My pick for this week’s dark-horse release that you’d be remiss to overlook is West Coast vet Philthy Rich’s new album, Motivational Purpose, an impressive body of work that finds the “King of Oakland” adding to his legend as one of the Bay Area’s finest unsung heroes.

Having diversified his portfolio with a foray into Tinseltown these past few years, Bodega Bamz hooks up with V Don and churns out a serviceable slate of cuts highlighted by the standouts “110 Keep It,” “Raise Ya Glass” and “Frontline.” Being in front of the camera doesn’t seem to have impaired Bamz’s skills behind the mic, as he equips himself well over V Don’s collection of brooding soundscapes. DZA and Real Bad Man prove to be a deadly combination, as the pair concentrate their forces on noteworthy selections like the Flee Lord-assisted “Dearly Beloved” and “Ken Patera,” which features stanzas from Knowledge The Pirate and Queens connect Remy Banks. Harlem mainstays Smoke DZA and Bodega Bamz both contribute to this week’s slate of new releases with Mood Swings and The Lost Pack, produced entirely by Real Bad Man and V Don respectively.

While my time with this release is still relatively young, “Come My Way,” “Stop That,” and “2012” are just a few of the good things I stumbled upon while perusing through SABA’s latest. Returning more than three years after the release of his critically-acclaimed sophomore album, CARE FOR ME, SABA has resurfaced with an LP that finds the Pivot Gang leader galvanizing a clan of collaborators ranging from drill maven G Herbo (“Survivor’s Guilt”) to veteran wordsmith Black Thought, who appears on the album’s titular finale. While I’ve enjoyed his appearances alongside Chance the Rapper and others, I hadn’t fully gotten familiar with all that he has to offer until pressing play on Few Good Things, which caught my attention in short order. Such was the case for me when it came to Chicago spitter SABA.

With the abundance of artists dropping new music every day, it’s all but impossible for fans to fully do their due diligence on each individually.

New yo gotti august 2012