Track Review: Kendrick Lamar’s “Untitled”

As The Colbert Report comes to a conclusion this Thursday, last night’s episode featured Stephen’s final musical guest: West Coast golden boy Kendrick Lamar.  He performed a new track, one that lacks a title, but even more interesting than that was how he was backed by Anna Wise, Thundercat, Bilal and Terrace Martin.  You have […]

album review: run the jewels’ “Run the jewels 2”

“The jewel runners, top tag team for two summers” – Killer Mike, Jeopardy I spent five years of my life in Atlanta as a student of Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, and as a result I became a (very) minor adept of Atlanta’s hip hop scene.  Beyond the realms of Outkast and DJ Unk, […]

album review: Keyshia Cole – Point Of No Return

Taken from the tree of a Mary J. Blige, Keyshia Cole’s strongest material comes from the pain and suffering she has experienced in her lifetime via loving and learning.  Following 2008’s A Different Me, she fell in love and went on to marry NBA player Boobie Gibson and her music reflected her newfound happiness.  It […]

Dang it, Bobby: Bobby V’s “Slow Down”

Hello, and welcome to “Dang it, Bobby!” an ongoing series I’m starting where I take the lyrics to a song and examine them with my own words.  This is done after the long processes of beating my head against a wall, crying in the sink, sobbing in front of a mirror and, of course, eating […]

Track Review: The Isley Brothers’ “Contagious”

In my review for Kem’s latest album, I praised plenty but shunned the appearance of Ronald Isley.  Ronald Isley, for the few of you that don’t know him, is likely the reason you exist, depending on how old you are, but at 70 plus years old he himself is still making some questionable music, questionable […]

Album Review: @musicbyKem “Promise to Love” (Deluxe edition)

All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward. — Ellen Glasgow R&B is a very, VERY tricky genre in black music.  The younger singers tend to swim comfortably in the twin lakes of love and sex, where older singers tend to wade in the waters of love and relationships.  All three territories […]

Track Review: Montell Jordan’s “This is How We Do It”

I don’t know what you were doing before taking a few minutes to read this but I’m glad you stopped.  After reading this paragraph, go and grab a copy of your favorite LP from the 90s.  It can be a CD or a cassette tape, it doesn’t matter, just grab it.  Go ahead, I’ll wait. […]