On Dope Don’t Sell Itself, the king of 2010s features feels more than a little dusty, ironically shown up by every feature on the…
In the Meantime is a bit overstuffed with filler, but Alessia Cara’s latest makes for a pleasant background companion in our present reality. Alessia Cara…
Donda reflects the kind of confident controversy someone like Kanye can get away with when crafting an album as timeliness as this. The announcement of…
Exemplified once more by the recent Donda rollout, Kanye’s productivity subsists off embattled energy, his “Soon as they like you make ’em unlike you”…
Exodus holds some poignancy as DMX’s final work, but it’s an ultimately indecisive and bloated record. We’ve seen it time and time again now: up-and-coming…
Freedom. is a platitude-heavy onslaught of alternately generic and sympathy-seeking songwriting that makes for a wholly embarrassing EP. Offering a second helping of solipsistic…
Facile, mawkish songwriting, bland production, and an overly-affected show of “authenticity” do major injustice to Justice. Justin Beiber wants to sell you a narrative:…
My Life 4Hunnid reflects yet a further dip in quality from YG’s long-ago days of Still Brazy. My Life 4Hunnid, YG’s latest, is the type…
If No Pressure is truly Logic’s curtain call, it’s probably the right time, as the rapper simply rides his familiar cornball swagger here to diminishing returns.…
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…
Recall that Cartoon Network’s The Powerpuff Girls had an opening sequence which explained how to create “super-powered” girls: mix sugar, spice, and everything nice…
YG is an MC who excels in saying a lot with very little — take “Stop Snitching,” a masterclass in mean mugging with a…
The closest work from this year that one can compare Vince Staples’s FM! to, stylistically, is Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You: Both are colorful,…
Alessia Cara is at odds with herself on her sophomore album, The Pains of Growing. Following the meteoric rise of debut single “Here” —…
When YG snarls, “Fuck the president, fuck the Po-po” on Stay Dangerous opener “10 Times,” he doesn’t do so proudly or with any detectable joy, but rather…