Grateful - Review
I wanted to like this album so much more than I did. There is something amazing about the lengths that DJ Khaled has gone for his newborn son, Asahd. Grateful is an album in his honor, and from its creation to its legacy, Khaled kept his son involved. The cover art for the album is even a picture of the (admittedly adorable) toddler posed in the corner of a pool, as if to copy so many who came before.
But the problem is that none of this loving heart seems to be found on the majority of the album. There are a few songs in the midst of this massive tracklist (23 songs, chosen for the date of Asahd’s birthday – October 23) like “I Love You So Much” with Chance the Rapper or “I’m So Grateful”. And in those lyrics full of praise heaped on the small boy, we get a genuine sense of adoration that is scarcely seen in hip-hop.
Big Fish Theory - Review
It is a bit disconcerting to listen to a new album by one of your favorite artists, and to hear something entirely different. Vice Staples’ dark, almost monotone voice has been rapping bars about the harsh reality of life for years, stripped away all of the glitz and the glamour that we sometimes see, leaving only vivid imagery of drugs and violence over a bare beat.
Big Fish Theory just goes in the complete opposite direction. Instead of focusing on growing up in a gang environment, it is about Staples’ future. Instead of stripped down rap beats, it takes spacey, EDM styling to create a sort of futuristic dance mix. It’s experimental in all of the right ways. When it hits, it has some great tracks, but even on the misses, we get to see Vince step outside of his comfort zone in a way that excites me about the future.
DAMN. - Review
Kendrick Lamar is an artist that has always grown on me, and he has been remarkably consistent in putting out amazing records, even if it sometimes takes me a few listens to get into them. With this success has come a certain expectations, a bias towards greatness and groundbreaking tracks. His B-sides collection was one of my favorite albums of last year. And I think that this expectation is somewhat unfair. DAMN is a great album, there are no doubts about that, but it isn’t of the same level as either To Pimp a Butterfly or Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. Would I think more highly of it if I didn’t have either of these albums to compare it to, or if it was from a different artist? Is it even fair to compare them to each other? It is hard to eliminate one’s biases in writing a(n) (inherently subjective) review, but at the very least we try to make it known.
DROGAS Light - Review
Lupe Fiasco has had his ups and downs. He has made some amazing rap music, but he keeps trying to break into the mainstream, and it’s resulted in a watered down version of his work. DROGAS Light takes a step forward for him, mixing subversive rhymes with mass appeal in a way that finally clicks. The first run of tracks is fantastic, and the album somehow darts from dark trap beats to Daft Punk style electronic beats and Gambino-esque flows to slickly produced top 40 style hits. There is something for everyone here, an incredible range of sounds and style crammed into one package as he tries out every conceivable option.
The Gospel of Rap
Hip-hop and religion are intrinsically linked. Far from the all-too-common perception of hip-hop as being tied purely into drugs and violence, hip-hop has acted as a reflection of the culture and artists that create it since the first time a track was spun in the Bronx in the 70’s. In the four decades since, woven throughout hip-hop are religious threads that are becoming more and more evident each day. We wrote about it in our article on preconceptions against religious rap last year, but we did not examine the root of it, where this new trend came from.
I Decided. - Review
Big Sean had ambition with I Decided. While it does sound a lot like the Big Sean we are used to hearing, it had another layer that I’ve been wanting out of his music for a long while. He tries to grasp at something, but it is as effusive as his lyrics as it slips from between his fingers. It is an album that I’ve heard before, that we’ve all heard before. Just never out of Big Sean.
Godfather - Review
I’m rather new to grime, so it has been an interesting ride to strap myself into. Wiley brings a good set of bangers to the table, and the heavy, dark, and industrial beats help set an amazing tone that is carried through the majority of the album. There are a few really fantastic tracks here and I always like hearing a callout to Skepta, who introduced me to grime last fall.
When Black is not Black Enough - Drake and Coding in Hip-Hop
There is a really big problem with gatekeeping in the hip-hop industry. We like to draw a sharp divide between “real” fans and most listeners, and that attitude frequently extends to the way we treat artists. This discussion is so often highly racially code. It is why Eminem is treated like a marvel, because he is the “one good white rapper.” There is a high barrier to entry to the industry and it is all about how “black” an artist can present themselves as. Read More…
Run the Jewels 3 - Review
It took me a long time to finally get into this album. On my first five or ten listens, I simply didn’t like it. It didn’t hit me in the same way as I wanted it to. It almost felt flat. This stands in stark contrast to Run the Jewels 2, which hit me like a hip-hop locomotive from the very first line, “I’m gonna bang this bitch the fuck out.” It grabbed a hold of me and demanded my attention, holding my face to the road, and loving it. It was one of my favorite albums of 2014 and barring, “Love Again”, I loved every second.
