Freddie Gibbs - From Tha G

I am pretty much all over this. The vocal sample on the instrumental is just... groovy? Yes, you could call this gangsta-groove. If you wanted to get shot. Anyway, it's got a real West Coast sound, despite coming straight out of the Midwest (Gary, Indiana).

Freddie always has more flow than the Hoover Dam, and this is no exception: those rhymes are pretty intricate for a straight gangsta track. And yes, the chorus is gash - nothing in life is perfect, I guess.

Four Tet - There Is love In You

There is both good news and bad news.

The good news: Four Tet have pre-released their new album, so you can listen to it online for zero money.

The bad news: the album is not embeddable, so you have to leave this little haven and go to a different corner of the internet in order to listen to it.

So, my dears, click here to be whisked away to a dreamy piano-world for 47 minutes. Just, you know, don't forget send me a postcard sometime when you're drifting on those fuffy electro clouds.

Foreign Beggars feat Skinnyman - Hold On

I love this even though the intro to the video looks like an out-take from The Life of Brian. Because the whiny little hook is catchier than Mark Boucher with superglue on his gloves. And the double-time rapping makes it all sound a bit DnB, but with better lyrics. (Yes, someone has actually typed out all million-words-a-minute. Not me.)

Idir, Féfé & Leeroy - Je viens de là où l'on m'aime

This song is unembeddable, so you'll have to get clicky with the link, but is so gorgeously hypnotic and uplifting that I had to put it up.

The chorus is sung by Idir in Kabyle, one of the indigenous languages of Algeria.

And Féfé and the ever-inventive Leeroy have put some golden-hearted lyrics on it.

The video is also beautiful.

Orishas - El Kilo

I am besotted with this song. The "kilo" of the title isn't a drugs reference, but Cuban slang for cents/pennies, and the whole song is about poverty, hardship and identity. Lyrics aside, that bassline gets me every time.

Zola - Mdlwembe

Want to hear a story?

As the day-glo 80s were finally burning out, house music arrived in the clubs of South Africa. It spilled slowly from the clubs onto the radio and into the streets. The music was slowed down to allow more complex rhythms, and lyrics were often in more than one of South Africa's official languages, or in the township mixed languages, called Tsotsitaal .

The new genre was called Kwaito , meaning "cool". It was, and largely remains, the sound of young urban South Africa. The Wikipedia article about Kwaito, and the one about Tsotsitaal are pretty interesting.

The energy of this song is incredible. But if you prefer something with a softer sound try this one.

Doc Brown - Nothing to Lose

Juicy Vivaldi sample and a skippy little beat. As Kanye once said, me likey.

There is a published conversation between Doc Brown, and the novelist Zadie Smith (his big sister), which is quite interesting.