Somewhere between the smoky streets of a late-night city and the flickering frames of an old Italian film, Don Cicci has found a fascinating musical crossroads. “Polpette” doesn't so much begin as slowly reveal itself, arriving on piano notes before boom-bap grooves pull the curtain back and invite us into its world. It is an intriguing next step in an artistic language that refuses to treat genre as a border. Here, hip-hop's dusty head-nod meets the warmth and lo-fi, jazzy c

DAPS As you listen to Daps' discography, he has already shown that he understands the oldest rule in hip-hop - if you want the room to listen, you better have something worth saying. With “Down Wit Dat (Cold Killa),” he sharpens that instinct into a hard-edged statement that is deeply rooted in the streets of West Philadelphia while carrying the competitive spirit of classic rap. A fascinating artistic connection here to the kind of hip-hop that treated the microphone as both