On the latest episode of [Across 135th Street](http://bit.ly/1FHRSX2), host Chairman Jeff(erson) Mao discerningly surveys the rap music landscape of recent days/weeks/months and emerges with a program that balances stylistic and thematic diversity with some semblance of sonic cohesion. (In other words, it flows.) Richmond, VA’s Nickelus F and Shawn Kemp (a/k/a Lil Ugly Mane) and D.C. Beltway brethren Diamond District address slackerdom and creative ambition from different ends of the motivational spectrum. Jackson, Mississippi (a/k/a Jafrica) political firebrand Skipp Coon unleashes a characteristically smoldering diatribe. *Run The Jewels*’ gleeful cynicism gives way to the wisdom that leak from *Your Old Droog*’s grapefruit, troop. As *Ka* analyzes and humanizes his past street transgressions, RAST RFC revels in drug game excess, while *Freddie Gibbs* stands his ground in the face of the next Ferguson-esque tragedy.
