Shall we? So on Sunday, December 18, Nectar will bring you, among others, Lakehouse Entertainment (www.lakehouselounge.com), the Seattle-based crew anchored by the man known variously as Benadrill and Burna Mac, the rap akas of ace skateboarder Ben Randolph. Catch him live and you won't be able to miss his unhinged trap charisma, gift for goofy-great hooks and inspired thizzy dances (he's got a few of those)—apropos since it's clear that the late great legend Mac Dre had a huge stylistic impact on him. Splash.

If you have been paying attention to local spitters in the last few years, you've probably noticed Chev from his spots with Common Market and Blue Scholars. At long last comes Charles (www.chevy.bandcamp.com), a true and living slice of Seatown flavor, thoughtful and tough as its narrator. "I been spit on, laughed at, cuffed and clapped at," Chev spits—a Rockyesque pugilist with the rhymes, fearless and flagrant with a poisoned heart up his sleeve, bleeding out years of frustration. His nicotine-stained gravelly growl lends his verses a stony, authoritative heft as he adroitly muses on the exaltations and the pitfalls set before him and his folks. Charles is varied, soulful (peep Hollis, JusMoni, and Phoenix for the welcome assists), and stocked with nuff love-of-rap thrills (such as on the beastly bonus cut "Playoffs"). Chev surely exceeded expectation here.

Here's one I forgot to let y'all know about earlier: Scraps of Love & Life + Drugs & Alcohol + Lyrics & Other Sh*t, an album/mixtape from the Central District's own Kalligraphy, whose disarmingly observant everyman soul-rap makes for a thoroughly enjoyable listen. Hit up www.kalligraphy.bandcamp.com if you think I'm wrong, which I seriously rarely ever am.

In case you missed it, back in October—out of nowhere—Seatown vet and Ab Creole/Hi-Life Soundsystem/OTOW Gang rep Khingz dropped a whole new album entirely produced by Vancouver's REL!G!ON called Liberation of the Monster, his most consistent work since 2009's From Slaveships to Spaceships. The Soufend's most verbose block scholar skips prismatic lyrics over crisp sheets of aqueous robo-funk, finely detailing a portrait of his perspective with a certain willful word-drunkenness; the thrilling, rollercoastering momentum of Khingz's cadence at first almost hides the poetic power of his words, but the illumination awaits behind the inevitable repeat spins. Khingz's willingness to challenge himself has long made him one of the most advanced MCs in the 6, his experience as a Crip-turned-poet-turned-ronin MC has charged his stanzas with heart that hobbyists couldn't dream of—and this is perhaps his most potent collection yet. "I'm tired of having to explain my rhymes to cats 'cause they don't wanna read books," he croaks on "Free Write Turn." "I understand the whole notion of dumbing down, but at the same time, if you consistently hold people to a third-grade level of thinking... that's all they're going to be able to do."