Friday Afternoon Rap Roundup: Jay Worthy & MadeinTYO

In an effort to continue CABBAGES' overarching mission of independent hip-hop/rap music discovery, I'm trialing this weekly series to let readers know about new releases from artists grinding and thriving outside of the major label system. Each installment of 'Friday Afternoon Rap Roundup' features one highlighted album review/recommendation, plus a short selection of new or recently dropped projects for your weekend listening consideration.

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Release Highlight of the Week:

Jay Worthy & MadeinTYO, Time After Time (buy it / stream it)

The music industry does an excellent job of chewing up talent like gum and then spitting it out. The business seemed to be working overtime in the 2010s, as digital advances made it easier than ever to get someone popping off one single before letting them languish, both figuratively (Trinidad James) and literally (Bobby Shmurda). Boosted by Warner Music, MadeinTYO's "Uber Everywhere" blew up in 2016 based off its topical and timely subject matter, as well as its percolating K Swisha beat. Yet despite two more Billboard Hot 100 charting feature placements with A$AP Ferg & Nicki Minaj and Chance The Rapper & DaBaby, respectively, his commercial prospects sagged and his public profile waned.

Yet by no longer being some major label's mere flavor of the week, MadeinTYO now enjoys more artistic freedom as an independent act, evidenced by his mature-but-not-moldy TYO 808 from earlier this year as well as this brand new Jay Worthy team-up. Bookended by pointed commentary from To Pimp A Butterfly architect Terrace Martin, Time After Time is the sort of project that warrants fresh attention from those who've hastily dismissed the dude as a one hit wonder. Teaming up with the prodigious LNDN DRGS funkster amid a particularly prolific period of visibility, he reaps the benefits of the pimp game cosign without being consumed by it. Assuming a role behind the boards as well as on the mic, he lends a jazzy vibe to the proceedings that nudges his West Coast cohort towards a more international headspace on the jet-setting "Master Delux" and the similarly fly "Chop." On the unsettlingly nostalgic "School Daze," the pair offer muted remarks and laments over figures–mainly women–in their lives, Worthy looking back on youthful indiscretions and TYO aiming to reconcile in the present day.

Here are some other new albums, EPs, and mixtapes from independent hip-hop/rap artists and labels worth your time this weekend:

Phiik & Lungs, Carrot Season (buy it / stream it)

Babyface Ray, The Kid That Did (buy it / stream it)

CLYDE & Algernon Cornelius, STICK A FORK IN IT (buy it / stream it)

Skip Waiters, THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE (buy it/stream it)

WAKAI, They Ain't Want Us (buy it/stream it)

Shakewell, Dangerously Close (buy it/stream it)