Pi’erre Bourne, Kenny Beats and More – New Hip-Hop Projects

As Labor Day weekend hits, hip-hop comes through with the week’s latest new music drops. This time, a wildly talented multihyphenate repping Queens and South Carolina shows off his remarkable skills on an all-encompassing album, a revered producer drops an emotional debut solo album, a Brooklyn spitter comes through with a hard-hitting new EP for the streets and more.

Pi’erre Bourne is undeniably one of the most talented individuals in hip-hop. He’s also certainly one of the busiest—one week he’s finishing a global tour and then the next week he’s embarking on another trek. Now, the acclaimed artist-producer finds time to drop a new solo effort, Good Movie. Following the release of two joint projects, Yo!88 alongside fellow producer TM88 and Space Age Pimpin with Juicy J, as well as two solo albums, The Life of Pi’erre 4 and The Life of Pi’erre 5, all within the past year, Pi’erre directs his talent and focus toward further evolving his already established sound with his new LP.

“I need to be even more consistent,” he told XXL Magazine in its summer issue. “It was cool to release the music that I got to last year, but I have to really just keep pushing the envelope further.”

Led by the album’s title track “Good Movie,” which was released on Aug. 26, the 23-track offering was produced entirely by Pi’erre Bourne himself and includes guest appearances from only two other hand-picked rappers. Don Toliver laid down vocals on “Psane” while “Moving Too Fast” features frequent collaborator Young Nudy. Good Movie arrives just days before Pi’erre Bourne sets out on a massive 48-stop world tour of the same name. The Good Movie Tour kicks off on Sept. 6 in Houston, and wraps up on Dec. 17, in Auckland, New Zealand.

After racking up production credits on some of the best projects of 2022 so far such as Denzel Curry’s Melt My Eyez See Your Future and Vince Staples’ Ramona Park Broke My Heart, Kenny Beats unleashes his debut solo album, LOUIE. The 17-track LP is almost entirely made up of instrumental songs composed by the super-producer as a heartfelt dedication to his late father. Driven by soulful record samples and smooth yet punchy drum patterns, Kenny uses the grief of losing his loved one as the backbone for music that evokes nothing but raw emotion.

After teasing snippets of LOUIE‘s instrumental tracks for a couple of weeks, Kenny Beats officially announced his first solo effort on Aug. 25. In explaining why he finally decided to put out his immensely personal project, which was recorded entirely over the course of one month at the tail-end of 2021, Kenny says it was something that was never planned but came together when the time was right.

“I always said that I wouldn’t do a solo album because I didn’t have anything to say,” said the “Hold My Head” producer. “Finally, I did. Something dark turned into something beautiful. This album encapsulated the feeling of that one month.”

Dusty Locane hits the streets hard with the release of his new EP, Rollin N Controllin, the raspy Brooklyn drill rhymer’s first project since his 2021 debut album, Untamed.  Along with two previously released singles, “Slide” and “Demise,” both featuring 3Kizzy, the EP also includes Locane’s certified gold record, “Rollin N Controllin Freestyle,” as well as “Rollin N Controllin Pt. 2” and “Rollin N Contollin Pt. 3.”

The Rollin N Controllin EP was also predated by the recent release of the official music video for “Slide,” a visual in which Dusty Locane can be seen rapping in front of a mural of Nipsey Hussle, serving as a gesture of respect toward the late Los Angeles MC.

Check out new projects from P-Lo, Aesop Rock, Homeboy Sandman and more below.