ROUNDUP: New Names, New Sounds 2022

Every time we do a competition here, one of the best outcomes isn't the winners: it's all the new names that come up in the process. Our first annual Vermont Hip Hop Awards been no different. The "Rookie of the Year" category saw a lot of nominations come in for artists who haven't been mentioned much, if at all, here on the site. Some of them, I'd never even heard of. What follows is a quick tour of 802's cutting edge. Tune in.

sepol mas - Smoking Dandelions

Emcee sepol mas hails from Colchester, and it's kinda embarrassing I've never heard of him because not only does dude have some slick bars, he's got a hefty back catalog, too. This is smoked out but highly creative stuff. I generally check out anyone's top five tracks on Soundcloud but I spent over an hour yesterday catching up on his body of work. I'm a fan. Shit-talking, introspective, wistful and funny, sepol mas is a gifted writer who is growing into a real threat on the mic, and quickly.

lil ranch - Another. Rap. Track

I was also 100% sleeping on lil ranch, another wild creative artist who is big on lower case letters. His style is a lot more goofy, but he's got some serious skills, both on the mic and as a songwriter. Operating squarely in that post-everything, omni-genre mashup space, his catalog is catchy, self-depreciating, and full of home studio gems. And as this latest single can attest, dude can rap his ass off when he wants to.

foz - all I am, the mud on my boots

Once again, no caps for foz, an uncompromising artist with a penchant for tightly wound flow patterns and thoughtful, damn near philosophical verses. His stepping stones EP reminded me of the underground rap heyday of the Living Legends crew out in Cali, who recorded their albums on cassette tape and sold them that way, too. This is rough around the edges, but holy shit, there is a lot of potential here. Looking forward to whatever he's working on next.

NorthEastYoungin' - My Mind ft. Ro$e Gold

NorthEastYoungin' is transmitting from Rutland, an area I think we'll see a lot more artists coming from soon. There's just too many people, after all: it's the second biggest county in the state. Once local venues start booking hip hop on the regular, that's going to have a massive ripple effect down there. On this track, he's teaming up with Ro$e Gold, who got several nominations for Rookie of the Year himself, over a beat by hayku, a prolific one man factory for "type beats" type beats.

Fabo - Frigid ft. jkidd

Fabo, often stylized as Fābō, is a fully-cooked success story waiting to happen. A charismatic presence on the mic, he's got flow patterns for days and some smart, sharp bars, too. His kobe yr. project was an incredible ride. This cat is my personal pick for Rookie of the Year. I'm still very satisfied with how the overall ballot turned out, don't get me wrong, but both Rivan C. and Robscure have been dropping quality projects for years now. Fabo came out guns blazing in 2021 and he will be eating lunch off a lot of people's plates in 2022.

Cam Barnes - Merry Go Round ft. Robscure

Cam Barnes is another artist who came up often during the nomination round for "Rookie of the Year." A fixture on UVM campus who got profiled in The Vermont Cynic last year, he's been steadily upping his bar game and evolving his approach in the booth. He's also winning some fans: his project Still Breathing got two nods for Album of the Year. Here, he's teaming up with Robscure over a dusty and soulful Denny Whitewater beat.

Antwon Levee & Dust - Leviathan

Finally, a sharp left turn at Lake Champlain. Antwon Levee & Dust hail from Plattsburgh, NY, where they've been making futuristic old school boom bap shit for years now. I mention them here because as producer / emcee Antwon Dust states on his Soundcloud, ol' boy is "looking for collabs" and his style is dope. "Leviathan" was a standout cut from their recent LP, Lake Effect, which I reviewed in the latest issue of Seven Days. Get in touch with these cats, maybe. Let's see some collabs.