He really wants you to say it, the album

There’s been no surprise that Vince Staples’ discography up to this point has had its fair share of songs that tackle suppression, talks of government greed and the struggle of being an African-American man for decades and decades.

With “Cry Baby”, he jumps probably the deepest he has before with the topics, making the entire album rooted in that core curriculum.

He dives deep into many different experiences, from the industry ... read more

Spent 95% of the project’s budget on samples, the album

Peggy has returned and what has kind of been his form for the last few years, some controversy to go with it.

“Experimental Rap” is true to its name as this thing is all over the place and wacky. That’s not really a great thing in this situation though.

Yes, it has a lot of beats, yes it has a lot of different ideas and yes, there’s no shortage of triplet flows.

But, the first half of this album really, is ... read more

Aint for me and can admit that, the album

Getting 40-something songs deep into a Drake tri-album can do some things and I think there was a bit of a realization as I went through the third listen of this album.

It’s just not the type of music for me. I don’t really know what music it is for, maybe for male mid-30 year-olds at the strip club, going through their second divorce and seeing a lap dance for the first time in a few years.

It’s a lot of catering, it’s not ... read more

We’ve never been more shallow, the album

Going in order of “HIM”, we get to the meat of this trilogy with “Iceman”. An album that, to be fair to Drake, was promoted extremely well.

Arguably as good as Certified Lover Boy. From ice sculptures, to lighting the CN Tower “icey”, he made legit buzz for this thing, creating an expectation for good music.

Maybe this is what happens for creating expectations for someone that has become such a shallow ... read more

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ, the (three?) album

Drake has attempted to get through his UMG deal by dropping a trio of albums on the same night, creating an absolute frenzy for the internet (specifically, my timeline).

This is part one of my three-part series on the albums, beginning with his R&B album, a sound and effort that I’ve heard many times throughout Drake’s career and this album doesn’t sound any different than the others.

To preface it, I believe Drake has good R&B ... read more

It exists, the album

There’s been a ton of hype for Isaiah Rashad coming into this album, after a really popular, “The House Is Burning”.

This album, to me in a vacuum, feels very there. There’s nothing subjectively wrong with the music or Isaiah Rashad’s performance, besides his low-key facade comes off as relatively boring at times.

There’s some pretty strong Mac Miller and A$AP Rocky influences all over the album. So many flows sound like Rocky, ... read more

Mrs. Consistency, the album

The walking movie soundtrack herself, Jessie Ware, is back after a three-year hiatus from her previous work, “That Feels Good!”. It was my introduction to Ware and immediately gave me a strong feeling of what she stands for.

Sidenote, I learned that she was on Nicki Minaj’s “The Pinkprint”, which alright? I had no idea she had that much pull in her younger years, but shoutout to her.

Grand vocals and production, to accompany ... read more

Cut a couple of songs and its great, the album

I’m not going to lie, Kehlani is a household name and respected artist, but even I didn’t expect a feature list this loaded. I mean, that’s so much of the budget for this album spent on other voices.

For the most part, this is a pretty standout album, with great melodies, a bit of a throwback to early 2010’s-late 2000’s pop collaboration and an overall sound and feeling of positivity and overcoming adversity ... read more

Thunder and Lightning and Thunder and Lightning and Thunder and Lightning and Thunder, the album

It’s really been six years since a Thundercat album and he returns with an impressive list of features and new crop of ideas with a 45-minute album.

And to me, it shows some great ideas and good execution, but also some areas where this falls short quite a bit.

It’s obvious Thundercat is a talent bassist and thrives in synth and heavy bass-filled music with some feelings of abstract ... read more

The avengers of bad features, the album

For someone that has been in the music industry for over a decade, it’s shocking to realize that it took Swae Lee until 2026 to drop his debut solo album.

Yet, here we are and the feature cheat code has put himself in the spotlight for a solo album and coming in, I had no expectations, except that the feature list did not give me much hope.

Swae has so many features with huge artists and has all the connections in the world to make a good, ... read more

Well, I did expect worse, the album

Post-2020 Kanye West (or Ye) music hasn’t quite had the same magic. And even with the politics surrounding him over the last five years.

