"Indie artists like Roc Marciano, R.A.P. Ferreira, and more have incorporated DSP-sidestepping, direct-to-consumer models for years. But now, some mainstream artists like Kanye West, who is selling 'Donda 2' on his $200 Stem Player, are divesting from DSPs, and the reaction to it has been a mixed bag" - Complex goes on to question the motives of artists pulling their music from the big three streaming platforms.

The Black Keys share previously unreleased instrumental song 'Black Mud Part II' from the 'Brothers' era; psychedelic screamo/metal band Portrayal of Guilt share '2020 Will Burn In Hell Forever'; 'i-38' is live funk rap by 38 Spesh; Napalm Death's Shane Embury releases an ambient industrial song 'Omisoka' with his band Dark Sky Burial; R.A.P. Ferreira shares a psychedelic new album with 'Sips of Ripple Wine (No Stemware)' included.

Complex presents (not so new) art rap scene, "a movement that has become one of the most vital things happening in hip-hop today". What these artists from the scene have "in common, more than a sound or a location, is a determination to be original and exist outside of the mainstream... and sound wildly different". The strongest names on the scene are R.A.P. Ferreira, billy woods, Elucid, Quelle Chris, and Armand Hammer (a duo consisting of woods and Elucid).

"One of the richer, more abstract, more discursive rap albums in recent memory" - Stereogum says about their newest choice for Album of the week, R.A.P. Ferreira's debut under his real name (Rory Allen Philip), co-produced by The Jefferson Park Boys. The beats are slightly leftfield - full of live instrumentation with murmuring bass, idle guitar flutters, occasional bursts of horn, and jazz as an obvious inspiration. His raps are more "slam poetry than straight-up rap. The songs unfurl on their own schedule. They’re never too long, but you’re also never quite sure which direction they’ll twist in next". In lyrics, R.A.P. is interested in playing games with language, like - “preaching the rhyming word is absurd as pledging allegiance before reading terms of service agreement”. So, an unusual album, but not too much.

"We take the ugliest parts of the world and make them beautiful" - the free-jazz/hip-hop band Irreversible Entanglements say about their new song 'Who Sent You'; Ash Koosha has released a cool new video for his meditative and intense track ‘Dive’, Perfume Genius is back with "music to both fight and make love to" with 'Describe'; R.A.P. Ferreira goes into trippy, jazzy territory in 'Leaving Hell'; Nordic dark folk band Wardruna combine modern and traditional on 'Gra'; Body Count go political again on 'Bum-Rush'; P.E. mix post-punk and electronica on 'Pink Shiver'; Welsh producer and vocalist Kelly Lee Owens samples the sounds of glacial ice melting on ‘Melt!’ to impressive effect; similarly, Field Works turns the echolocations of endangered bats into ambient on 'Ultrasonic'; singer/producer Velvet Negroni released a hard-hitting, psychedelic R&B song 'Bagette'; 'Crunch' is a noisy indie rock song by Jordana; It Only Ends Once is an interesting blend of screamo, black metal, and post-rock; Injury Reserve continue their avant-rap path with 'Hoodwinked'; Dirty Projectors described their new song 'Overlord' as "Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’ for an Amazon Prime world”; White Stones go in psychedelic prog-death metal direction on 'Drowned In Time'; XL Recordings co-founder Richard Russell released a Ghostface Killah collaboration '03:15AM/Caviar'; Elder present their concept album about the lifespan of a civilization with 'Embers'; Disclosure go to the dancefloor with 'Tondo'; 'Sandwiches' by Gordi is a usual-sounding song, but there's a special kind of wormth to it; Methyl Ethel go into sympho-indie territory with 'Majestic AF'; The Magnetic Fields don't need much explaining with a song titled 'The Day the Politicians Died'.