Circles is the new posthumous record from beloved artist Mac Miller. Intended to be a follow-up to Mac’s previous album, Swimming, the album’s production was cut short due to his…
This past weekend, Nashville had the pleasure of hosting BJ The Chicago Kid on his 1123 tour at Exit/In. On his tour, BJ was accompanied by Bryant Taylorr, KAMAUU, and…
Is He Real? is the latest project by Maryland rapper IDK. In this project, he takes a departure from the dark subject matter and more aggressive style of rapping on…
Back in August, JPEGMAFIA broke his year-long silence with a new single “Jesus Forgive Me, I Am a Thot.” The accompanying music video featured him donned in tunics, robes and…
I thought Eminem was done. We all did. I can remember listening to “Arose,” the last track off of Eminem’s Revival, released this past December. In this song, Em takes us back to 2007, where he recounts a play-by-play near death experience in the hospital after an overdose. This is truly an emotional track, with Bette Midler’s “The Rose,” sampled under Eminem giving goodbyes to his family and apologizing for not being there for Hailie and the other kids.
Join WRVU Nashville for a podcast that explores Carson Lystad’s radio show “Playists for Friends,” (Mondays at 5pm), a look at the Rap/Hip-Hop Releases of 2018 so far, and, finally,…
“The best boy band since One Direction.” An artistic collective. The internet’s first boy band. Kevin Abstract’s newest group venture.
This Halloween weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Suwannee Hulaween music and arts festival in Live Oak, Florida. A “feel-good” festival of sorts, the artists were mostly categorized as either jam bands or electronic acts/DJs, with a fair number of hip-hop artists interspersed throughout. Besides the expertly cultivated lineup/musical experience, the three main stages are situated around the ‘Spirit Lake’- a forested area full of art installations, live performances, workshops, and hammock spots with a beautiful Florida lake centerpiece. The inspiration I was able to reap from the weekend was unreal, as festival-goers were decidedly there to kick back, connect with like-minded humans, and express themselves at their fullest.
Esketit. Yeezys. YOLO. Twerk. Absolutely none of these phrases, and many more, would’ve made any tidbit of sense 20 years ago. Whether it be Lil Pump, Kanye West, Drake, or multiple other artists, hip hop has begun to encompass more and more of our language, interactions, and views on the world.
BROCKHAMPTON returned with a bang on their third release, Saturation II, off their own label Question Everything, Inc this past August 25th . The group has a sound as unorthodox as their origin story, the majority of the members having met on a popular Kanye West forum before ever meeting in real life. Coalescing under leader Kevin Abstract and taking up the all-caps moniker BROCKHAMPTON, the group of 15 moved to South Central Los Angeles in 2015 to be the next great American boyband. Following their two previous releases, Saturation II creeps, crawls, and roars its way into your sonic sphere with the youthful energy of a group of 19-23 year old men that have something(s) to say.
The last day of Pitchfork Fest, I’d assert, was the day that had the highest concentration of crowd-pleasing favorites: in just sheer numbers, today’s lineup was the highest up in terms of hitting on almost every conceivable niche of possible audience interest all across the obscurity-to-popularity spectrum. And with Solange—Solange!—headlining, there was nothing to possibly complain about.
After an eventful day one, Pitchfork Fest day two promised an even more saturated schedule. And it certainly delivered on that promise: first of all, with A Tribe Called Quest headlining, all the other bands could have tanked and this day still would have been certifiably historical. Fortunately, however, we were lucky enough that not a single one of the other acts disappointed.
Mick Jenkins, the 25 year-old Chicago rapper, has finally done it — just a week ago, after almost a half-dozen mixtapes and EPs going back to 2012, his debut album, The Healing Component, was released by Cinematic Music Group. It’s a record that channels the youth and vigor of modern Chicago rap in the best possible way.
Riding fresh off the success of his Blank Face LP, published just two months ago, Top Dawg Entertainment heavy hitter Schoolboy Q played to an absolutely packed Marathon Music Works last night, with Pro Era poster boy Joey Badass opening. Bucket hats abound.