The only thing I’ll mention is the drama doesn’t feel attached to the music, where that hasn’t been the case with Donda 2, nor either of the Vulture albums he dropped in 2025. Outside of that, this review will strictly consist of the music.

And while sonically, this is a step in the right direction ... read more

Confused as to whether he wants to evolve or not, the album

This project coming into the year was one of my most anticipated albums and had potential for Album of the Year, before it even came out.

Yeat literally had a project last year that was just a lead up for this one with “A Dangerous Summer”.

The highs on this album, to me, are undeniable. Some of Yeat’s best songs of his career are littered over this thing. Getting “Wolves” by Kanye West and an Elton ... read more

A heated blanket that never gets too warm, the album

To me, James Blake has become one of the best guarantees of hitting on features over the last 5+ years.

Unfortunately, his solo success has not quite reached the heights of his performances on other songs. Not due to a lack of substance or a full quality body of work, but just not generating a hit song or the niche audience for a blowup, althouh I don’t think that’s entirely his ambition.

I digress, “Trying Times” ... read more

Panic at The Disco ahh sounding title, the album

I’ll put my hands up and be honest, this is my first Harry Styles album listen. I’ve heard plenty of other songs and thoroughly enjoyed “As It Was”, but found singles like “Watermelon Sugar” and too sugar-pop for my liking.

So, coming into this, I had no expectation outside of the title having disco in it, so maybe that was a direction he’d go in. The one thing that I was pleased with was how mature the ... read more

A little help could go a long ways, the album

Since the early 2020’s, Jack Harlow has taken a step back from appealing toward the mainstream success that he got from smash hit singles and his chart-hitting album, “Come Home, The Kids Miss You”, to a more relatable and down to earth approach with his last two projects.

“Jackman” saw a more conscious-minded concept, with a shorter tracklist and no features, just Jack writing and rapping about his current ambitions ... read more

He REALLY likes TiaCorine, the album

If you’re expecting another Melt My Eyez, See Your Future, keep waiting for the next album. Denzel’s continuous run of banging mixtape type projects return with Denzel helping curate a group with “The Scythe”.

One of my favorite developments from Denzel has been his inclusion of new and upcoming artists. He did it plenty on King of the Mischevious South with artists like PlayThatBoiZay, That Mexican O.T. and Mike Dimes being on the ... read more

Well, this is a choice, the album

Bruno Mars spent the last decade between making one of the best albums of the 2020’s so far with .Anderson Paak and falling into a ton of debt through gambling.

In an attempt to grab some of that cash back (partly kidding), he returned with his first solo album in 10 years with “The Romantic” and got a teaser of it with the lone single, “I Just Might” dropping about a month or so ago.

Mars has a bit of an inferiority complex, ... read more

Honest, the album

I’m not going to lie, it took me a while to get used to Keem’s vocal personality, even after “Die For My B*tch” came out.

Since that point, it's become infectious and so has his success. Keem exploded onto the more mainstream scene with his 2021 record, “The Melodic Blue”, including Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Don Toliver and even Lil Uzi Vert on the deluxe.

The four-year hiatus since the deluxe stirred up a ton of questions on how ... read more

Playing for the College Station, the album

Jordan Ward has really popped up on my radar over the last year or so, doing collaborations with notables like Cordae and Saba on each artists’ most recent albums. Alongside, he did a song a while back with Destin Conrad and it’s been known that I see a lot of potential in Conrad.

It gave me some intrigue to hop into this album, especially after just experiencing Brent Faiyaz last week.

I think one of Ward’s strongest assets shown ... read more

Periods. Everywhere. The album.

Brent is an artist to me that fits a rare mold of R&B artists that have been consistent with his music, yet has stayed out of the spotlight in terms of outside the booth antics.

He’s been a (relatively) quiet, consistent artist that has brought a lot to the space. After loading the previous two albums with stacked features, he decides to go down a solo path, forging a 33-minute landscape, which is dominated by Brent and his accompanying ... read more