The countdown to the weekend is on and as those two days of rest slowly roll in, they’re accompanied by some new music releases. This week, there are offerings from an introspective rhymer, a rapper with a penchant for vivid storytelling and an artist that has mastered melodic cadences with the track record to prove it.

Wale delivers his first effort of the year, Folarin 2, the follow-up to the initial mixtape, which arrived nearly 10 years ago, back in 2012. In XXL‘s Fall 2021 issue, the DMV native explained why he decided to drop the offering so many years later. “My daughter is talking to her mother one time and she was like, ‘Respect the kids. Respect the kids,'” he began. “They were playing, but she was being serious and that’s part of it. The inner child of me, you know, ‘Still Tippin’,’ ‘Vivrant Thing,’ ‘I Need a Girl,’ all these samples are coming from back in the day when I was a kid. I’m sampling way more than normal, so, it feels like a mixtape. I’m giving people their flowers and I’m getting mine.” The pensive rhyme slinger’s lead singles, “Angels” featuring Chris Brown and “Poke It Out” with close friend J. Cole, were released ahead of the LP, which contains 15 songs and additional features from Rick Ross, Jamie Foxx and more.

Paterson, N.J.’s own Fetty Wap is back with the feel-good vibes. Fetty releases his latest, The Butterfly Effect. The East Coast artist, who burst on the scene back in 2015 with his now-diamond record “Trap Queen,” seemingly teased the album last month via Instagram, sharing a video of a mixing board while playing a guitar-laden track in the background. “Loading …. 85% … I’m Almost Ready,” he captioned the post. Last year, Fetty Wap dropped two projects, You Know the Vibes and Trap & B.

Houston-bred Maxo Kream dropped new music this week as well. On Monday (Oct. 18), a few days ahead of his peers’ releases, Maxo offered Weight of the World. The 15-song full-play is comprised of rhymes and imagery that take a life of their own, in addition to features from Tyler, The Creator, A$AP Rocky and Freddie Gibbs. Maxo, who fell in love with hip-hop the first time he heard 50 Cent, as said in the latest issue of XXL, delivered his last album, Brandon Banks, in 2019.

Check out other new joints from the likes of Bia, Don Q, Majid Jordan, HDBeenDope and producer Earl on the Beat, and more below.