Good Kids, Mad Cities.

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TNC mulls Kendrick Lamar‘s latest over at the NYT:

I must confess my bias. I grew up in Baltimore during a time when the city was in the thrall of crack and Saturday night specials. I’ve spent most of my life in neighborhoods suffering their disproportionate share of gun violence. In each [...]

T.I., ‘Gender Night,’ and Unlearning Misogyny.

I know I have my own hypocrisy to deal with, from my previous romantic entanglements to my music choices. But at the least, I got a headstart on confronting that hypocrisy. It started in earnest when I was 17, the summer before my senior year of high school, at a leadership camp just outside of Houston. [...]

Respectable Hip Hop.

Last night, much of Twitter united to reclaim and rewrite our favorite less-than-progressive rap and hip hop lyrics.  It was a beautiful thing.

It all started when I was listening to 2 Chainz, which I do when there’s no one around to judge me for it, and I thought about the line “She got [...]

Das EFX and Hip-Hop Fogeyism.

The reverence for this gimmicky group is a good example of the tendency to wildly overrate much of the stuff we listened to when when we were younger. [...]

Why Doesn’t MTV Play Music Videos Anymore?

An explainer:

Random Midday Hotness: B***ch, Don’t Kill My Vibe.

Lady Gaga was supposed to be on Kendrick Lamarr‘s excellent debut album — we’ll have a proper review of it up soon — but label logistics but the kibosh on that. So Gaga went ahead and released an unmastered version with her vocals on it, anyway.

Your Random-Ass Roundup: Oh, Hai! Yo!

It’s all about Ohio. [...]

Random Midday Hotness: ‘Stoops Parks & Rooftops.’

Hey Fam.

Earthquakes, breezy-for-August nights, and a rainy day in DC is more than enough to make me yearn for my borough of Brooklyn. Since I can’t uproot myself from DC just yet, I guess music will have to suffice, so I thought I’d break you off too.

This ain’t new, but it [...]