AUTOMatic and Yo-Dot are two of Milwaukee’s very best hip-hop acts, each cooly in control of their respective styles. Rapper A.P.R.I.M.E. and producer Trellmatic of AUTOMatic tend to favor jazzy, silky-smooth jams, while Yo-Dot possesses a harder edge and grittier production. Both AUTOMatic’s 2012 LP Art Imitates Life and Yo-Dot’s 2012 album Red Mist landed on our list of the 50 best Milwaukee albums of the 2010s (so far), and both have kept busy in the years since.
Like 2014, for example. Both acts released new music this week: a full mixtape from AUTOMatic, The Air Quotes Mixtape; and a single from Yo-Dot, “N.B.S.” (We’ll give you one guess what it stands for.) Air Quotes is another laid-back collection of feel-good hip-hop, with the terrifically named “AUTOMatic Gets Nicer” being the latest addition to our ever-growing collection of summer jams. “N.B.S.,” meanwhile, is just as no-nonsense as its title suggests. (A full Yo-Dot project is expected later this summer.)