Remember Florida Jit? This song is what Smokepurp thought he was making. The spooky piano, chittering high hats and thumping 808s play like a repurposed horror theme and Ski capitalizes in the funniest way possible. The contrast is perfect, with Ski dropping bars about Big Time Rush, alligator nuts, platypus poop and Scooby Doo it’s hard not to laugh at every line. Ski slips, slides and tiptoes between flows without reverence for his punchlines so this track is a rewinder. Listen casually ... read more

I wonder if J.Cole record his raps just before going to sleep, because then it’d explain his low energy. The thing with J.Cole is that he sells himself as a meditative artist but his thoughts aren’t that deep. Cole thinks his raps are spit in an even, conversational tone but it really comes across off as lifeless and disinterested. Lewis Street has creative flows and some witty wordplay but there’s very little substance do his words which, again, lazy. Tut-tutting other ... read more

Nobody wants to be a roadman more than Drake. The Boy has been trending in drill’s direction for nearly a year now (see: War and Demons) so a major collab has been on the horizon. And Immediately on Only You Freestyle you can see Drake’s still wading in foreign waters. Drake can seemingly only rhyme two sounds over drill beats, “-ahh” and “-ee”. Sure that “-ahh” rhyme leads to the Arabic bar that’s one of Drake hardest ever but it also leads ... read more

Unknown T is undeniable. Ever since Homerton B his presence has been unmistakable, the variable flows, the commanding voice and intense tone are something only he possesses and it continues on Rise Above Hate. Unknown T drills but he doesn’t need to shout to be menacing, raising his voice is below him. Instead, over dark, atmospheric beats sprinkled with keys, T calmly breaks down life as a driller. The guns, the women, the blades, the gangs are all clay in his hands as his flexible flows ... read more

The thing about remixes is that you sacrifice a bit of the original’s soul. For What’s Poppin that means stripping the song down to the signature hook and replacing everything else. The Shego reference, the funny pauses and the local callouts are all replaced by a new (and duller) verse and a huddle of hip hop’s heavy weights. Tory Lanez delivers a brilliantly breathless verse and Lil Wayne drops his best verse in years. His schemes, his references, his flow are all a natural ... read more

23 songs is too long and it’s not because of the 77-minute runtime. The Album is an overcorrection to K.T.S.E., a super concise 8-track album that Teyana Taylor openly denounced. Over The Album’s 23-song odyssey it’s production touches hip hop, alternative R&B, synth pop, 2000s R&B, and reggae but never delves deep. Instead of assembling into a cohesive record The Album dissolves into a compilation of tracks tied together by Taylor’s voice. And while ... read more

Florida Jit is an album where Smokepurpp says nothing of significance in very unoriginal ways. Tied at the hip is Ronny J’s production which is a plethora of not-so-menacing beats. At his best Purpp is an imitator, a poor one: he’s Dababy without the demeanour, Lil Pump without the punchlines and Blueface without the bravado. When the likes of Jack Harlow, Rick Ross and Denzel Curry make appearances, they blot out the sun. By bending both production and subject matter in their ... read more

Conscious rap but make it loud. RTJ 4’s earsplitting production is only rivalled by Killer Mike’s lyrical wizardry. Rapping about capitalism, celebrity, taxes, social media, suicide, Run the Jewels is thought provoking while maintaining their trademark in your face, abrasive style. If you dig, there’s a trove of knowledge and lyricism. If you don’t, it still bangs in the whip. Ooh la la, ah, oui oui.

🔥: ooh LA LA, Ju$t, Holy Calamafuck, Goonies Vs. ET, Yankee and ... read more

Fetch the Boltcutters features Fiona Apple at her most raw and emotional. The stripped back production of Fetch the Boltcutters sounds akin to an open mic night and with that comes an environment ripe for experimentation. And in a trade off for that experimentation comes a sacrifice of rounding out songs in search of something off the wall. Fetch the Boltcutters is controlled chaos, when it’s harnessed it’s brilliant coupled with Apple’s poetic songwriting, when it’s not ... read more

The Weeknd defined a genre with 2012’s trilogy, most patently with House of Balloons. The hollow, haunting sound combined with lamenting lyrics emanating from that mixtape spawned careers and seeped I tot he fabric of others. Since then The Weeknd has slowly strayed from the sound he pioneered to forge synth songs and pop bops.

