Don’t Miss New Albums From Nas & DJ Premier, This Is Lorelei, Fred again.., Juliana Hatfield & More

Longtime collaborators Nas and DJ Premier released their long-awaited new album, Light-Years. The hip-hop veterans issued the 15-track LP through Mass Appeal. DJ Premier contributed to Nas’s landmark 1994 debut album, Illmatic, and the pair subsequently linked up on other collaborations. Nas and DJ Premier revealed plans to record a collaborative album several times over the past +15 years, without anything formally materializing. Nas’ last album was 2023’s Magic 3. Nas and DJ Premier released the joint single, “Define My Name,” in 2024.

Light-Years is part of Mass Appeal’s Legend Has It… release series. The series includes additional albums by Slick Rick, Ghostface Killah, Mobb Deep, Raekwon, De La Soul and Big L.

In May, singer-songwriter Nate Amos (also of Water From Your Eyes) re-recorded 10 songs from nine of previous releases spanning 2014 to 2021, resulting in the new This Is Lorelei album, Holo Boy. Amos worked out of a “closet-sized room” in his home in Brooklyn in effort to honor the “straight-to-Bandcamp spirit” of the original tracks. Amos described the process of creating the follow-up to his “quasi-debut” This Is Lorelei album, 2024’s Box for Buddy, Box for Star, explaining:

“It was very claustrophobic, there was no air conditioning, and I couldn’t spin in my chair without potentially knocking over a guitar. I worked on a desk made out of rough plywood with just one pair of speakers and a slightly broken interface — a very minimal setup. And I worked on it for 16 hours a day until it was pretty much done.”

“I tried to look at the catalog as little as possible and more just think to myself, ‘What are songs from the past that I feel like are good songs, demonstrate growth, and are significant to me, in terms of embodying a certain period of time?’ The songs on Box for Buddy, Box for Star are really similar, and they’re produced in such a way that the differences are accentuated, whereas with Holo Boy, the songs are really different, but they’re produced in such a way that the commonalities are accentuated.”

“There were a couple of songs where my initial reaction was like, ‘Oh, little Nate, this is adorable.’ But some of the songs, I listen to and I’m like, ‘Wow, this is such a growing pain song,’ and then there are certain songs where I’m like, ‘Jesus Christ, I’m glad I’m out of there.’”

Tonight in Mexico City, Fred again.. will complete his ambitious 10/10/10 Tour of 10 cities over the past 10 weeks that coincided with the rollout of tracks on his new album, USB002, which arrived today. The new project is a continuation of USB, which surfaced in 2024. Outside contributors appearing on the second installment include Amyl and The Sniffers, Floating Points, Danny Brown, Caribou, JPEGMAFIA, PARISI, Beam, Anderson .Paak, Shady Nasty, Sammy Virji, Winny, Bïa and others.

“[USB] is just an endless album that I’ll add to forever,” Fred again.. told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “Hopefully one day it’ll have 200 songs on it.”

Veteran Boston rocker Juliana Hatfield released her latest solo album, Lightning Might Strike, today through American Laundromat Records. The former Blake Babies member recorded the new 12-track full length over the course of two tumultuous years that saw her move from a longtime apartment in Boston to rural Western Massachusetts. Songs on the album include reactions to the death of both her best friend and her dog, her elderly mother’s cancer diagnosis, a lengthy bout of depression and other challenges. The Massachusetts-made album came together as Hatfield recorded guitar, keyboards, percussion, vocals and bass at her house and sent the tracks to Chris Anzalone, who added drums in Arlington, and to Ed Valauskas, who played bass in Cambridge.

Announced days ago, What Happened To The Streets? is rapper 21 Savage’s fourth album, released today by Epic Records/Slaughter Gang Entertainment. The follow-up to his chart-topping 2024 album, american dream, is made up of 14 tracks and with several features. Guests appearing on the album include Drake, Young Nudy, Latto, Lil Baby, GloRilla, Metro Boomin, G Herbo and others.

Pink Floyd’s 1975 album, Wish You Were Here is revived for a newly released expanded 50th anniversary edition. The new release features 25 bonus tracks, comprising six previously unreleased alternate versions and demos, 16 live recordings from an April 1975 LA Sports Arena show, officially released for the first time. The collection includes a new Dolby Atmos mix by James Guthrie, live audio restored by Steven Wilson, and rarities like early “Welcome to the Machine” demos (including Roger Waters’ original home recording) and an instrumental “Wish You Were Here” featuring David Gilmour’s pedal steel guitar. Wish You Were Here 50 also presents, for the first time, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 1-9)” seamlessly merging together the two parts of the song.