This last week of February has seen ferocious new cuts from a host of acts who are milling about the fringes of mainstream success. Some, like G-Unit, are on the back nine of their runs as superstars; on the other side of the coin, Inglewood's Skeme and Atlanta's EarthGang are ramping up for their own shots at the pop charts. Beyond them, there's Open Mike Eagle, long a respected niche hero who's just now breaking nationally. Even the undeniably major artists here are aggressively experimental (Future), publicly maligned (Chris Brown and, to a lesser extent, Tyga), or perpetually overshadowed (Big Sean, who even here is sharing space with Kanye West). Time to give them all their due.

Related: XXL’s Songs of the Week (Feb. 14 – Feb. 20)

Open Mike Eagle "Celebrity Reduction Prayer"

On the EP he released earlier this month, A Special Episode Of..., Open Mike Eagle raps, "Shame how proximity kills your heroes." "Celebrity Reduction Prayer," his solo contribution to the Mello Music Group compilation Persona, expands on this idea, lamenting the "American religion" of TMZ worship. As always, the Project Blowed alum is one of the wittiest, most insightful MCs working. Ironically, the last nine months have been a whirlwind of attention for Eagle; his excellent Dark Comedy landed on a laundry list of year-end critics' lists and raised his national profile by orders of magnitude.

Related: Phonte And Oddisee “Requiem”

Big Sean Feat. Kanye West and Travi$ Scott "All Your Fault"

Is Kanye West happy? It's a vexing question, to be sure; someone whose every act might as well be corpo-capitalist performance art, his contentment as a husband and father is a curious side plot. On "All Your Fault," from his protege Big Sean's third album, Dark Sky Paradise, he turns a sharp about-face from 2013's Yeezus, throwing his domesticity in his enemies' faces. Big Sean and Travi$ Scott trade elastic syllables in their turns.

Related: Big Sean Confesses He Can’t Yawn

EarthGang Feat. Mac Miller "Mondays"

On "Mondays," Atlanta duo EarthGang capitalizes on Mac Miller's eagerness to indulge his weirdest impulses. But it's the banner artists who steal the show here; "She dancin' on the dick, she even let me use the camera/ And everything was cool 'til they kicked us out of Canada" is the kind of couplet that wins fans and influences plugs. And "camera" is three syllables--the technical capability here is off the charts. Their Torba mixtape dropped this week and is predictably arresting.

Related: Stream EarthGang’s ‘Torba’ Mixtape

Future "Codeine Crazy"

Maybe Future felt that people sensed that people were too comfortable. His sophomore album, Honest, is a striking exercise in form, a guided listening session through Future's bizarrely wide repertoire of skills. But it was met with tepid reviews; perhaps the awe that Pluto inspired spurred rap fans to study him, to recalibrate their senses to where he was no longer such a shock to the system. October's Monster mixtape set out to correct that. Post-divorce Future was sadder, angrier and drowning in cough syrup. "Codeine Crazy" is a long text message from a trashed hotel room.

Related: Future’s DJ Spent 56 Days In A Dubai Jail For Weed

Skeme "Red Carpet (Roll Out)"

Skeme is practicing a specific kind of alchemy. The melding of threats and SEO optimism on "Red Carpet (Roll Out)" works because the latter bubbles just under the surface. The Inglewood rapper defies most conventional senses of marketability, smiling for cameras while he grabs perpetrators by the neck. He scores extra points here for being the most unmistakably West coast rapper since Nocando to rep Max B.

Related: The Game Featuring Bobby Shmurda, Freddie Gibbs, And Skeme “Hit ‘Em Hard”

Chris Brown & Tyga Feat. Ty Dolla $ign "Nothin' Like Me"

If nothing else, Chris Brown and Tyga have branded themselves carefully. Neither artist is exactly a darling with the public right now (or ever), but their retail debut, Fan Of A Fan, is unapologetic; "Nothin' Like Me" is four minutes of flexing with one very simple thesis: "I've got way more money than her ex." When your idea of changing as a person is switching from a Benz to a Range, this is all the latitude you need.

Related: Listen to Chris Brown and Tyga’s ‘Fan Of A Fan: The Album’

G-Unit "I'm Grown"

Is G-Unit a legacy act? Though none of the group's members are exactly AARP members, the crew's identity is inextricable from the early 2000s; "I'm Grown" doesn't evoke tall T-shirts and doo-rags at award shows, but the byline certainly does. That being the case, 50 Cent and Young Buck cover the spread with their breathless, unmistakably contemporary flows. Even Lloyd Banks, who has spent much of the last half-decade in a low growl, sounds as if he woke up, drank some lemon tea, and played 50 Cent Is The Future on loop. This is durability.

Related: G-Unit Says Things Will Never Fall Apart Between Them Again

Ghostface & BADBADNOTGOOD Feat. Tree "Street Knowledge"

Ghostface has been churning out albums at an alarming rate, and while not every LP can have the inscrutable New Yawkisms or the labyrinth storytelling he's renowned for, there are moments of striking lucidity from the Wu-Tang legend. Sour Soul, his collaboration with Canadian jazz trio BADBADNOTGOOD, thrives when Chicago upstart Tree joins the proceedings. He and Ghost trade growls on the lean, pointed "Street Knowledge," a reminder that real recognize real no matter which age bracket the players inhabit.

Related: Stream Ghostface and BADBADNOTGOOD’s ‘Sour Soul’

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