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 […]

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 […]

Aural Dive: ‘Moving to the Light’ by Division X

It’s a war out there. Make this song part of your 2021 armor … With the first 12 days of 2021 shaping up to be a sequel to the perfect American maelstrom 2020 has proven to be for many of us — pandemic death spiral, mass unemployment, coup attempts, imminent threats of White terrorist violence […]

DJ Illanoiz released the ‘Black and Indigenous Solidarity’ Mix and it’s 10 minutes of no-compromise heat

Hip-Hop remains committed to this work … Captured at Thursday night’s live-streamed Bronx Music Heritage Center event, Chicago-bred DJ Illanoiz hit fans with 10 minutes of A Tribe Called Red, Sa-Roc, Supaman, Yasiin Bey, Black Thought, and a vintage underrated Queen Latifah(!) joint. The set sends a fist-raised nod to the ancestors — indigenous to […]

Tobe Nwigwe strongly urges you to “Try Jesus” — but not him

“ʼCause I throw hands.” Houston-based rapper Tobe Nwigwe’s “Try Jesus” video had less than 400,000 Instagram views when mentalunrest reader Vee Cee hipped me to it yesterday. Easy to see why views tripled since then. I think the tense pandemic, economic, and injustice moments we’re living in became the perfect partners for birthing this tune […]

Aural Dive: “Da New Sound” by Division X

” … Spoken hieroglyphics to the rhythm of the drum.” I can see why Division X says “Nuthin’ new” about many of the rappers who want to put their stamp in the Rap game. Hard to stand out when you’re spitting formulaic fractals void of lyrical layering. That last point is what ironically makes X’s […]

AN ALBUM (OR TWO) IN MY HEAD (0061)

If you’re new to this series, be warned that my musical taste is all over the map, and many of the albums you’ll see here will not be covered by mainstream media. Kendrick Lamar, an artist whose album is featured this week, represents an exception. Linda Sharrock — unfairly remembered as only the wife of avant […]

BIGGIE’S ‘READY TO DIE’ AT 20 – THE REMIX

View this post on Instagram Happy Born Day, B.I.G…. #Biggie A post shared by Baye Kambui (@bkambui) on May 21, 2014 at 6:46am PDT Wax Poetics—one of the few music magazines I think matters these days—and WhoSampled‘s DJ Chris Reed present another 20th anniversary album tribute remix. The object of affection this time around is Notorious […]

THE DUCK WHO LAUNCHED A THOUSAND DISS TRACKS

(Laughing) Well, you KNOW by now that rapper Kendrick Lamar’s last name is Duckworth, right? I have to give the young man credit if his master plan was to make news headlines, get a rap mogul or two to acknowledge his presence, receive public counseling by a legendary NBA coach, piss-off the […]