Album Reviews7.6/10
JPEGMAFIA Turns Down the Noise on ‘I Lay Down My Life For You’
JPEGMAFIA's 'I Lay Down My Life For You' pairs lush, emotional production with his usual online-drenched bars—review breaks down the highs and lows.
CLAY TRIBUNE / THE ARCHIVE
Tag: hip hop
Album Reviews8.6/10
Magic 3 Review: Nas and Hit-Boy Close Their Six-Album Run on a High Note
Nas and Hit-Boy close their six-album run with Magic 3, a steady, no-guest finish that confirms what came before.
Album Reviews8.3/10
JID Packs His Whole Life Into 59 Minutes on The Forever Story
A rapper's tale of family, fortune and 59 minutes of relentless bars, told with rare precision and no small ambition.
Album Reviews8.3/10
Pusha T’s ‘It’s Almost Dry’ Sharpens a Formula He Already Owned
A rapper of drug-trade narrative builds twelve tracks in thirty-five minutes, no wasted verse, no wasted breath.
Album Reviews7.8/10
$oul $old $eparately: Freddie Gibbs Bets on Craft, and Mostly Wins
Freddie Gibbs arrives with a well-built record of fifteen songs, bars sharp as ever, though the reach falls short of his earlier prized work.
Album Reviews8.7/10
Laila’s Wisdom: Rapsody Steps Fully Into Her Own Name
A grave chronicle of Rapsody's wisdom-laden record, whose fourteen tracks flow, in patient measure, through soul and solemn rhyme.
Album Reviews7.5/10
Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red Turns Rap Loud and Rough — and Mostly Pulls It Off
A wild, discordant swing at remaking a voice's sound arrives 24 tracks strong, urgent yet burdened by its own bulk.
Album Reviews8.4/10
Invasion of Privacy Proved Cardi B Was Never a One-Hit Wonder
An album that promises exposure and delivers it, wavering between clamor and quiet confession from a voice unwilling to be one thing.
Album Reviews5.1/10
Donda: The Tighter, Better Record Kanye West Chose Not to Make
A tenth album of vast repetition and grief — ideas of true weight, marred by excess that mars the whole design.
Album Reviews8.8/10
Call Me If You Get Lost Review: Tyler, The Creator’s Most Complete Record — 8.8/10
A wide-ranging rap record moving through soul, jazz and pop, never sitting still, never losing its rap base across sixteen tracks.
Album Reviews8.8/10
Gibbs and Madlib Tighten the Piñata Formula on Bandana — 8.8/10
Freddie Gibbs and Madlib return with a tighter, rougher record than their first, full of force, control, and dark old soul.
Album Reviews8.8/10
Run the Jewels 3: Rage, Focus and a Duo at Their Sharpest
A record of Run the Jewels 3, wherein El-P and his partner rage against power, their chemistry never keener nor more resolute.