LP! is yet another refinement from JPEGMAFIA, offering his most fully realized vision and hopefully only a taste of a freer artistic future. The music of noise rap antagonist JPEGMAFIA has often straddled the line between observer and participant: wry in its reportage of our…
Certified Lover Boy finds Drake is simply going through the motions, an album that sounds just like his last couple, but with even less of a pulse. Drake — the artist, the brand, the living meme — goes through the motions these days. Why?…
25 swerves hard into newfound mature and vulnerable terrain for G Herbo, an organically-implemented pivot that only witnesses occasional missteps. On his latest album 25, G Herbo is attempting to pivot into something greater than his current self — that is, a successful solo artist…
Faith’s attempt at a post-mortem celebration of Pop Smoke’s artistry is undermined by the record’s structural incoherence and arbitrary collabs. When was the first time you heard Canarsie rapper Pop Smoke’s hulking, husky battle cry of a voice? It was probably over the grimy…
Sin City The Mixtape is a testament to Ski Mask’s skill, proving his music is only getting deeper. Sin City The Mixtape picks up right where Ski Mask the Slump God left off in 2018, a momentous year for the Fort Lauderdale rapper that saw…
Beam Me Up Scotty‘s reissue holds up as Barbie’s career-best record. Twelve years have passed since Beam Me Up Scotty was originally released, a stretch of time that has seen Nicki Minaj transform herself into one of the great contemporary pop stars with a…
Taylor’s Version is an unnecessary work, but one that remains fascinating in the way an older, more experienced Swift slightly reshapes these songs of innocence. “I knew everything when I was young,” sang Taylor Swift on folklore, her magnificently mopey Grammy winner from 2020. Twelve…
Savage Mode II‘s half-hearted experimentation makes for diminishing returns this time out for 21 and Metro. If Savage Mode is the cult classic that introduced the world to 21 Savage and Metro Boomin’, Savage Mode II is the blockbuster sequel, one that affords the…
Positions finds Ariana in full superstar mode: as confident, in control, and willing to define herself as she has ever been. After two album cycles that culminated in a massive sold-out tour (with multiple headlining dates at major music festivals), Ariana Grande has returned, triumphantly,…
While not up to the standard set by T-Swift’s best writing, folklore still manages to remind that she is as keen an emotional observer as ever. The presentation, in both its marketing and its media representation, of Taylor Swift’s latest has taken up more space…