What a week in hip-hop! Nicki Minaj nearly broke Youtube, 50 Cent and Floyd Mayweather are showing they are no longer friends and new releases came from the likes of Chris Brown with a single and Wiz Khalifa with an album.

While the biggest and brightest stars are aligning to take over Los Angeles for the MTV VMAs there are some that are hard at work in the studio for their chance to shine. This week in Civil Selects you find a collection of artists who are blazing their own trail. Check out the offerings in the next pages.