Jay Rock ft. Kendrick Lamar “Easy Bake”

Fresh out of the oven…

Jay Rock is a low-key drug dealer in “Easy Bake.” At nearly three minutes, he cooks up (“Whip game cold, man this s * bout to bubble”) and slings a track “to get your fix.” His partner-in-rhyme Kendrick Lamar also joins in, as the “Money Trees” duo showcase their game-winning chemistry with a skilled wordplay match-up that, like the chorus, is “fresh out of the oven.”

Reigniting the fire from their batch of previous collaborations, Rock and K. Dot go back-and-forth between each other, trading lines that call for the rewind tab. “This my summer day in the tropics by the cool sand/This my shaking down you niggas’ pockets, I don’t do friends,” raps K. Dot, while Rock follows up with, “And I don’t do trends… I’ll f * around and let em loose then.”Nothing but pure dope here. Jay Rock’s 90059 is arriving any day now.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis “Downtown”

So Macklemore isn’t hip-hop? Think again. Blending G-funk, boom-bap, funk, and (a little) disco together with a layer of hip-hop, the notorious M-A-C-K (“Sounding like a French pimp from back in the day”) and Ryan Lewis deliver “Downtown,” a track that’s as hip-hop as it gets. “What you see is what you get,” is sung on the upbeat ear worm, as the Seattle-bred Grammy-winning rapper details his escapades of running through the city in a moped with a “bad little mama” by his side. Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz, and Kool Moe Dee are all credited here (hip-hop!) while the track itself is will get its first live performance this weekend at MTV’s 2015 Video Music Awards (August 30). So “cut the bullshit” and hit the “B-Boy stance” and chill out to “Downtown” above.

Big K.R.I.T. “86”

The shine is clear and the old-school flow is intact on Big K.R.I.T.’s southern-fried banger “86.” Yesterday (August 26) marked the Mississippi rapper’s birthday, so to celebrate he dropped a trunk-rattling number that has more bounce than an ounce. In October, K.R.I.T. will hit the road for a 39-date tour, fittingly titled Kritically Acclaimed, beginning October 22 in Norfolk through December 18 in Atlanta.

Chris Brown ft. French Montana ‘Gangsta Way’

Chris Brown and French Montana roll through the city and go down the “Gangsta Way” for their newest, surprisingly tender, collab. Over gentle drums and plush guitar chords, C. Breezy sings about “rolling through the city” and “riding down the block,” while Montana, with his voice dripping in auto-tune, croons about fame and not letting the money “change me.” The two are currently on the road for Brown’s “One Hell of a Nite” tour.