Hip Hop - R&B - Soul

Damon Albarn, front man and co-creator of the Gorillaz, has been a very busy man of late.  Even though a Gorillaz album has not been released since Demon Days, in late May of 2005, Albarn has been in constant creative motion.  Rare live shows, the Grammy Awards with Madonna, a release of a B-sides...

Is it just me, or is Lupe Fiasco starting to put together a solid hip-hop resume right before our eyes? Full-lengths followed by mixtapes followed by cameos, and all, well, good. Damn good. I would concede that his first few offerings might have given off the impression that the dude thought he was...

I can’t stop thinking about “The Wire” when I listen to this album. For fans of the HBO series, that statement should make you pretty horny. For those of you who are clearly living a less-than-fulfilled existence, I won’t go into any parallels as I’m sure this type of shit’s been dissected before...

The holiday season is a total boner shrinker. The obligations, expectations and shitty music are almost inescapable. The full-penetration advertising raw-dog’s your senses into spending money here, charging it there; and has somehow convinces us that we’re supposed to give a fuck about “Black Friday”. Fuck the holidays. The only thing that isn’t a...

This album is really goddamn good. There’s a good deal of hype, sure, but with the internet and everything being all “viral” and shit, its impossible to assemble the type of personnel found on this album without some internet buzz and lofty expectations. But the Damon Dash project made up of The Black...

There’s something beautiful and incomprehensible about experiencing someone as they put the mastery of their craft out on display. Like literally, as hard as you try to figure the shit out; you can’t help but find yourself in awe, ignoring your own logic and reason, staring, like a guy on mushrooms. Michael Jackson’s ability to...

Quick psychological study: think about yourself when you were 18-years-old; now think about yourself now. Scary right? My first thoughts, in no particular order are, ‘dude, you need to say sorry for that’, ‘do you think this is making your grandparents proud?’ and ‘what a goddamn shitbag’. I do not want anything...

Track Listing: 1. Swag Surfin’ 2. Ice Cream Paint Job 3. D.O.A. 4. Interlude 5. Wasted 6. Watch My Shoes 7. Break Up ft. Short Dawg & Gudda Gudda 8. Banned From TV 9. Throw It In The Bag (Remix) 10. I Think I Love Her ft. Tyga & Shanell 11. Interlude #2 ft. Shanell 12. Wetter 13. I’m Good ft. T-Streets 14. Poke Her Face ft. Jae Millz 15....

This album sucked. No need to bury the lead with meandering personal stories or comparisons that may or may not work. After seeing Q-Tip live I was fairly excited to see Kamaal The Abstract just released. Looking back now, I gotta ask myself why? I mean, the obvious answer is simple; I love...

Remember the first time you heard Jurassic 5 and you were like, “yeah all that harmonization is nice, but who was that one guy?” Without any further explanation everyone knew exactly what you meant. And then before you knew it, you started hearing that one guy all over the place. You heard...

There has been a void in hip-hop for the last, oh, ten years – somewhere in between the thuggy, chain-tugging, champagne-spraying, dollar bill-counting video porn and the backpack-wearing head nodders; the sexiness I think Justin Timberlake has been talking about, was lost. But guess what J-Lake (that’s what I call him), it has been...

After several listens, gchat conversations, and feverishly pedantic conversations worthy of an Aaron Sorkin TV dramedy, I find myself stumped. How do I classify the type of music found on Kid Cudi’s first major release, Man on the Moon: The End of Day ? However you classify hip-hop, it never quite fits an exact definition. And...