This is not the 2013 “Cartoons & Cereal,” but this is the closest thing to replicating that equation. Kendrick + brazen drug-addled shooter + bando-rattling beat. A response to everyone who was worried that K. Dot was veering exclusively into Eminem’s “SCREAM AT MY MEAN MOM” flow. Maybe it’s the fact that Fredo has no […]

The king of coke rappers meets the most sober rapper from the Ronald Reagan era. Boogie Down Productions samples and bongo drums and a whole lot of drug talk. The guitars straight from “D.O.A” straight from Janko Nilovic. Pusha remains “puntastic,” flashing his one Zoolander-like look (“White Steel”). But he sounds rejuvenated through his hatred […]

Max Bell’s skyline is the clearest. Jay-Z’s second annual Budweiser Made In America Festival is this Labor Day weekend. Somehow Black Hippy aren’t at the top of the bill. Perhaps to rectify this (and many, many other things Jay-Z must atone for), Hov’s company Life+Times has released a short documentary (16 mins) chronicling TDE’s performances […]

From here on out, to be “controlled” should replace “renegaded” as what happens when you shouldn’t let another rapper on your song for fear of incineration. K. Dot reminding everyone that he has a parking garage with a collage of everyone he despised from the moment he turned five. He mentions Kurupt and “Calling Out […]

Neon washed, kaleidoscopic visions of the floating head of Schoolboy Q in a tie-dye bucket hat: the video for “Collard Greens” is here. It’s as good as it sounds. House party and bottle popping to pool party and booty popping — this is rap video traditionalism at its highest. In the finest of fabrics, Schoolboy […]

Wise moves from title to execution. Who doesn’t like collard greens? Who doesn’t like Schoolboy Q and Kendrick? The former is fast becoming the rap game, Raoul Duke, from appearance to addled state. His flow here is slower and less tangled than Q normally deploys. But it’s no less effective. It sounds like a hunter […]

Amber fields of grain? Check. Meditative poses. Check. All white pantsuits. Evangelical overtones. Mike Epps baptizing K. Dot in a pool of liquor? Triple check. I don’t know how I feel about the “Death to Molly” banner at the end of this video. I understand that Kendrick is mostly drug free and believes in intense […]

Max Bell may have written positive words about a Drake album once. There are a number of early articles/blog posts/pieces of writing I’d like deleted, wiped from existence. Some of those pieces could’ve benefited from more time spent behind the keyboard, some might’ve needed more editing from whoever was kind enough to let me write for […]

Joshua Lerner is dropping knowledge like Galileo dropped the orange. “I try to start off with sixteen dots on the paper.” This is how Rakim explains his process of writing to Ice-T in Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap. He continues. “If it’s a sixteen bar rhyme then at least I know what I’m […]

Max Bell is excited for Paid Dues. If you haven’t heard Awolnation’s “Sail” yet, then you either haven’t turned on your radio or your TV since June of 2011. Or, like me, you’ve done your damndest to ignore it. The song is everywhere. Like here, here, here, and here.  It’s a well-articulated and well-funded (they’re on Red […]