When you find something you like, usually you want more of it, and this basic relationship finds a lot of relevance in music. It’s become an even greater part of many music lovers’ lives with the onset of the eras of downloading and streaming. Whereas before, our parents and grandparents had to really make that journey down to a physical place selling physical copies of the new Luther Vandross and part with their pocket change, the only thing that’s stopping us now from having Sonic Youth’s entire discography is an internet connection.
As always when we find ourselves awaiting a new soon-to-be-released Young Thug album/mixtape/symphony, we are living in a historic time. Slime Season 3 (SS3) is coming (Feb. 5th) and all we have to do is make it until then, which is easier said than done.
Listen to “Peepin,” Atlanta icon Gucci Mane’s commemorative track for THEBURRPRINT.COM, and you’ll hear two of the city’s youngest and brightest rising talents. Playboi Carti and 21 Savage represent some of the best of the “New Atlanta” wave, a sorta shaky label that seems to get more and more nebulous. A better descriptor would probably just be “underground rap” but even this conjures up images of dusty cyphers and grimy dudes with backpacks and NYC golden-age obsessions. It’s best to just say that this versatile group is solely doing their own thing on their own time, which is fine because they’ve kept the city laced with talent for a while now. I’m gonna name names now: Key!, Rich The Kid, Two-9, Peewee Longway, Tk N Cash, K Camp, Bankroll Fresh, and Hoodrich Pablo Juan have been making hits for a minute now and frankly, it’s glorious. Add them to Father and the rest of Awful Records and you start to realize how bountiful good rap is in the city (same city that has Young Thug btw). These artists may not be running the radio game as well as the gawds Future, Migos and Rae Sremmurd (yet) but their presences are definitely felt.
In a twitter blur, the world became aware of an approaching collaborative album between Future and Drake, two rappers who have been collectively running this year. Now, it’s important to note the considerable difference in each rapper’s dominance this year. Future has put in a decidedly inhuman season of being literally the best rapper today whose not named Jeffrey Williams. Seriously if you don’t know by now, you need to listen to the canon (56 Nights, DS2, Beast Mode, Monster). Drake has also been doing well in his own lane, releasing an album (IYRTITL), questionably silencing ghostwriter allegations, and a few songs and remixes here and there. I’m going to come clean though, I haven’t paid much attention to Drake of late, simply because Future and Young Thug exist. But, regardless, Drake, well he’s out here.
This is rap gone Technicolor, if you’re not a fan of Autotune (maybe you’re Jay-Z) you may want to look the other way. Chicago bop duo Lil Trav and Lil Ceno have another stack of elastic high-energy tracks that paint rap in a melodic bloom of colorful effects anchored by bouncy beats.
Coming off some infectious tracks, (“Remy Rick”, “Fiesta”, “Young Heavy”, and “Round N Round”) Sicko Mobb carry on in the latest progression of Autotuned rap-singing melodic rap. Their weird, catchy sound is reminiscent of the hazed out hedonism anthems of Future and pretty boy ego trips of Soulja Boy, though while Future has been chasing around demons and inverting the melody of Autotune to soundtrack his own self-torturing abandonment, Sicko Mobb are flourishing in the elasticity of rap-singing.
Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly is a confrontational affair, and the initial response from the general public reflected that. As one of the most commercially successful and critically lauded rappers of the 21st century, looking to follow up 2012’s classic-in-its-own-right Good Kid M.A.A.D City, Kendrick Lamar bravely ensured that To Pimp a Butterfly was too dense to take in with just a listen or two. Infinite tweets, reviews, and “thinkpieces” have attempted to pick this piece of art to the bone, but not a single one will do this labyrinth of cultural and personal meditation justice.
WRVU loves the springtime so much that Apple Q [Thurs 6-8pm] has collected an hour of slushmelting bumps and beats just for you. These are short, sweet bedroom tracks that…