Do What Thou Wilt. - Review
It can be hard to take Ab-Soul seriously. For every deep line that he drops, there is one right next to it that leaves you scratching your head in confusion. Do What Thou Wilt. is an impeccably produced set of tracks, but gets bogged down with too much filler and weird lines that distract you from the message that he is trying to spit. There are a few tracks I really love here, I just wish it had some semblance of focus, and someone there to rein in Soul where he started to get a little bit off of the wall.
Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin' - Review
It has been a while since Cudi stood triumphantly atop his mountain of music. Last year’s Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven was disappointing to say the least, and Satelight Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon before that just didn’t reach as high as it should. With Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’, Cudi has tried to recapture some of of the magic of Man on the Moon 1 & 2, and while his throaty moans and oft-repeated hooks do conjure images of these two fantastic albums, they also highlight a lot of his weaknesses that still remain unaddressed.
We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service - Review
It can be really hard to talk about some albums. To get across exactly what is going on in the layers of music that the artist has built up. The better the album is, the more difficulty I have talking about them in a way that I feel does them justice. It would be the easiest review in the world to say that an album was trash, and convince you of it. But to say that an album is excellent? Amazing? It becomes increasingly difficult to make that point in a way that carries the full weight the album holds. I'll say this without reservations, We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service is hands down one of the best albums to come out this year, and if you care at all about hip-hop, you should listen to this album.
DC4 - Review
It has been a long year for Meek Mill since he dropped his last project, Dreams Worth More Than Money. He became the whipping boy of the entire rap world after his beef with Drake, and he’s picked more than a few fights since then. He took shots at The Game, 50 Cent, and Joe Budden and came out the other side looking more than a little worse for wear. So with DC4, the fourth in his Dreamcatchers series, fans were eager to see what would happen next. And I was pleasantly surprised to see him dropping the beefs and focusing more on his music, delivering a solid mixtape/EP/album chock full of his trademark intensity and showing off some of his lyrical talent that people forget about when they think of Meek Mill.
Hibachi for Lunch - Review
The artist formerly known as Titi Boo works pretty damn hard. Hibachi for Lunch comes off of a long year of releases and features, from this spring’s Collegrove in March, to Felt Like Cappin’ and Daniel Son, Necklace Don in January and August, with dozens of features sprinkled in between. It is not a stretch to call himont of the hardest working artists in rap. Hibachi for Lunch is the latest in his long line of mixtapes, and brings a rough but laid back set of tracks to your ears that is gone almost as soon as it starts. Clocking in at only 22 minutes long, this bite-sized EP is shorter than an episode of The Simpson and a hell of a lot more fun. It uses every minute wisely, with no space for filler, and just focusing on the music.
Major Key - Review
Ever since DJ Khaled's ridiculous snap trend earlier this year, the term "Major Key" has become almost an internet meme. He's taken social media by storm and he is not afraid to let you know. He pulled all of his amazing array of strings to assemble an impressive rogues gallery of some of the biggest names in the business to drop rhymes over his production.
Bobby Tarantino - Review
Seemingly out of nowhere, Logic dropped a mixtape on us. While he is still working on his next studio album, which he is now referring to as a concept album, this stealth mixtape should hopefully keep fans sated for a while. Clocking in at only 11 tracks including its intro and an interlude. It is short, sweet, and to the point. All things that I love in an album.
Coolaid - Review
A new Snoop Dogg album isn't exactly an uncommon occurrence. As his 14th studio album over the years of the Dogg's rapping career, Coolaid sits at the front of a very long line of music, spanning the history of rap music. And while it is distinctively Snoop, with breezy, marijuana-infused rhymes, it still manages to be shockingly different, joining the Doggfather's style with more contemporary, trap-influenced beats.
Uncomfortable - Review
The label “Christian rapper” carries with it a negative connotation in the rap community. It’s one of the reasons that Andy Mineo chooses to reject it. He wants his lyrics to reach all audiences, not just a Christian one. And coming into his second studio album Uncomfortable, Mineo looks to shake up the dynamic he has created in his last two albums, Heroes for Sale and Never Land.
untitled unmastered - Review
It’s always a good day when a new album drops. It’s a great day when one drops unexpectedly. And following the early release of To Pimp A Butterfly last year, Kendrick Lamar continues to surprise with a new album that came out of nowhere and landed in our laps. It’s a good day.
This Unruly Mess I've Made - Review
Sometimes, you can tell a lot about an album before you even start listening to it. This Unruly Mess I’ve Made, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ sophomore album instantly conjures up an image of My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, but that image only lasts as long as it takes to hit play on the first song. As “Light Tunnels” begins, a familiar feeling washes over us. Macklemore is back, with the characteristic production of Lewis by his side.
