Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back is a masterpiece. The inception of old-school rap bore a political consciousness (Grand Master Flash’s The Message), as did the defining new school record…
What is there to say about DaBaby that hasn’t been articulated since he took the world by storm in 2019? He is a rapper of pure conviction, and it’s through this lens that his talent, swagger, humor are all honed. Give a fuck about…
City on Lock is a warm-up round for the heights City Girls are sure to ascend to. City Girls are a hyper-feminine performance, and a bit of a duality — written and produced with a number of male collaborators while also helmed by Jatavia “JT”…
The origins of The Velvet Underground as a group are about as haphazard as they come. The ostensible writer of the outfit, college-educated Lou Reed, seemed as entranced by the literary realism of his creative writing professor (esteemed poet and novelist Delmore Schwartz) as…
There’s no better place to start with demolishing the myth of Captain Beefheart’s ‘inaccessibility’ (and, frankly, many other myths) than Safe as Milk. The man born Don Vliet cut his teeth with former schoolmate Frank Zappa and formed a blues band with another peer,…
Another portrait of trauma, Nora Fingesheidt’s debut feature revolves around the social condition indicated by its title: Systemsprenger, or System Crasher. The film follows problem child Benni (Helena Zengel), whose violent clashes with the foster care system leave her to fall through the cracks…
Imagine old Kanye — heart-on-his-sleeve, pink polo Kanye — mixed with the fiery upstart Kendrick Lamar of Section.80. That’s the intersection where you’ll find YBN Cordae, a rapper whos loves to enumerate his blessings. “Thanksgiving” details a domestic scene a la “Family Business”; “Family…
A 22-song mixtape called Dum and Dummer seems like a fairly innocuous proposition at this point in the rap game. If you were to tell me that Memphis’s self-made independent icon Young Dolph was teaming up with Key Glock (who?) to make said mixtape, this…
SoundCloud junkies Paul Attard and Joe Biglin run down some rap releases from the month of July in the latest What Would Meek Do?. This eleventh official issue (part of a special double issue, with the second one arriving shortly) features takes on a…
The last year or so has been bad for the mumble rap scene: from XXXTentacion’s passing in 2018 to the convictions of Lil Durk, Kodak Black, and YNW Melly. One could also include Yung Bans in that cohort, a bubblegum trapper currently on house…
