One day it’ll all be better. Katy Perry thinks rejection and failure can be the best thing that’s ever happened to you. It’s hard to disagree when her infectious, boisterous voice is backed by tramping horns and understated groovy guitars. Smile is a straightforward dance-pop track but that hook is dynamite. So simple, so relatable, so triumphant, so happy, by the second time it rolls around you’re already shouting it alongside her. The verses exist but are irrelevant, ... read more

Who is NO1-NOAH? Summer Walker’s Life on Earth has her revisiting the same themes and the same sounds, it’s standard. The songwriting is as passable but the features are where the money is made on this EP. NO1-NOAH offers vivid, fetching hooks and explicit lyrics that not only naturally pair with Walker but exceed them. His vocals are adequate but with his repetitious flair and bed rock writing, his presence engulfs each song he’s featured on. The same goes for PARTYNEXTDOOR ... read more

If Unknown T killed me at least I know it’d sound beautiful. Between the atmospheric production, dreamy piano and Unknown T’s relaxed delivery you can forget how gritty his lyrics are. Speaking ever so calmly, Unknown T outlines visceral street life and it’s almost soothing. Counter to most artists in the scene T’s chill delivery marks him as a cold-blooded boss and Deh Deh’s lyrics only reinforces the aesthetic. Constantly manipulating his flow, verses have an air ... read more

We’re witnessing post-peak Drake in full form here. The only thing that saves this song from utter mediocrity is the saucy flow switch in the middle of the first verse that continues till the middle of the second. The hook is forgettable and the production is cookie cutter. Drake lives a lavish life, we know that, but there’s so little to envy here. Popstar is Nonstop with the all the grit sanded off. The atmospheric loop, skittering high hats and thumping 808s neither bang nor ... read more

Drake wishes he had The Weeknd’s voice. Not only is Greece sung in a similar manner, the hook is very Weeknd-y. Brisk with a pinch of French, Drake lays out a glamorous life in the super sticky hook and tight verses. The production is also classy yet melancholy (à la The Weeknd) with a stylish sax, heartbeat 808s and tapping high hats. It’s all a canvas in which drake paints his lavish life, and while he makes accompanying him sound beautiful you can’t shake the ... read more

There’s a cognitive dissonance when Joey Bada$$ raps in The Light Pack. In each song he references being the voice of a generation or shedding light and lifting people up but he never actually does it. Instead he’s too busy bragging about the money he has and the women he bangs than fulfilling his self-described “purpose”. Joey’s flows and rhymes are stagnant too, lyrically there’s very little to dig through and nary a interesting rhyme scheme to decipher. ... read more

Even though Lil Uzi Vert hasn't dropped a project in the past few years he still finds a way to make an album by the numbers.

Production on Eternal Atake is spacey and EDM-inspired as usual but there's been an increase in complexity. Songs like Bigger Than Life and Celebration Station have extra elements sprinkled on them that other Uzi album's simply didn't. Background vocals combined with small trinkets and baubles on each song show that Eternal Atake is a super polished work.

Eternal ... read more

Pressing play turns on Clairmont's CRT TV. He flips through the channels, slides in a VHS tape and is met with a whir. The hum of the CRT and a droning synth marks the beginning of the journey. 'Hold' gives you the first taste Do You Drive?.

Almost every song begins or ends like this. Do You Drive? has a firm grip on the past and future at the same time. While that whirring VCR bears a mark of Clairmont the Second's past, vaporwave marks a specific type of genre-bending that's only possible ... read more

Never trust a rapper who says they're retiring. Nav never really liked Reckless so it wasn't a surprise to see him drop another project in less than a year. Bad Habits was Nav's chance to rectify a false start that was his debut but his sophomore effort fails to get out of the lyrical blocks. Nav claims to be "the first brown boy to get it poppin'," yet he doesn't mention much beyond that in his tracks.

'Tap' (the best song on the jawn) features Meek Mill switching flows halfway ... read more

It's summer, summer, summertime, time to sit back and unwind. Finally, a chance to chill on the beach, watch the sunset and start that summer fling. Summer and love go together like cereal and milk; great on their own but together they're an all-time combo.

Carly Rae Jepsen, Canadian pop princess, singer of that one song you loved then hated but now love again, has dropped her fourth studio album, Dedicated, the soundtrack to your summer fling.

Both Tyler, The Creator and Carly Rae Jepsen ... read more

Killy's Surrender Your Soul was closer to a big room house album that most realize. Filled with twinkling pianos, spectral slow rises and 808 laden drops, SYS was riddled with melodic trap bangers. Light Path 8 abandons that formula for a sci-fi aesthetic, but it reveals Killy's underdeveloped pen game.

Killy once said that the reason he doesn't have many features on his projects is because he can do any style. Well that may be true, he hasn’t proven he can do them well. Up until this ... read more

Mick Jenkins is a thinker and with great introspection come seasoned thoughts. Duly, Mick Jenkins' career has been defined by expression of those seasoned thoughts. His ability to wander, to reveal truths and subtle realities is what lead to his breakout. Across The Circus, Mick Jenkins does the same wandering through the tent only to reveal unrecognizable displays.

It wouldn't be a circus without a presentation but instead of the usual hilarity and brashness of the circus, Jenkins opts for ... read more

We live in an ever-changing world. Relationships, careers, environment and music change at a rapid pace in the 21st century. Justin Bieber has changed too. It's been 5 years since his EDM propelled romp Purpose and in that time he remixed Despacito, broke up with Selena Gomez, grew an interesting moustache, married Haley Baldwin and contracted Lyme disease. He's also made a musical change in that time. Bieber, who’s dipped his toes in R&B in previous works was always a prisoner of the ... read more

The best thing that ever happened to Young Nudy was realizing he didn't need to be menacing. Trap is a natural vehicle for that energy and Nudy’s early mixtapes fed into it. When Young Nudy teamed up with Pi’erre Bourne in 2019 dropping their collab album, Sli’merre, that malice melted away and revealed a relaxed street veteran. In his latest mixtape, Anyways, Young Nudy keeps that same energy, calm, cool, collected and consistent.

The key to Anyways is Young Nudy’s ... read more