Often times, several extremely talented artists go unnoticed and more upsettingly, unheard for quite some time. To try to curb that common trend, here is the first installment of our Fresh Cuts musicians to watch for.

Vic Mensa, Chicago, Illinois

This young spitfire hailing from Chicago is quickly gaining ground with the massive uprise of the Save Money Gang movement. Riding on the massive waves that Chance The Rapper has created, Mensa is rapidly gaining recognition as well. His major mixtape release Innanetape garnered him the attention of several Chicago natives and launched his professional career. His rigorous touring schedule certainly got his name circulating and is now a part of several upcoming festivals including the SXSW festival, The Firefly festival, the Wireless festival and countless oversea festivals. His style and flow is easily comparable to Chance the Rapper as their tone and delivery is quite similar as they grew up rapping together. One clear distinction is that he hasn’t entirely found himself. Throughout this thoughtful debut, Mensa switches from jazzy upbeat jams on “Lovely Day” showcasing his ability to sing along with his lyrical prowess. On “Orange Soda” he sort of let’s his mouth run wild by rapping on smoking, school and his experiences of starting rapping, love and of course displaying rapidly-firing, articulated metaphors to the a level that most artists strive to achieve after years of perfecting the craft. Songs like “Time is Money” are really where the hype is built around. In this song Mensa delves deep into the world of stardom, explaining how he misses living at home, his relationships with loved ones and how violence is always running rampant in the city. He speaks on the human desire for money but offering a valuable lesson with the hook via his father, “Make money but the money you make don’t make you.”  From just a quick examination and listen through, Vic Mensa is set to explode upward and onward if this prosperous path of honesty and wholesome values stay present in further recordings. As for the Chicago rap scene, it seems a positive renaissance through rap music is emerging.

Vince Staples,  Long Beach, California

From the Cutthroat Boyz comes the raw cut of meat that is Vince Staples. While Vince is necessarily new to the rap game, recent success has Staples name swirling around and after one of the hardest touring schedules imaginable, he deserves it. In 2011, Staples put out Shyne Coldchain Vol 1 produced by Odd Future Member Syd Tha Kid, cementing his place within the Odd Future collective. Fast forward to 2013 and you will almost be able to pinpoint where the madness began. On June 20, 2013, Staples released his major mixtape Stolen Youth  completely produced by Larry Fisherman, Mac Miller’s alter ego. His relations with several aspiring rappers proved to extremely important to him later in his career, as the tours that were produced from these newly forged relations took Staples off the ground and threw him a thousand feet straight up. On June 20, his mixtape was released while Staples was on the world wind nationwide tour that was the Space Migration Tour, headed by frontman Mac Miller, Chance The Rapper and the Odd Future collective the Internet. Through his music being released while on tour, this gave Staples the opportunity to explode. Going back to his Odd Future roots, Staples offered his talents on several of Earl Sweatshirt’s tracks on his enormous debut album Doris, the long awaited return of the so called Child Messiah of rap. “Hive,” “Centurion” and “Burgundy” all feature guest verses from Staples which bolstered his recognition in the rap world, showcasing his venomous and often times, menacing lyrics with a angle of anger, struggle and and turmoil that plague the life of a young black male in America. Shortly after doing so, Staples then embarked on the Doris World tour, traveling the country yet again to spread his music.

The music itself, albeit rough and ragged, inspire a feeling of desperation and troublesome past plagued by poor decisions. In the song “Stuck In My Ways” is a track paying homage to a trap life, living day to day with a  gun at his hip and hatred in his heart. He opens the track with “I wanna ask God why the bible lied to me,” a true testament to Staples open storytelling that his music depicts. in “Guns and Roses” Staples peaks on the trap that is gang life, and the dire consequences that coincide with the lifestyle. “Guns and roses, another young boy lost, another fallen soldier. Younger brother tears falling on his mother shoulder” paints the damage that is all too real for many gang entangled families. Staples will be embarking on the Oxymoron World tour with Schoolboy Q and friends, so if you’re worried about missing your chance to see this upcommer, he will give you several chances very soon.