The gritty, dark rooms of House of Balloons now have new glossy paint covering them but old colours still bleed through. The lifestyle of womanizing, drugs and ... read more

As time passes it’s become harder to determine what Tory Lanez’s flavour is anymore. Versatility is an asset in 2020 but it needs to remain grounded. Through Lanez’s (sneakily) 11 year run he’s bounced between sounds and repurposed old ones. Lanez is a man of many voices and yet very few of them are original. Somehow Lanez is still stuck imitating his contemporaries instead of expanding his own recipe for success.

🔥: P.A.I.N., Who Needs Love, Pricey & ... read more

Everything Drake’s done here (save two droll songs) he’s done with better productions, better cohesion, better songwriting, better singing or better delivery on projects past. While there are a couple songs that mighty make a sad boi or workout playlist this summer, there’s little on DLDT that will survive past his next release.

🔥: D4L, Chicago Freestyle, Not You Too, Losses

🚮: Toosie Slide, Time Flies, Landed, Pain 1993, From Florida with Love

RMR’s Mesmerizing hooks, brilliant bridges and southern vocals are the crux of this EP. Country trap is RMR’s lane and his alone. The further he deviates from it the worse he sounds. And the closer other rappers come to him (via features) the more evident he’s best travelling this old town road alone.

🔥: RASCAL, DEALER, I’M NOT OVER YOU

🚮: DEALER (remix), Westside Gunn’s verse, Silence

Only ten minutes long, TO FEEL ALIVE creates an insatiability only fulfilled by repeat listens. Songs roll into each other effortlessly and couple with their time bending effect TO FEEL ALIVE is a lazy Susan of endless hours d’oeurves. The cycle feels like it’ll never end, but when it does, we’ll be still be here, salivating.

🔥: honey baby (SPOILED!), angel, i want war (BUT I NEED PEACE)

Instead of standing on the shoulders of giants Gunna meanders in their well-trodden paths. Gunna refuses to leave the safety created by those around him and as a result WUNNA is the essence of generic.

🔥: Skybox, Roddy Ricch’s verse on ‘Cooler than a bitch

🚮: literally everything else

Pi’erre is a brilliant producer but he’s a mediocre artist. The auto-tuned delivery is one note and he does nothing to vary from song to song on TLOP4. The transitions are great but then you can listen to 3 straight songs without noticing.

He does nothing that Playboi Carti and Young Nudy couldn’t do or do better on his production. Not every producer can be Kanye.

🔥: Sossgirl, Sossboy, Growing Pains

Juice WRLD loved to incorporate guitars in his music but this is too much. Between the cheesy claps, unsophisticated punk guitar, Juice WRLD’s pedestrian rapping and painfully vanilla hook there’s very little to like here. Come & Go is about wanting to be better in a relationship but ultimately failing to make it work and I can’t help but see that as a metaphor for the song itself. Why rappers think that making the next bad indie/punk/alternative rock song is their next ... read more

LA sucks, at least Dominic Fike thinks so. At first blush Politics & Violence is a celebration of the city until you notice that Fike’s sung-through-the-phone vocals are sarcastic. The Gorillaz-esque production casts a thin veil of cheeriness with its cowbell, rosy keys and simple drum loop until the beat switch strips everything back. Although Fike’s rapping loses the plot a bit his flow is phenomenal. Seamlessly switching multiple times in a single verse Fike shows he more ... read more

Juice Wrld was the king of sad bois but the sadness is different now. Juice’s trademark sadness, regret and drug abuse on Legends Never Die is a tinge darker. The strings are more melancholic even when they’re blasé, the lyrics are more poignant even when they’re simple and the vocals are more emotional even when they teeter. Legends Never Die needs it too, in nearly every track there’s something that falters. If the lyrics are visceral, the production is flat. If ... read more

The title and art to this track is clever but that’s where it ends for Kid Cudi. Moon Man isn’t a lyricist so it’s surprising to here him rapping over a beat that, with its twinkling atmosphere and dramatic strings, is a showcase for technical ability. His braggadocios rhymes and flimsy gun talk doesn’t resonate, nobody thinks Kid Cudi is tough. Eminem on the other hand fits like a glove. The open space leaves room to craft hidden punchlines, witty wordplay and really ... read more