This is a painful listen. It's Phil Elverum's masterpiece, but it's so deeply personal and grief-stricken that it almost feels reductive to call it a masterpiece. It's one man and one guitar, recorded over a period of many months, reflective of the five stages of grief. If II have to say anything else, it's that it's one of the greatest albums ever put together, but in no way is it an easy listen. I don't think I'll ever come back to it. Unofficially, it's a 10/10 for me, but to reduce it to a ... read more

How do you botch features from some of the biggest names in music while simultaneously creating one of the most uninspired pop albums of the last ten years? Ask Justin Bieber.

My favorite song of the year so far.

This guy is really, really good. Also young, which means that his potential to be one of the best rappers in the game is through the roof. MAVI and YBN Cordae are the first new artists I've been genuinely excited for since I first heard Logic. However, unlike Logic, I think MAVI will still be great five years from now.

Update: Logic had a career resurgence less than a year after this, so that part aged poorly. Let The Sun Talk is still great, MAVI is still an extremely exciting fresh face, and ... read more

It’s been five years since Freddie Gibbs and Madlib released their acclaimed collaborative effort Piñata. How do you follow up one of the best rap albums of the decade? Easy, drop another one. Gibbs has some of the best flows in rap, and following Piñata, he improved his lyricism as well. Madlib adds to his case for the greatest producer of all time by admitting that everything we heard on Bandana was made on an iPad. An iPad? For these beats? How?

Gibbs is even able to ... read more

It’s good but I don’t see the hype this time around.

Thank you for retweeting these guys Earl, or else I would've never heard about this group and this gem. It's easily going to make my top 10 this year, and may actually end up in the top half of my list by the end.

Edit: so many great projects came out after I posted this, it's looking a lot less likely they'll still be up there.

Boring, boring, whiny, boring. How did he go from DS2 to this?

This is the worst album in Q's discography, and I don't think it comes close. He's at a point in life where he can't rap about what he used to rap about, which is fine. I don't need him to rap about drinking and drugs But when it comes to the beats, he sacrificed his traditional sound in favor of a commercialized product, which might be the biggest reason why I find this underwhelming. That and the fact that he said this was going to be his most well-written album, and it simply wasn't.

So here's the thing: I love Laila's Wisdom. It's one of my personal favorite albums of the decade. Is this as good as Laila's Wisdom? No, but it's still great. Rapsody is one of the only female rappers truly sticking up for black women in their music. She names each song on the album after an important black woman (Michelle Obama, Nina Simone, Oprah Winfrey, Hatshephut, etc.), and the largest theme here is empowerment.

The production is handled by some of the best beatmakers in hip-hop ... read more

I don’t know what’s gotten into Blu recently, but he’s operating at his highest level since Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them. His album with Oh No was excellent, the couple of tracks with Exile were great, and now this album. The production is a welcome change of pace, and I’m maintaining that Damu is one of the most underrated producers out right now. 2019 Blu sounds as focused and as sharp as 2007 Blu, and that’s not something I expected to say ... read more

This verse wasn't recorded recently, which is why DOOM still sounds very good. The beat takes the same sample used on Rhinestone Cowboy and flips it into something else great. Damu the Fudgemunk is one of the more underrated producers available right now.

It didn't resonate with me the way that other albums have this year. She has a strong voice and the production is generally enjoyable, but this isn't an album that I'll revisit, nor is it one that I thought was great. 65/100 is passing, so you can't say I hated on this album.

I didn't finish the album because I was over it after "We Go High". I'll finish it eventually, but for now, I have no real score to give.

This was a pleasant surprise. Cordae was someone I thought had potential (as seen on his response to J. Cole's "1985") but I didn't really see it on his other singles. However, his debut album was a lot better than I expected it to be. My benchmark for debut albums released during this period is The Never Story, and while I don't think it's as great as TNS is, it's still worth a listen. Cordae may be here to stay.

Came back to it and I enjoy it much more now.

Very solid beat tape, if a bit unspectacular, especially by 9th Wonder standards.

Solitude is a masterwork in instrumental hip-hop songs.

*yawn*

A welcome return to form for Blu following a string of "meh" releases.