp | Physicals via Big Crown Records | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Nate Mercereau - Accelerator (From Fantastic Thoughts, out on 9/11/26. Preorder: Bandcamp | Physicals and digital via Leaving Records | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Fielded - Club Tears (From Some Kind of Animal, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Vinyl via EveryDejaVu | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Genevieve Artadi - Supersonic Faster (From GVA!!!!!, out on 10/8/26. Preorder: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Frak & Guapdad 4000 - Chalant (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Youtube Music)
Jaga Jazzist - Spiral Era (Live) (From Live with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Digital via Brainfeeder/Ninja Tune | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Jeremiah Chiu - Plastic Mind / Elastic Machines (From Edge Conditions, out on 10/9/26. Preorder: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Russian Circles - Seventh Seal (From Nine, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Physicals and merch via Hello Merch | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Sleep Sinatra
Sleep Sinatra - Lycanthrope (From ALightInThaDark, out now. Purchase/Stream: Bandcamp)
Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 8, 2026
Monk Jordan & The Sound Conspirator - Lung Rubble feat. Curly Castro & PremRock (From Kintsugi Tapes, out now on Bandcamp, 9/25/26 on DSPs. Purchase/Stream: Bandcamp)
Resavoir - 4th Cloud feat. Gregory Uhlmann (From Above The Clouds, out on 10/9/26. Preorder: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Winter - hide-a-lullaby feat. Peel Dream Magazine (From Romantix Mixtape, out on 9/18/26. Preorder: Bandcamp | Cassette and T-Shirt via Winspear | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
JMSN - I Don't Even Think About U (From ...it's only about u if you think it is., out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Physicals, Digital, & merch via JMSN's website | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Sarah Meth - Don't touch me you're my hero (From Something Shameful, out on 10/30/26. Preorder: Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Lily Juniper - Quiet Tired (From Bloom Gloom, out on 9/25/26. Preorder: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Dexter Story - Mama feat. Sudan Archives and Kamasi Washington (From T'Som, out on 10/30/26. Preorder: Bandcamp | Vinyl and digital via Soundaway Records | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Oscar Goldman - SMELL-O-VISION (From Such A High Horse, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Pan Amsterdam - Pan Out (From Panarama, out on 10/16/26. Preorder: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Sour Widows - Lucky Star (From Sigil, out on 10/23/26. Preorder: Bandcamp | Physicals and merch via Julia's War | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
tricotX (aka tricot) - 260822_cybermotoko_vo (From the ongoing tricotX project. Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
BoriRock & Boneweso - 4DAGANG (From the upcoming INFINITE WAVE 2: FOREVER WAVY. Purchase "4DAGANG": Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Youtube Music)
Nadine El Roubi - Hibiscus (From Life Is Beautiful Again, out on 10/23/26. Preorder: Bandcamp | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 22, 2026
Angelica Bess - Arborés (Out now. Purchase/Stream: Bandcamp)
devonwho - Pm (From TV2, out on 10/16/26. Preorder: Bandcamp | Physical and digital Leaving Records, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Jay Cinema - Apply Pressure! (Out now. Purchase: Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Youtube Music)
Hakushi Hasegawa - Little Briar-Rose (From Honest Feeling Album, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Physicals and digital via Brainfeeder/Ninja Tune | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Erykah Badu & The Alchemist - They Ain't You feat. Thundercat (From Before The World Blows, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Physicals via Badu World Market | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Mastodon - A Vampire's Demeanor feat. Nate Newton & Randy Blythe (From Marrow Deep, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Physicals, digital, and merch via Loma Vista Recordings | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Busta Rhymes & J Dilla - Lay Down feat. T3 (From Dillagence 2, out now. Purchase: Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Orion Sun - miss u (type beat) (Out now, YouTube only.)
Conductor Williams & Bart Oatmeal (aka Baron Davis) - GOH (Out now. Purchase: Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
LNDN DRGS & George Clinton - What It P Like? feat. Del The Funky Homosapien & Aceyalone (From Generation P, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Youtube Music)
Saul Williams - The Dagger (From Leap Life, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Vinyl and digital via Big Data/Ninja Tune | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Rich Jones & steel tipped dove - The Supplier (From The Supplier, out on 9/21/26. Preorder: Bandcamp)
Floating Points & The San Francisco Ballet Orchestra - Movement 3: Rage of the Gods (From Mere Mortals, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Physicals via Deutsche Grammophon | Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
Radamiz & Mahershala Ali - 1% (From Bottom Of Heaven I, out now. Purchase: Qobuz, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Youtube Music)
Willie Green - The Speaking Stone feat. PremRock, E L U C I D, & Cavalier (From the digitally remastered version of 2016's Doc Savage, out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | YouTube Music)
That'll do us for this week! As always, thank you for rocking with me and if you enjoyed your time here, share it with a friend. Don't be afraid to reach out to me either in the comments, or on social media. Take care of each other, enjoy your weekend, and make good choices.
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