A fantastic meeting of the minds – as director Jim Jarmusch makes a film that's a nod to the old martial arts films of the 70s that inspired the Wu-Tang Clan in their music – and RZA gets a chance to contribute to the soundtrack, with help from the Clan as well! The music is maybe the strongest realization of the Wu aesthetic at work – and RZA also shows that he's got a great flair for the right sort of sound for an action scene too – on titles that include vocal and instrumental versions of "Raise Your Sword" – plus "Fast Shadow", "Ghost Dog Theme", "Funky Theme", "RZA's Theme", "Gangsters Theme", and "Dead Birds". CD

The busy fingers of the RZA, who's also been wrapping up his score for Quentino Tarantino's Kill Bill, took some time out to record this new full length. Thankfully, he dropped the Bobby Digital robot thing; this album is filled with the kinda scratchy soul beats we loved so much on his Ghost Dog instrumentals. Alas, these aren't instrumentals – but Wu alumni ODB, Ghostface, Masta Killa and others make appearances. 16 tracks including "Bob N' I", "The Grunge", "We Pop", "Grits", "Fast Cars", "Chi Kung", "You'll Never Know", "Drink, Smoke, & Fcuk", "Koto Chotan", "Cherry Range", "The Birth" and more. CD

Just when you thought Prince Paul and Cat Power would never make a record together PRESTO – it's the new Handsome Boy album! HBMS takes a bit more of a chillout tack with this long overdue second opus – with lots of laidback beats and samples, and a surprising amount of live instrumentation! The gleeful, sarcastic comedy of the stellar first album remains intact, with some genuinely amusing skits (including one with Jay Z appearing under the pseudonym Hines Buchanan), and the deep range of guest vocalists isn't as surprising as how strong their work is in the best tunes. It would have been pretty easy for Prince Paul and Automator to find a bunch of interesting names to flesh out their big pop culture frappe, but something else altogether to make trippy hip hop tracks featuring Cat Power and the Hieroglyphics make sense on the same record. A pretty solid set from the most adventurous pseudo duo in the game! Guests include Del The Funky Homosapien, De La Soul, RZA, Lord Finesse, AG, Rahzel, Jazzy Jay, Qbert, Mike Patton, Casual, Hieroglyphics, Grand Wizard Theodore, El-P, John Oates, Pharrell, Kid Koala, and George W. Bush (just kidding). Tracks include "If It Wasn't For You" with De La, "Are You Down With It" with Mike Patton, "The World's Gone Mad" with Del and others, "It's Like That" with Casual, "I've Been Thinking" with Cat Power, "Rock And Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This) Pt 2" featuring Lord Finesse, Qbert and others,"First. . .And Then" featuring Dres from Black Sheep, "A Day In The Life" featuring RZA, AZ and others and more, plus intro/outro by Father Guido Sarducci. LP, Vinyl record album

Quite possibly our favorite installment so far in the Madlib Medicine Show series – as the set's a treasure trove of rare work from the many-faceted Yesterday's New Quintet combo – that genius funky jazz ensemble headed by Madlib! According to the notes, some of these cuts are from rare small-batch releases (although we're not even sure those exist) – and others are previously unreleased numbers that are finally seeing the light of day – all together a brilliant illustration of the sorts of sounds that Madlib's pulled up from the American underground of the 60s and 70s – weird space jazz, offbeat funk, modal moments, and more – played with completely amazing rhythms, and production that really lives up to the spirit of the inspirations! There's plenty of great keyboards, and all tracks are instrumentals – with titles that include "High Jazz" by The Kenny Cook Octet, "Pretty Eyes" by Jahari Massamba Unit, "Electronic Dimensions" by Generation Match, "Funky Butt (part 1)" by Poyser Riggins & Jackson, "Space & Time" by RMC, "Conquistador" by Yesterday's New Quintet, "Tarzan's Theme" by Big Black Foot Band, and "Kimo" by Joe McDuphrey Experience. LP, Vinyl record album