Album in the Crosshairs: Annabel (lee) — “Live Covers”; Further Out Recordings (2023)

Fiercely creative musicians like Sheila Ellis and Richard E — collectively known as Annabel (lee) — will always grab my attention. And the group’s ability to show the world another unfamiliar property of their musical superpowers with every release made me ask a near-rhetorical question a few months ago: “What’s next?” Live Covers, the duo’s […]

To Black Men Who Want To See Rihanna on the British Vogue Magazine Cover Walking Behind A$AP Rocky

Unless she’s wearing a thong and dropping its contents to the floor like a biscuit … I guess the men who are upset about the latest British Vogue cover are the same men who won’t visit their baby across town to risk making eye contact with their baby’s mother since she may hit him up […]

To Lil Yachty and It Starts Here

This piece is not an album review, but some dap for people who dare to surprise. I’m sharing these words with the assumption that you’re serious about sharing Let’s Start Here with the universe. Do it; if it feels good. And while feeling good, you may still think you’re not completely heard. That’s your cue […]

It’s the Day After Christmas — And You Still Need to Get Patsy Moore’s “Winter Wonderland” Song

I think you should get all of her Holiday releases … I just remembered that Patsy Moore releases annual Christmas music when she recently shared one in a social media update. I don’t feel great about that since I call myself a fan. Released about 11 years ago, “Winter Wonderland” (Volume I) is part of […]

Aural Dive: Dreamscape 2023; “No Words”

Do some vinyl digging to explore the early days of Chicago House. You’ll find many synth-forward tracks with Euro Disco on the edges. This is the flavor I picked up after today’s listen to Dreamscape — an artist active during the 90s — who is back with “No Words” from a forthcoming album. Given the number […]

Aural Dive: “Lebron Jordan” by Division X

“I keep ten steps away from whatever the radio is doing,” says Division X lyricist North. The group’s latest single release, “Lebron Jordan” from their War Drum Symphony album, delivers on that declaration. Hard beats, scratching(?), matching but clearly understood lyrics, and a dose of metaphors are hard to find in today’s commercial rap music […]

Aren’t You Over These Duke and Duchess of Sussex Stories by Now?

Placed another way, I don’t plan to watch the new Netflix Series. The way I see it, May 19, 2018 marks the day Meghan Markle married into one of the world’s oldest crime families. This is a family who is carrying centuries of gun running, human trafficking, colonialism, mass property theft, murder, and instigation of […]

The Jerry Jones Miracle, or Why Police and Sesame Place Reforms Will Always Fail

Arguably more mysterious than the stories of Magical Negroes … This piece about institutional racism’s unspoken truth came to mind during my most recent digital sabbatical. Lemme change that: this truth has been on my mind since the day a young White supremacist shot and killed nine Black churchgoers in South Carolina, but the piece […]

An Album or Two in My Head (0065)

SAOUL TWATEAU 2022 SELF-RELEASED To my American friends — consider how most of you were recently asked, multiple times, to choose between a woman’s womb and the price of bacon in Walmart, while others remain willing to convince themselves that a bulky football legend wearing a post-domestic-violence court suit and possible brain damage can be […]

Album in the Crosshairs: Saoul — Paint the World | 2021 | Self-Released

A lovely place to begin, if you’ve been waiting for 17 months to restart the party … Hey, don’t fret We’re gonna make you sweat Don’t forget The funk’s within you, the funk’s within you — “Splash”, performed by Saoul I call Paint the World the must-listen sequel to SuCcumb, Saoul’s previous album. Where SuCcumb […]