Young Thug: “Slime Language” (Review)

There’s a line on Slime Language that sums up Young Thug’s appeal better than any music nerd essay ever could. On the heavenly “Oh Yeah”, the track floats like a cloud while Thugga buries deep in his verse, his voice rising slightly higher with each bar. And then he squeals, somehow both elegantly and desperately, “send me nudes when I’m on the rooooad”. It’s absurd, douchy, slightly embarrassing and weirdly, weirdly romantic. If you hated him before, you’ll still hate him. But if you love the rapper who once said he would change his name to ‘SEX’, you get a bunch of these gloriously oddball moments.

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Aminé: “OnePointFive” (Review)

Aminé’s debut album Good For You was surprising only for how great it was last year. In a rap world full of rage, despair and mystery, he was surprisingly cheery and honest. His new album/mixtape/EP OnePointFive proves it wasn’t a fluke. It’s full of all that goofy energy that made him interesting in the first place, and a couple moments that show he’ll probably be a star sooner rather than later.

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YG: “Stay Dangerous” (Review)

YG has flown the gangsta-rap flag high since his out-of-nowhere breakthrough album My Krazy Life. On that LP, he burst into the mainstream with a huge help from the chunky, house-y synths of DJ Mustard. He ditched his right-hand man after a feud and came up with Still Brazy, a more ambitious effort steeped in all-eyes-on-me paranoia. It’s hard to not feel like Stay Dangerous is a step back. It’s not weird enough to feel exciting, but more importantly, it’s sorely lacking the urgency that put YG on the map in the first place.

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Channel Tres: “EP” (Review)

— 01 Aug 2018 —

Written by Charlie Harver

Every now and then, a new artist emerges from seemingly nowhere, feeling completely disconnected from everything else hovering around the current sonic landscape. So goes Channel Tres, former songwriter for the likes of Duckworth and Kehlani. The difference here is rarely has an artist arrived so fully-formed. After his cult-hit ‘Controller’, Tres drops his self-produced EP. It’s glorious summertime driving music, but it also announces an artist with an uncommonly magnetic confidence. You’ve only just discovered him, but he knows he’s been good for a while.

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Denzel Curry: “TA13OO” (Review)

Denzel Curry has been on the verge of stardom for a while now. He first came into the rap consciousness with Nostalgic 64 in 2013; a raw, out-of-nowhere debut that signalled a white-knuckled rapper who actually had a bit to say. His next work, Imperial, condensed that talent into a range of brilliant thumping bangers. But it’s very clear that TA13OO is meant to be his moment. It shows the progression of a truly great artist – one who keeps constantly proving he’s infinitely better than the Soundcloud rappers he’s often bunched up with. With this record, he’s crafted one of the best rap albums of 2018.

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Buddy: “Harlan & Alondra” (Review)

— 28 Jul 2018 —

Written by Deshawn Campbell

You won’t find many rappers with the sort of promise that Compton rapper Buddy was showing in 2011. That year, a very impressed Pharrell Williams signed him to the label I Am Other. Soon after, the two debuted ‘Awesome Awesome’ – a Neptunes-produced track with a video showing an 18-year-old Buddy coasting confidently through crisp, sunny New York streets. Pharrell declared him ‘on his way to being one of those super special artists’. We’re sitting here seven years later with Buddy’s debut album, Harlan & Alondra, and it’s fair to wonder where a lot of that promise has gone.

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The Internet: “Hive Mind” (Review)

After their surprising 2015 breakthrough album Ego Death, The Internet are suddenly the darlings of the indie music world. Their lead singer, Sydney “Syd” Bennett, has become a genuine star. Their bass player is about to follow suit. The follow-up in the wake of this success is Hive Mind, an album that tries to capture that same creamy fusion of jazz, hip-hop and R&B from their breakthrough. The result shows a band perfecting its craft while offering some true daringly artistic promise. It will make you want them to unshackle the chains on their next one.

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Drake: “Scorpion” (Review)

Eight years ago, a Jewish-Canadian former child-star released Thank Me Later; a polished, glittering debut rap album with enviable production credits and features from the likes of Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Jay-Z. The album dominated the annual charts and announced the arrival of rap’s newest star – an 808s and Heartbreaks descendant who made accessible, everyman rap from a not-so-everyman. The music world met Drake.

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