Be real, y'all: The world as we know it is clearly in its last hours. You can feel it in the air, word to Phil Collins and Beanie Sigel. Everywhere you turn, you find revolt, poverty, discord, more poverty, rampant stupidity, STDs, bad breath, Facebook Jordan-heel spam, and the most irrefutable evidence: Seattle (via Hawaii and Battle Creek, Michigan) MC Mic Phenom finally dropped a fucking mixtape.

Okay, so it dropped back at the end of July, but I'm still catching up, a'ight? Anyway, I've been a fan of this guy's rapping since 2003 or so, when I first saw him rhyme head-to-head; I can still recite a couple of lines of his that made me crack up. Phenom (that's fuh-nom, by the way, not fee-nom, like how the actual fucking word is pronounced) made a name for himself via YouTube-accessible Grind Time NW battles, and most recently earned praise (not to mention a postelimination encore) from the rap celeb judges at the Red Bull EmSee event back in July. Still, dude's always known that the battle circuit can be one tough pigeonhole to get out of. I, like a thousand others, have asked Phenom for damn near a decade when the hell are you gonna stop fucking around and actually drop something, anything, you big-eared assclown? Which brings us to What I've Been Doing, the mixtape that many folks have long believed could never happen. Phenom, who is kin to blog-rap favorite XV (that's his little brother), Aftermath soldier/ghostwriter Slim Da Mobster (that's his cuzzo), and Mario "Chocolate" Johnson, writer of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" (that's his uncle), has rap in his blood, and he spills it all over this release. His punch lines are savage and his cadence meticulous, similar to one of his favorite spitters, Royce Da 5'9". The quick wit—that's served him so well under the stage lights and in front of the camera—is in full view as well, showcasing the swift mind behind that big-ass forehead. Among a slew of amped-up local guests (Neema, Grynch, Dutch of MOE Cartel), he stands out, making a dozen or so industry beats his own. Now if he can just get an album out. Until then, hit www.micphenom.bandcamp.com.

Like some of y'all, I first heard Qwazaar as part of the dope Chicago boom-bap crew Typical Cats (with Qwel and Denizen Kane), where he stood out with a deep heart and butterfly-wing rhythmic flow on releases like their 2004 joint Civil Service, and as part of the Galapagos massive. Black Lab mastermind Jewels Hunter, who not long ago released the esoteric Art Bell–hop album A Moment in Time, very graciously put me up onto Qwa's latest work, Bat Meets Blaine, a collaboration with mysterious underground producer Batsauce, resulting in a quite fly project of spiky/smooth Pharoahe Monch–esque soul-rap and dusty neoclassic production. Lovers of fine rhyme and beat will find much to appreciate here, and I'll go ahead and do ya one better: Qwazaar, along with Onry Ozzborn (with fuzzy multitasker Rob Castro), Jewels Hunter, and Nathan Wolfe will be at Nectar on Sunday, September 25.