SCHOOLBOY Q Remember when Nas told Jay-Z that Eminem murdered him on his own track? Go listen to A$AP Rocky’s “Brand New Guy” and hear Schoolboy Q’s verse steal the show in similar fashion. While Kendrick Lamar is resuscitating West Coast hip-hop for mainstream consumption, his TDE/Black Hippy crew is busy making sure people know it is more than a one-man movement. Ab-Soul and Jay Rock have made noise but Schoolboy Q has proven to be the dopest and most distinctive rapper in the camp. If anything has become his calling card, it’s fearless and off-kilter verses spit with a reckless abandon that the anti-mainstream can appreciate, but they’re also dope enough for radio to find room for. This hippy may have achieved balance.

Mike McCray

Price: $31-$75