The Beast Coast Movement, New York, New York

New York over the last several years has been, in the eyes of the rap community, on the turn around. A renaissance of sorts seems to be in motion with the Flatbush Zombies, Action Bronson and Pro Era being at the forefront of this scene. The Flatbush Zombies trio spits their flows out of Flatbush, Brooklyn and thanks to a serious local following, they have successfully made their name a nationwide name thanks to their most recent tour, the Better Off Dead North American tour, spreading their ideologies on government policies, partying and drug usage. The group, comprised of Meechy Darko, Zombie Juice and Erick Elliott who also doubles as the group’s producer. The trio has also featured on several other exploding artists such as Asap Rocky and fellow Beast Coast movement frontrunner Action Bronson.

Action Bronson is unlike any other character in the face of music. Regularly fighting security guards, and dominating them, is almost becoming part of the stage show for Bronson.  This year old Albanian all star totes a hefty record of hard work in the studio, but not until 2008. Bronson was a longtime chef working at his father’s shop in Queens as well as being a chef for the New York Mets baseball team. His social media still reflects this past time but his music is nothing to scoff at. Bronson has released 5 full length mixtapes as well as 3 fully produced studio albums with another expected to drop in 2014. Bronson brings GhostFace Killah’s likeness back into rap with hard, quick paced beats allowing Bronson to show some grace with carefully crafted bars depicting the life 0f a man on top of the world, at least through Bronson’s eyes. Action Bronson recently completed his Blue Chips 2 Tour crossing the country spreading Bronselienio’s name nationwide.

Finally, is the rap collective ProEra, headed by frontmen Joey Bada$$  and Capital Steez truly bringing back the 90’s grind of New York. One listen to any of ProEra’s cypher and you feel like you’ve tuned into a Sirius Radio throwback station. Progressive Era is relatively new to the game but with 15 standing members and 8 albums between them in the last 3 years, people are quickly taking notice. After a short listen to any of the tracks the first thing many will notice is the production and how the typical base banging snare riddled tracks are no where to be found, instead they are replaced with piano rhythms with standup bass, trumpet, almost bringing back the sound of the 1920’s jazz movement and in turn, produces some of the most listenable rap music around. The rappers themselves present themselves with such a laid back tone that often times the intricacies of their cyphers are much easier to notice, and the technicalities of the metaphors shine through. Lyrically gifted, Joey Bada$$ has taken full advantage of the groups signing to New York based Cinematic Music Group, and has released 3 projects, 1999, Rejex, and Summer Knights which all have received rave reviews. Thanks to the Beast Coast Tour with fellow New York bar bombers Flatbush Zombies, popularity has skyrocketed for everyone involved. Whether the media is ready for it or not, there is a very gifted group of rappers breaking out of New York and it will certainly be worth the time to give them all a look

Captain Murphy, Los Angeles, California

Captain Murphy is an artist that for some time, was completely shrouded in mystery. His first mixtape and only music available was gifted to us in 2012 as a free download. With outrageously edited backround music by Flying Lotus and octave dropped vocals, Captain Murphy quickly gained ground as one of the most talented rappers from coast to coast. Yet no one seemed to know who he was, and for a good reason. Captain Murphy never so much as showed his face at shows, never listed a real name, he was simply Captain Murphy. That is until, however, he made his first performance at the Low End Theory in Los Angeles adoring a mask and cape. At the end of the performance he revealed his true identity, that being Flying Lotus. Steven Ellison by birth, Flying Lotus by day and Captain Murphy by night, he quickly captured the attention away from all underground fans. Releasing Duality, self produced and performed and in turn blew away many, but also solidified Ellison’s skills in both producing and performing. Murphy quickly found his niche among other dark vibe rappers such a Earl Sweatshirt, MF DOOM and Thundercat and went on to produce two songs featuring all three in “Between Friends” and Between Villains”. this paired with the Duality release quickly pushed Captain Murphy to the forefront. His mix of ominous beats paired with cult video interludes compliment his ridiculously dark, maniacal lyrics riddled with gruesome and explicit metaphors perfectly. While his live performances are limited and there are no scheduled tours, be on the look for Captain Murphy in the near future.