Kyle Ellison wants to retire on a yacht called the SS Minnow Approximately 95% of songs written ‘for the ladies’ are not for the ladies. Aside from the fact that they’re mostly trite, box-ticking 3rd singles written in pursuit of groupies, record sales or both, it’s a reductive concept before pen even touches paper. It […]

Aaron Frank is the Archbishop. I assumed Deniro Farrar was just another mixtape rapper until I saw him jump on stage during Lunice’s set at a recent Boiler Room event. Shirtless and covered in tattoos, the hulking Charlotte-based rapper easily stood out amid the sea of snapback-sporting kids in the crowd, some of whom looked […]

Part of me will always be mournful for the slow decline of regional sounds. That’s not to say that regionalism doesn’t exist. It always will. When I went to Baton Rouge, the people there had minimal interest in hearing anything made north of Atlanta. Between Bronson and Roc Marc, this is one of the best […]

Reasons why I’m skeptical about this mixtape: it’s tracklist looks like it was cynically constructed to create blog buzz among the 12 bloggers and 12,000 readers who might recognize the names on this tracklist (Slow Motion Sounds, Ryan Hemsworth, Main Attractionz, Tree, Boldy James, and a co-opted Lunice beat for the cherry on top). Reasons […]

What hath Odd Future wrought? SpaceghostPurrp and A$AP Rocky too. Teenagers rhyming cadaverously over slightly screwed beats and beat-you-like-a-gong drums. If we were playing rap game words with friends, “Coffin” would be the game winner. This is post-rap says 16-year-old, Haleek Maul. He’s from Barbados, was broken by Fact Magazine, is managed by one of […]

Deniro Farrar is covered in tattoos and rhymes over trance samples, nuy isn’t a tacky Flo Rida clone. His second album Destiny Altered, is death, politics and sex over gloomy atmospheric electronics. Farrar witnessed tough times while living in two Charlotte housing projects and left High School before finishing ninth grade. He refuses the “conscious […]

Jimmy Ness only plays Uno. Smashed buildings, muddy water and sledgehammers. “Play No Games” is rugged imagery on a gritty and grey specrum. Deniro Farrar locks eyes with the viewer and rhymes about poverty. It’s an overused subject, but he speaks without a trace of pretentious bravado or corny consciousness. No witty punchlines, no preachiness, […]