As the year draws to an end, local artists are really dropping some quality work, trying to finish the year strong.

First up this week, we have the second release from Farid Xan - an MC from San Francisco who moved to Tacoma to go to college. Once here, Xan hooked-up with J. Bre while the two attended the University of Puget Sound. They had a hip-hop show on 90.1FM KUPS, and with it reached out to local Tacoma hip-hop artists and shined a light on our scene. This helped bridge a gap between the hip-hop community at the college and the rest of Tacoma. Xan was able to get to know Havi-Blaze and Doughkain. These two artists, along with a slew of California MCs (including San Quinn), appear with Xan on his new album, The Backyard - available for free at thebackyardlp.bandcamp.com. The beats are classic hip-hop boom-bap, but Xan has an energetic, high-pitched, youthful, new-school flow. The mix makes for a good album. The guests stand apart from Xan, but don't outshine him. It's a stellar, solid, quality hip-hop product.

Next up we have Bruce Leroy. This local artist just dropped two EPs almost back-to-back. Of course, the two albums are five and six songs each, so it probably could've been one album, but they're free so who are we to complain? On Halloween Bruce released To the Death, and on Black Friday Leroy released Black Everyday.

Leroy is a dope MC with a crisp, clear, flow and shades of darkness and grime in his voice. He's a talented MC who is a lot of fun to listen to. There's just enough humor and angst in his flows to keep your attention while ya sit on the edge of your-seat waiting for the next slightly violent rhyme to drip from his chops. Leroy has the certain vibe that the blogs are digging. He's definitely one of the coolest MCs in our city - he just doesn't do enough local shows to get his name thrown in the mix when it comes to the area's top MCs. If he did, I'm sure Leroy would rise straight to the top and stay there.