Author: Justin Boland

I copped this jonker entirely based upon the features. Anyone who would aim to get Fat Ray, Von Pea, Lee Scott and Thirstin Howl the 3rd on their album is on a rare & refined wavelength, so I was curious to hear their wares. As it turns out, this cat makes some of the best…

Hear me out: I think this is going to become a classic. Nine minutes of dead serious Afrofuturism animation accompanying another fever dream from the Akashic Records of Killah Priest. His role in the Wu has always seemed to be resident shaman, similar to how Ab-Soul is secretly the most important member of the TDE…

This was pitched to me as the hot new shit, an urgent slice of cutting edge underground rap. That was a fair assessment. Yet it’s also oddly depressing, a reminder that “underground rap” has been treading circles around the same resonance-filtered turf for well over a decade straight now. Yet what need is there to…

I have watched Style Wars well over 500 times. Every moment that Kase 2 was on camera, he laid down a dozen timeless turns of phrase, easy. However, “if I really get into it and start camouflaging it, I don’t think you would even be able to read it” is the passage we turn to…

Like so many albums of this past, fleeting decade, this shit was way too short. That’s only really a complaint when the roster is this good. Most of you muppets should be making the shortest possible albums. Songs, too. Crimeapple and Evidence both exist at a different altitude, world-class grandmasters of the artform who have…

The beat is electric, the video is low rent, and the backstory is hella interesting: this right here is a mixed bag. Heartbreak JC is a rapper from Memphis with some understated charisma and a rock solid flow. His bar game is nothing special but it also doesn’t have to be when he’s so on…

Comedy that doesn’t work as entertainment is a failure, right? The first and last defense of every boring poser in the Meme Rap game: “You just don’t get it.” They’re always right, too. The fact that every aspect of this is both terrible and terribly done is the whole & only point, a career-length shaggy…

In 1997, I would have checked this out just off the cover art alone. Back then, that meant buying CDs and tapes at stores full of them. I was always copping compilations and mixtapes because I wanted to be able to hear everybody. That was a daunting task in those days, but only a matter…

I had no idea who this cat was, and in most ways I still don’t. I assumed this was a producer’s V/A LP type deal, just farming features with a guest list that included Sadat X, Project Pat and Nature, which definitely caught my attention. Shane Dollar, clearly, is a discerning head, so this was…

Seeing a brand new music video from NYC crew Natural Elements in 2026 was some extremely unexpected shit. Far less surprising: they’re all still top tier spitters. “They’ve still got it!” is some damn faint praise, though, ain’t it? This is rap, after all. What makes this joint interesting for an old head like me…