Lav's Music Corner

Review by Lavender: Playboi Carti is a rapper who rose rapidly to popularity around 2016 on the back of a few viral hits on his self-titled debut mixtape. That was followed by two records that played with unique sounds in the highly-populated world of trap music and both garnered substantial critical acclaim. 2018's Die Lit remains a personal favorite of mine whose woozy psychedelic beats remain undeniable to this day. That was followed in late 2020 by Whole Lotta Red  which substantially switched up Carti's sound and became highly influential in the worlds of vamp and rage. After several release dates were announced and never followed up on and a series of singles were uploaded to YouTube last year, we've finally arrived at Carti's follow-up. Music , by comparison, is even more all over the place than its predecessor though it delivers a comparable energy. What it doesn't deliver is anywhere near as dramatic a progression in his style or ethos as I was hoping for. ...

Review by Lavender: The Weeknd is a superstar of the highest order. After breaking through as a critical darling of underground R&B he launched into fame in 2015 and has had a consistent string of absolutely massive hits ever since. That culminated in 2020's After Hours  an album that features his biggest hit to date "Blinding Lights" and was both a critical and commercial landmark. He followed such a monumental project up strangely, with the divisive oddball concept album Dawn FM , which I personally liked even if it's the weaker of the two. Now he's back with the massive 22-track 84-minute conclusion to that trilogy Hurry Up Tomorrow . One thing I want to get out of the way immediately is that this album isn't as good as it could have been. What I thought at the time would be its lead single "Dancing In The Flames" was ultimately left off the record, likely due to its underperforming on the chart,  which is a shame because it very likely would ...

Lil Baby Lil Baby is an Atlanta rapper whose music I've never particularly cared for. I have stuck my neck out twice to at least pay him a little bit of love on a pair of collaborative projects. That included his breakthrough Drip Harder  alongside Gunna in 2018 and his album The Voice Of The Heroes  alongside Lil Durk a few years later. But as far as his own studio albums go I can't say I've enjoyed any of them a bit. Hit completely flavorless style and AI-generated lyricism almost do enough to mask just how unpleasant his voice is to listen to, almost. But on WHAM  he takes a risk or two that pays off, not enough to make the album good but enough to make it marginally more enjoyable than some of his others.  This is gonna be a quick review, because if you've ever heard any Lil Baby music before you already know exactly what most of this album sounds like. Let me bring up some of the highlights though. "Dum, Dumb, And Dumber" has been one of the breakthrough ...

Review by Lav: WE DON'T TRUST YOU  is a victory lap a decade in the making. It's hard to think of a rapper and producer who have inspired the contemporary trap style that's dominated hip-hop for years more than Future and Metro Boomin. Both while working together and separately. the pair have defined a generation of artists and are among the most influential to the next. That's why it's surprising to say that I can't even say I'm a particularly huge fan of either artist. I certainly have plenty of moments I enjoy from both of them, but they're not the kind of superstars I could ever expect myself to LOVE. After a year-long series of teases towards this record, I was mostly expecting a lot of frosting with not much cake underneath. That's why I'm so happy to report that across the hour of material here, both Future and Metro are about as close to their A-game as I've ever heard.  The record comes out swinging right out of the gate with one ban...

Travis Scott is one of the biggest rap superstars in the world. He's managed to be both a massive hitmaker and a critical darling relative to his peers. UTOPIA  comes two years after Travis Scott found himself at the center of the Astroworld  music festival tragedy. Despite the festival's shortcomings and his maligned public reaction to it, fans were extremely excited for UTOPIA . The album was released with an impressive collection of featured artists and producers and has spawned extensive discussion among rap fans online. Review by Lav: It's hard for me to put into words how excited I was for Astroworld . After Rodeo  turned me into a big Travis Scott fan and the years he spent building up to its actual sequel generated so much hype, how could I not be excited. I stayed up till midnight to listen to the album with my friends and unpack all the features and credits that were initially hidden. But here's the thing, Astroworld  lived up to every bit of the hype. I st...

