Billy Woods has been in the game for a minute but aight. I'll only be posting tracks from this year.
Shabazz Palaces
These guys are gods. Psychedelic, spacey, psyched out gods. Many people knock the Quazarz albums from this year for not being developed enough, but from interviews that I've seen and read, they're going to expound on that concept in later projects, so it kind of makes sense as a snapshot of the world they've made. Most artists would approach that with a bang if it was going to be a series, but Shabazz opens up with a bang that takes a step back into underwater trippy beats. I think Sun Ra would be very proud of these two. I will say that some of the lyrics are a bit grumpy technophobia, but it's tough to tell when they're playing characters or not and it doesn't really take away from the music imo.
Billy Woods
Production that jumps from jazzy to jumpy to boom bap while Billy Woods spits wry riddles. His latest record Known Unknowns was excellent, I think that if it had been released after History Would Absolve Me, people would have stuck around since Dour Candy turned a lot of people off. This has some of Woods' most intricate tracks, Washington Redskins, which was a huge payoff for me because it gave me a lot to chew on. What Billy Woods may lack in groove, he makes up for with wit 1000-fold.
I'll let you do the Milo write up.