The Life of Pablo - Review
I never thought that I would say that Kanye West was anything less than the most confident person in the room. No matter what room it was. Or how big it is. While we do get a feeling of insecurity in his music, as he tackles a feeling of not belonging where he is, it is more of a sense that no one will accept him for how great he is, as opposed to him not being great.
The Incredible True Story - Review
Logic’s second studio album shouldn’t sound unfamiliar to fans, or really to anyone who has listened to him before. If anything, he has become more comfortable with his sound, like Drake trying to rap Kendrick Lamar. He still has the technical chops that we’ve seen before, but in this album he is allowed to expand upon them a little more, showing off his speed and production several times throughout the album, which is made more impressive by the fact that he always remains intelligible. His annunciation is great, which is a problem with many speed rappers.
Slime Season 3 - Review
The opinion on Young Thug is divided. He’s not an intellectual rapper, and some hold him in contempt for his sometimes confusing style of rapping, alongside his party anthems. While at the same time, others praise him for putting out fun songs that bump and rock and beat their way through your ears. But you get the impression that Young Thug doesn’t really care about his detractors, as he announced the release date of this album at SXSW in a literal eulogy, as men carried a coffin through the streets emblazoned with the albums name and YSL, the name of his clothing line. This is the final official release after hundreds of his songs were released online, as he reproduced and remade some into the last two Slime Season albums.
Logic Presents "The Incredible World Tour"
Saturday evening, Wabash College was visited by a pair of artists, Andy Mineo and Logic, two names probably not mentioned often in the same sentence. Mineo, a Christian rapper out of New York opened the evening, and Logic, who released his second studio album The Incredible True Story in November, closed the show. Labeling the evening as a part of Logic’s “Incredible World Tour”, they aimed to create a party atmosphere in the small gymnasium in the small, 900 student, all male campus in Crawfordsville, Indiana.
Read More…ComfortZone - Review
In 2014, Tahj Chandler, better known by his stage name of Saba, released his sophomore effort entitled ComfortZone. He first came to my attention through a feature on Acid Rap, which released the same year, on the song “Everybody’s Something”. He stood alongside Chance and BJ the Chicago Kid with a production by DJ Ozone. I’m an unapologetic fan of Chance, and when I saw that this guy had made a mixtape I figured that I would give it a listen.
Acid Rap - Review
“Here’s a tab of acid for your ear.”
Chancellor Bennett’s second mixtape, Acid Rap, looked to follow the success of the first, 10 Day, by going so far outside of the mold for what a mixtape should be. It’s so different from 10 Day, and other projects out of Chicago like ComfortZone or Innatape. Taking us through the experience of living in Chicago, Chance the Rapper weaves raps about drugs, violence, love, and family together in one of the more sonically diverse mixtapes that you can get your hands on. Read More…
3001: A Laced Odyssey - Review
If I had a single criticism about the two previous Flatbush Zombies mixtapes, D.R.U.G.S and BetterOffDEAD, it would be that both albums had felt unfocused. Each of these projects had some amazing tracks that really stood out, but there had been so much other fluff present that really ended up diluting the experience. In making 3001: A Laced Odyssey, Flatbush sought to fix this shortcoming through the combined efforts of Meechy Darko, Erick Arc Elliot, and Zombie Juice.
LGBTQ Hip Hop: The Tantalizing Problem of Labeling
Historically speaking, rap music has always been a way for a marginalized group to express themselves creatively. And in the recent years of civil rights questions surrounding the GSM (Gender and Sexual Minority) community, we can see a surge in the number of rappers that identify in that way trying to take their feelings and reflect them onto the world through their music. Rappers like Zebra Katz, Contessa “Cunt Mafia” Stutto, Angel Haze, Big Dipper, Cakes da Killa, House of Ladosha, and others are leading the so-called “homo hop” or “queer rap” movement into the 21st century. But there are problems that are associated with taking this talented group and applying this label to them. Read More…
Ramblings on Criticism
Recently an interesting thought came to mind. I’m a critic, for better or for worse, and it makes me think about the media that I consume in an interesting way. I can’t help myself but look for symbolism and deeper meanings within work, and there is something amazing about discussing them with my friends.
To Pimp A Butterfly - Review
Kendrick Lamar is a powerhouse of West-coast rap, and his new album, To Pimp a Butterfly, just reinforces this idea even more. After Good Kid M.A.A.D City, fireball debut in 2012, fans were left wondering, could Lamar top this effort, and after three years of waiting, that question can be answered.
