Ahnaw hellnah, see they done up and came back to Seattle again—Nappy Roots, the five-man one-hit wondercrew, once stranded in major-label-land, now enjoying their independence, are hitting Neumos on July 30. Opening up are (In a Major Way coproducer) Kevin Gardner and Key Element, not to mention Black Stax, who will be joined onstage by mind-blown young trumpeter Owour Arunga.

You might recall me writing up The Foundation, the debut project/mixtape from Oly transplant, MC/singer Dice; she's back with 518, an EP-length collaboration (reportedly completed from start to finish in less than a month) with MC/producer Outrageous. Rage's raps are solid, frequently about his persistent grind and indomitable will to win—but on the disc's best moments, his uninflected, sometimes rushed, post-hyphy growl feels like a constant cameo appearance next to Dice, the lady with the big pipes and the slick bars, who says much of the same shit but stylistically stretches out and steals the show on 518. Her writing is topflight, and the synth beats from Adam Trujillo are big, glossy, and industry-radio-ready. Check for it on iTunes soon, and a CD-release party is said to be in the works.

Got some more free releases for NW heads: the Physics crewmate Mario Sweet's Seattle's Best Free Compilation and Logics' new mixtape, Clarity (not to be confused with Tactowner Spaid's as-yet- unreleased LP of the same name). On the former, Sweet (with Just D'Amato assisting on the cuts) puts together some of his favorite local jams of late for you to jam in your face; joints from J.Pinder, Eighty4 Fly, Sol, Mash Hall (air horns!), D.Black, Grynch, and of course the P-H-Y-S-I-C-S are to be found, as well as some killer spoken interludes from twin towers Vitamin D and Jake One. Hit up www.mariosweet.com to cop. The Logics' tape is presented by DJ B-Mello, who does a fluidly continuous mix of "freestyles" and original joints from Ls; collected here are all the blog exclusives he's dropped over the last few months, with guest shots from XV, Will Jordan, Spaceman, Fice, Clemm Rishad, LouisV, Cool Nutz, Geo, Element, Red Cafe, Fatal Lucciauno, Justis, Mistah FAB, and Ya Boy. Good lord. Now, the headliner himself has no shortage of ambition or means, but his dragging delivery still has his bars landing clunky—with a little more flow, Logics could have a product to match his hustle. Like a true hustler, though, he hedges his bets with a truckload of dope guests and one of the town's finest on the mix, so I'd still recommend peeping it.

Current local song I'm on (not, like, rapping on, but you know): J.Pinder's joint "Tougher," a posse cut featuring the way-strong styles of Luck One, Sax G Whiz, and Spaceman, not to mention the slickest shit I've ever heard from Pinderhughes himself. Make your blog rounds and heed the hook. It only gets tougher—get strong.