September is always a month of change. More than just the Fall season, it brings back to school, the return of the NFL, a blitz of new TV shows and several other things that signal a changing of the winds.

For Hip-Hop, September of 2016 held one of the biggest Rap beefs of the year, with The Game and Meek Mill’s fast and furious feud, new verses from titans like Andre 3000, Nas and Method Man, as well as a slew of other great music from Camp Lo, Isaiah Rashad and Kendrick Lamar, Action Bronson, The Lox, D.I.T.C. and more. Newcomers like Token and Translee put their stakes in the ground with new projects, and veterans like Joe Budden and Lloyd Banks reminded all that their pens remained sharp.

Hip-Hop Took The Gold In August. Hear The Best Of The Month (Audio)

While there was no shortage of music for pure entertainment, the ongoing killings of unarmed Black citizens by police officers, continued to weigh heavily on the minds of many artists. T.I. released a video for “Warzone,” in which he re-enacted some of the most high profile killings, making the victims White and the police officers Black. DJ Quik kept it gangsta in a different way, decrying the state of Black America. Nas, Vic Mensa, The Game and many more joined the soundtrack for the film Birth Of A Nation, and served up messages as explosive as the film, inspired by the Nat Turner-led slave revolt of 1931. Rage Against The Machine’s Zach De La Rocha also returned from his self-imposed hiatus to drop bombs over an El-P production. M.O.P’s Billy Danze chimed in too, with some words for the President, about the uneasy state of the nation. And, Big K.R.I.T. released one of the most powerful verses of his career, reminding us all that we actually “Might Not Be OK.”