Music Archives

After reading the homie Frannie Kelley’s glowing review of the original cast soundtrack for Hamilton, the much-hyped hip-hop-meets-American-history musical by the newly minted genius Lin-Manuel Miranda, I decided to give it a listen. Sigh. So over the last few days, I have been banging this in the crib loudly — like, really, really loudly — and Read More

So Kendrick came through and melted everybody’s face off when he dropped this track a couple of days ago. “The Blacker The Berry” is a reminder of several things: He is an absolute BEAST in the booth. His politics are a bit…unsettling. Evoking the myth of black-on-black crime while regarding the death of black men Read More

Nicki Minaj’s filthy verse on Kanye West’s “Monster” — the crazy-ass voicess, the breath control — was the first moment a lot of people started to take her seriously as an MC. “Cups” was a many-lived ditty that achieved ubiquity after Anna Kendrick covered it in Pitch Perfect and used a plastic cup (and her hands) Read More

If the Foreign Exchange is coming to your town, you sorta gotta see them. They are one of the best live shows I’ve seen in years. (Seriously: during the encore, Phonte led the crowd at the Williamsburg Music Hall in a rousing rendition of Mark Morrison’s “Return of the Mack.”) Somehow I missed them when Read More

I didn’t know much about the pair that makes up Sylvan Esso, or their work with their other bands before they teamed up for this collaboration. But “Coffee”, is one of those songs that makes you look up from what you’re doing, pull up the Shazam on your phone. UPDATE: The great Ben Greenberg hipped Read More

Yasiin Gaye: The Departure (Side One) Instrumentals by Amerigo Gazaway Amerigo Gazaway’s gimmick, and it’s a brilliant one, is crafting collabos between musicians that never actually happened. He’s the dude behind the excellent Tribe Called Quest/Pharcyde mashup,  Bizarre Tribe To the Pharcyde and the dope De La Soul and Fela Kuti blend, Fela Soul. His latest Read More

Here’s Ta-Nehisi on Jordan Davis’ shooting, and his killer escaping punishment — for now at least: I wish I had something more to say about the fact that Michael Dunn was not convicted for killing a black boy. Except I said it after George Zimmerman was not convicted of killing a black boy. Except the parents of black boys Read More

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