So, as many of us have heard, Nipsey Hussle was shot to death yesterday in Los Angeles, in front of a storefront he’d opened. I’ve been trying to reconcile how I feel about it. I’m not a super empathetic person by default so I generally don’t feel much when I read about yet another celebrity […]

In the modern hip-hop industry, pretty much any rapper who wants to make it has to start at the bottom with a few mixtapes and move up to independently released pseudo albums. Kendrick Lamar has done both. The problem with this is the inherent risk of building hype the artist can’t live up to with […]

*Sigh* I’ve been putting this off for a long, long time but I guess eventually, something has to give. It always does. I guess I was just in denial. I didn’t want to admit to myself or anyone else that I…I…I can’t even bring myself to type it. But, assuming you can see the title […]

A year or two ago, I didn’t even know who Lowkey was. A Dutch acquaintance of mine linked me to a YouTube video of one of his songs, called Terrorist. I liked it enough to look for a download to carry with me on my iPod but that was about it. I didn’t look into […]

First off, Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers in the United States (and abroad, even though this is just a regular Thursday for most of you)! After building up the anticipation among his Twitter followers for the past week or so, Lupe Fiasco has released his long awaited Friend of the People mixtape for […]

You know, in some ways, I feel sorry for Game. Here we have a rapper who started so strongly with a great debut album in The Documentary which went on to sell over 5 million copies and has been sliding downhill ever since, tipped off by a high profile and seemingly never-ending feud with 50 […]

After numerous delays, endless speculation and rumors that the album was going to be shelved entirely, Lupe Fiasco’s latest, Lasers, is finally here. Expectations have reached a fevered pitch in recent weeks leading up to the album’s eventual release. Now that it is finally available for fans to buy and listen to, has Lasers been […]

Kanye West is undoubtedly one of the most unapologetically honest rappers to ever pick up a microphone. He knows what he is and what he’s doing and as such, produces some of the most self-aware and truthful music in the industry. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is the penultimate Kanye album in a long line […]

It’s rare that I find myself listening to mainstream Hip-Hop. I tend to stray far from the type of tunes you regularly hear on the radio. Yet, when I saw that Rick Ross’ latest was actually getting good scores, I was intrigued. After all, I will listen to anything as long as it’s good and […]

In Hip-Hop and music in general, there will always be artists who play around with different styles of instrumental composition and those who take that premise a bit farther, exploring regions that are rarely touched upon. Flying Lotus is one of those people. Cosmogramma is the third studio album by the California-based producer and continues […]

I hate Auto-Tune. It is the bane of the music industry, imbuing those who lack the ability and talent to control their own voice with a superficial, robotic overtone, ostensibly granting them “perfect” pitch. It’s the latest designer drug and everyone’s doing it. The opiate of the average, redeemer of the talentless, Auto-Tune has managed […]

Ever since early 2008 when I picked up a copy of The Cool, I’ve been a fan of just about everything Lupe has released. Being a fan, I am also highly anticipating the upcoming release of his third album, Lasers, which is scheduled to be released sometime this year (hopefully). In the meantime, Lupe has […]

After Eminem’s return to rap in the form of last year’s Relapse, many fans were left wanting more. While Relapse was a passable effort from the venerable Detroit emcee, it wasn’t the triumphant return to form that fans were expecting from him after 2004’s disappointing Encore. When Relapse was released, Eminem revealed that he had […]

This is a personal pet peeve of mine. I absolutely hate it when DJs scream over tracks on mixtapes. When I listen to a song, I want to hear the beat and the vocalist’s lyrics as they are intended to be heard without having either of those things drowned out every few seconds by some […]

With a new decade comes a great deal of new music but I’ve also been thinking of all of the great music that has been released during the previous decade. So, over the past few days, I’ve been compiling a list of my favorite albums that have been released in the span of the last […]