SremmLife 2 - Review
As a follow-up to their 2015 album SremmLife, rap duo Rae Sremmurd make a conscious effort to shirk people’s expectations with SremmLife 2, delivering an album that manages to exist in two spaces. Both as a sequel that builds off of what came before it to create more earworm club rap songs and as a new album that builds distinctive sounds that manage to be totally different than their previous style. It’s almost experimental in that way, while being loud, fun, more than a little stupid, wrapped up in a playful package. It’s not a complex album by any means, but it remains fresh throughout the time that you are listening to it.
Jeffrey - Review
I feel like I have had to offer a disclaimer when recommending Young thug to people over the last few months. Giving caveats to how much I liked Slime Season 3. Only listen to this if you are in the mood for club tracks. Not for easy listening. And more of these same excuses to one of my favorite albums of the first half of the year. With the release of Jeffrey, Thugger seems to have matured. So I can finally say, without reservations, that you should listen to this album. He has dialed back the brash intensity for something far more personal, without loosing the energy and bombastic flair that makes Young Thug so much fun to listen to.
Prima Donna - Review
I’m an unapologetic fan of Vince Staples. Summertime ’06 was my album of the year last year, edging out some really fantastic offerings to take my top spot. It carried with it a huge amount of raw emotional power that hit me like a punch in the gut, and still does, every time I listen to it. I’ve been eagerly awaiting his next project ever since. Prima Donna was not exactly what I expected. Short, strange, powerful, and so very Vince Staples, the album does a good job at giving you a hint of the new direction that he is taking himself in.
As Seen on the Internet - Review
Futuristic is back for his sixth studio album. Chock full of corny, meme-rap lines on top of generic beats, it fails to impress in almost any way. It feels like a Soundcloud album that was accidentally released for purchase. And if you could not already tell, I did not like it.
Broken Hearts and Bankrolls - Review
I try to listen to artists that I am not familiar with for this site. There is something about finding someone new that can be a uniquely pleasurable experience. You get to hear sounds from all over the country and world, with drastically different styles and compositions, connected together with some common threads. And it keeps you from having to read the same review that you can find on any other review website in the world. As you can imagine, this quest to find artists that I like can be a bit of a crap shoot. Sometimes you find someone great (Mick Jenkins’ The Healing Component is an excellent recent example), but sometimes you find someone bad (I’m talking about you Futuristic). And then there are artists like IshDARR, who lie somewhere in the middle.
Read More…1992 - Review
1992 was a hell of a year, and rapper The Game remembers it well. Embers of unrest were fanned by the savage beating of Rodney King by four police office, and the entire city of Los Angeles burst into violence after their acquittal. It was like a bonfire erupting. Six days. One billion in damages. 55 dead. 2000 wounded. The National Guard, Army, and Marines had to be deployed to finally quell the riots. It wasn’t a pretty time and it did a huge amount of damage to relations between the people and the police. It’s remembered every day in communities across the country. The Game watched looting and violence as he stood in the rift between red and blue, Crip and Blood, vying for control.
Read More…Don't Call it a Christmas Album - Review
I like dumb things.
The very concept of Christmas-themed raps is about as dumb as DMX rapping Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Don't Call it a Christmas Album is technically not a Christmas album, but I'm going to call it one anyway. It mixes festive, up-tempo beats with more traditional rap tracks in one of the weirder 11-song sets that I've listened to in a while. But, it is December and it is the perfect time to dig into the weird world of Christmas music that, by all rights, shouldn't be Christmas music that now litters the shelves.
4 Your Eyez Only - Review
J. Cole can be a bit of a polarizing figure. To some, he can do no wrong, and his success with 2014 Forest Hills Drive (he went double platinum with no features) cemented that in many people's minds. To others, he is the shining example of generic rap music that can be found everywhere. He's never been a “visionary” lyricist, but his production has always picked up the slack, with stellar offerings in both Born Sinner and 2014 Forest Hills Drive.
Everybody - Review
I’ve always thought that Logic had an incredible amount of talent in some aspects of his music. His technical ability is high, and his beats and production have always been top notch. But unfortunately, he has consistently been held back by his lyrics, and that is only emphasized in his newest release of Everybody. With this, his penultimate album, he is trying to become more conceptual, explore topics and areas that he thinks others have left ignored. It is an album about love and acceptance, about pride in oneself and in one’s people, about the way in which we all belong in this big world, and about the wrongs that we commit and how we shouldn’t.
Music with a Message
If you read a lot of writing about music, you will start to notice a common criticism crop up over and over again: that the song or album is shallow. It is particularly relevant when that project has a message that it is trying to convey. So, what separates an album that communicates its message well versus one that is shallow, even if both of them are trying to deal with the same level of subject matter: racism, sexism, violence, or more.