I enjoyed The Price of Tea in China, but this album was an improvement over that one. Boldy's work as an MC is great, though it's clearly not at its Manger on McNichols peak, nor is that the goal. Rather, it's 14 tracks of Boldy doing what he does, Alchemist continuing his run, and all of the features delivering. Great album.

Nujabes is my favorite artist of all time. There have been a number of tribute albums released since his passing, including Spiritual State, which operates as both a "final" point in Nujabes' discography and a tribute to his work by his closest friends in the music industry. However, no Nujabes tribute album has touched me as much as Haruka Nakamura's. As described by Nakamura himself, Nujabes was a mentor and incredibly close friend, and the death of Nujabes impacted Nakamura's life ... read more

In all honesty, there's nothing about this album that I can say that hasn't been said thousands of times before. If you listen to no other album from Jay's catalogue, make sure that this is the one you listen to. It is THE defining moment in the career of a man with several defining moments.

The Blueprint 2 has good moments but overall is an overlong slog with some of the worst Jay-Z songs ever put on a record. Blueprint 2.1 cuts a mediocre 109-minute-long album down to a good, though certainly not great, 61-minute album. The album retains its most quality tracks (namely the U Don't Know Remix, Excuse Me Miss, 03 Bonnie & Clyde, and The Bounce) while cutting a lot of the fat. As a sequel to a classic like The Blueprint, I don't believe that releasing The Blueprint 2 in this ... read more

It’s remarkable how well this tape continues to hold up. This is a high point in both Spitta and Wiz’s respective discographies and to be honest, hip-hop collaborations work best when it’s just some guys rapping without overthinking it. This is a shining example of that. In my opinion, this is of the best collab projects of the last couple of decades, but I do want to be clear that you will be disappointed if you go into it expecting rapping on par with Ghostface Killah & ... read more

It's a shame that this got pulled from streaming platforms, as Big Ghost takes a very unspectacular album and turns it into something very enjoyable.

Baby Keem is coming into his own as an artist and when he puts it all together, we should just accept that the game will be his.

Unbelievable album.

This is the album that effectively changed how pop music would be made going into the 2010s and the defining moment in one of music's more interesting careers.

Really impressive debut by one of my favorite people in music today.

Every once in a while, I revisit the parts of Sufjan Stevens' catalogue that I love the most. This most recent go-around, inspired by his new album with Angelo De Augustine, I listened to Illinois in full again for the first time in a couple of years. While I enjoyed it before, it recently clicked in a way that few albums before ever have (you can look at my list of 10/10 albums for further context). There's nothing I can say about Illinois that hasn't been said thousands of times over in the ... read more

Clairo's debut didn't leave me with much. It had its moments, but it wasn't too far in either direction in terms of quality. Sling, on the other hand, is great. With production handled by Jack Antonoff (who's in the middle of a great run himself), Clairo herself has improved in every way that matters. Her vocals are better, her songwriting is noticeably stronger, and she herself is more mature than she was on her first LP. Really great work and I'm excited to see what she does next.

Favorite ... read more

It's not as good as its predecessor, but The Plugs I Met 2 is a very good EP from a man on fire at the moment.

This was surprising, to say the least. Rappers who started out on YouTube are what they are, but Quadeca feels like he's trying to break out of the (admittedly very restricting) "YouTube rapper" mold he's been stuck in for some time. Voice Memos was a solid debut, and relative to his peers, From Me To You is the best album I've heard any YouTuber-turned-rapper put out. Is this a 7/10 when compared to something like Call Me When You Get Lost? No, but that's not the goal. Quadeca may ... read more

Slowthai is just okay to me. This album, like Slowthai himself, never goes past "acceptable." It's cool that other people like him so much, I just don't see it yet.

Nothing more than a largely inoffensive collection of songs. It's fine.

With solid production and very good rapping, Vic Mensa may be closer to a resurgence than we think.

Rest in Peace DOOM.

K.A.A.N. is one of the most consistent MCs in the game and has been for close to a decade now. This is another quality release to add to the long string of quality releases he has to his name.

Favorite tracks: Synthetic, D.I.Y. Clock Out, Interstellar

A pleasant surprise for sure.

Favorite tracks: Transparent Soul, Gaslight, XTRA