Category: hip-hop
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t-rock – i grind i hustle 2
T-Rock began deep within the ostentation of the bling era, with album covers like magical sweet wrappers and bars so explicit that Theresa May would have barred his entire family from entering the UK. Having spent a not inconsiderable time on Skate 3 blaring hip-hop in the years 2010-2014, as well as having a brother […]
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freddie gibbs, madlib – piñata
On Piñata, Madlib created a sequence of musical mosaics. They helped to depict, via the robust Freddie Gibbs, scenes of gangster indiscretion (as well as an ode to Gibbs’ favourite fast food restaurant). On one of the best hip-hop records of the 2010s, MadGibbs transcended formula by distilling each of their idiosyncrasies and blaring them […]
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the koreatown oddity – ISTHISFORREAL?
‘ISTHISFORREAL?’ sounds like it came from the back rooms of a nightclub with flashing light fixtures. By assuming the seedy, neurotic gristles of the issues he addresses, KTown comes to embody them with an irony undercut by stone-cold seriousness. That said, while tracks like ‘MISOPHONIALOVE’ contain a smart premise, they would be more proportionate in […]
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moor mother – jazz codes
Camae Ayewa’s prolific album streak has not eroded her creative, chaotic, verve. The east-coast artist has always moved without a compass—on ‘Jazz Codes,’ she becomes a sailor of the mind. The unusually soothing jazz textures are nicely contrasted by her previous, more arresting work, seducing our ears before a poetic, political point. The foggy instrumentals amplify […]
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mejiwahn – beanna
One of the most important ‘summer-y’ releases of 2022 has dropped. ‘Beanna’ is elevator music for the soul. It follows in the quietly shuffling, lo-fi, ‘chill’ hip-hop rhythm, but diverts in innumerable microscopic ways to form a cohesive, fresh whole. The result is a cinematic, mid-century aesthetic that evokes sunken living room floors and the […]
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