hip-hop albums
Album Review: Linqua Franqa – Model Minority
Out right now is Model Minority, the debut full length from Linqua Franqa, aka Athens-based rapper and linguist Mariah Parker. The linquist doctorate student at the University of Georgia has produced a record of maturity and impeccably crafted hip-hop, that must rank amongst the best hip-hop records of the year. Made up largely of her …
Album Review: Run The Jewels – Run The Jewels 3
I’m not sure how to go about writing a review for Run The Jewels 3. Powerful? In your face? Urgent? Yeah, all of those things. I don’t have the history and hours clocked in with many hip hop albums to compare it to other records. I’ve only recently found my in with the world of …
Album Review: Loyle Carner – Yesterday’s Gone
For so many years, our American cousins had the hip-hop game pretty much tied up. But over the last ten years or so, us Brits have fought back, delivering game-changing acts such as Dizzee, Wiley, and Tinchy. Last year Skepta scooped the Mercury music award, and Kano released his career best album ‘Made In The …
Album Review: Dan Loops – An Album
All music fans look for something different in the songs they listen to. Some are suckers for a guitar riff, whilst others like the big power vocalists. Me, well I’m all about the lyrics. As a teenager I spent hours pouring over the words to the latest Tori Amos or Alanis Morisette, trying to dissect …
Album Review: Various Artists – Chris Sullivan presents The Wag – 4CD remastered
David Bowie, Keith Richards and Joe Strummer were just a few of the big names to frequent Londons Hotspot club of the 80’s ‘The WAG’, a ‘haven for misfits’ that would attract such a following it would fill the floors seven nights a week with its various themed nights. Over the years The Wag would host a multitude …
Album Review: Mongrels – Attack The Monolith
It almost feels wrong listening to music by Kid Acne’s musical project Mongrels digitally. As I opened up my Spotify app (other music streaming services are available) and hit the new album ‘Attack The Monolith’, I felt like I should be opening up a limited edition vinyl, individually numbered, with artwork pressed by the artist …
Album Review: Galaxy Cloak – Galaxy Cloak
Remember the eighties? They were the golden age for hip-hop, making stars of the likes of Run DMC, NWA and The Beastie Boys. Whenever a new compilation of hip-hop classics comes out, that’s where it all seems to start. So it’s sometimes easy to forget what a great decade the nineties was for the genre. …
Album Review: Kanye West – The Life of Pablo
With every album expected to be released in 2016, few have had the same amount of hype as Kanye West’s seventh solo record, So Help Me God, SWISH, Waves, The Life of Pablo. Much like Rihanna’s Anti, the release of this record has been a messy, rushed, and ineffective affair on behalf of that god …
Album Review: Public Enemy – Live From Metropolis Studios
“Feels good to be around some familiar surroundings” Flava Flav announces during the opening to Public Enemy’s DVD, Live from Metropolis Studios. For someone that has listened to Public Enemy as an impressionable youth, it’s great to be in familiar territory also. Where there is perhaps a sect who think that Flava Flav is this …
Album: Public Enemy – Live from the Metropolis Studios
Remember the Public Enemy Gig at the Metropolis studios last year? Me neither, that’s probably because there were only 125 tickets given to lucky fans, giving them a ring side seat to see one of hip hops most legendary acts up close and personal for a one off rare performance. Well, every cloud has a …