Astral Black aren’t letting up with the haymakers. Drae Da Skimask‘s ’95 Mindfulness was some uppercut – the best in ‘melodic trap rhythms’ if we don’t say so ourselves. Me+1 is up next; the collaborative project from LDN-based word slinger, ItsNate and Soulection/Rinse FM affiliated producer, JD. Reid. The pair have been on-off tag-team partners for yonks, consistently honing in on the vertex between hip-hop/trap and grime with flick-of-the-wrist ease.

They’re not too shabby on their own either. ItsNate’s discography has cobbled together some of UK hip-hop’s most promising beatsmiths – from Darq E Freaker, Budgie and skwlkr while also being earmarked by Danny Brown as one of his UK MC faves. JD’s outings on Plastician’s Terrorhythm imprint, a feature on Soulection x Stussy’s 2014 compilation and a recent collab with Grime wunder-kid, Faze Miyaki are all finely tuned efforts too.

“Chopper” is a pan-Atlantic affair, placing ItsNate shoulder-to-shoulder with Chicago’s very own ‘soul trap’ originator, Tree.

Me+1 is due for release September 11th via Astral Black on limited edition cassette tape and digital download. Pre-order it here.