Action Bronson is a giant white dude from Queens who raps mainly about food. Seriously, “an hour later eat a burger with my drug dealer /and add the butter to the fudge to make the fudge realer.” His breakout mixtape is full of the same lighthearted, soul-sampled, New York shit-talk that the Northeast has been missing lately. There’s no grim gun-talk, or arrests, or social justice - just retro-rap with a sense of humor. His breakout mixtape Dr. Lecter is a product of a bunch of no-name producers and features, but it remains one of the brightest moment’s of last year’s mixtape glut. more ›

Rap mixtapes are rarely arranged with tact or distinguished in their execution. Usually, you’ll find a buffet plate of tracks, assembled with all the wit of a languid block of late night commercials. A superb exception is found in the first four proper songs of Stop Stealin’ Our Style, a mixtape released in December by the Austin-based Screw Shop and Tosin, its curator. The project is dedicated to the memory of a number of fallen Texas rappers, and nods to both Pimp-C and DJ Screw, the former in a tribute track from Lil’ Flip and D-Red that functions as the set’s coda. The track-list, though, tends more towards three other Houston icons - Big Moe and the Hawkins brothers, Fat Pat and Big Hawk. Big Moe died last October of complications from a heart attack, at the age of 33. Fat Pat was shot and killed in 1998 and his older brother suffered the same fate in May 2006. more ›