Megan Thee Stallion is a Texas rapper who has been pretty much impossible to ignore over the past few years. With numerous hit songs displaying her uncompromising artistry and big personality as well as some very public dramas unfolding around her. Traumazine  is Megan's 2nd studio album following 2020's Good News  and a number of EPs and mixtapes released in the years before and since.  Review by Lav: Like MANY great artists before her Megan knows her way around a great single. Her hard-hitting performance style and creative wordplay have served her well in releasing both hit songs and critical smashes over the past few years. However, like many other great artists this hasn't really translated that well into her full-length material. Whether it's her debut album, EP's like Suga  and Tina Snow,  or mixtapes like Fever  and Something For Thee Hotties  everything that makes Megan great on one particular song fails to get stretched out to the length of a...

With the thousands of swarming fans both new and old that are devoted to every note of hip hop online I've given up ever being strikingly ahead of the curve. While I can maintain a pretty cutting edge demeanor in most genres I've just committed to playing from behind when it comes to rap. So here are a few popular releases from the last few weeks that I wanted to at least get some thoughts out on.  I Never Liked You  - Future While I've never been the biggest Future fan in the world and I'm nowhere near as positive towards his music as his most diehard followers there is something innovative about his style of rapping and singing as well as his production choices. Even though he's still operating under the same trap bubble that he helped inflate in the first place he is also capable of making subtle stylistic changes that take the sound in new directions. The unfortunate thing is that I much more often enjoy what artists who are inspired by Future do than Future him...

Earthgang are a hip hop duo composed of Doctor Dot and Johnny Venus from Atlanta who originally founded the rap collective Spillage Village, before joining J. Cole's Dreamville label a few years ago. That led to their debut album Mirrorland  in 2019 as well as a prominent spot on Revenge Of The Dreamers III  and the Spillage Village album in 2020. Ghetto Gods  is the highly anticipated sophomore album which the band teased with a trio of singles dating back to last year. Review By Lav: I had the same read that most people did of Earthgang's debut Mirrorland . While it showed immense potential and had some huge highlights it was also decidedly bloated and a little thematically inconsistent. As for those two issues they have fixed the thematic inconsistencies quite a bit on this record with strong song concepts that connect throughout the record and create a dynamic tracklist. As for the bloated tracklist that is less remedied and more pivoted. There are very few songs on t...

Gunna is an Atlanta rapper signed to Young Thug's YSL Records label. He broke out a few years ago on a string of features alongside Young Thug and a successful collaborative album between himself and fellow 2018 up and comer Lil Baby. DS4EVER  is his 3rd proper studio album and comes two years after his first #1 album Wunna  in 2020. Review By Lav: I was late to Gunna. When I first heard him on the back of his affiliation with Young Thug I was so sure that his prescence would be a passing fad that I passed on reviewing some of his early mixtapes. It wasn't until his Lil Baby collab Drip Harder  which spawned the first big hit of his career that I realized I couldn't ignore him forever. The first highlight of my interaction with Gunna's music and his fans was when an intern from his record label called me "an LGBT" on Twitter and used that as an explanation for why I didn't enjoy Drip or Drown 2  which honestly still makes me laugh to this day. Believe it o...

Young Thug has been one of trap music's biggest stars for the past few years. Hailing from the genre's inception city of Atlanta and participating in collaborations with all of it's biggest stars as well as high profile crossovers with more pop oriented acts like Drake and Camila Cabello have all risen Thugger's profile dramatically. Now after releasing the most commercial album of his career back in 2019 he's following it up with a lightly indulgent venture into acoustic and singer-songwriting music, though it's all still heavily steeped in trap influence.  Review By Lav: *sigh*, I really like Young Thug. While his occasionally transphobia is, lets call it alarming, he's hip hop's ultimate charmer. His brash willingness to experiment with his personal and musical style compared with his capacity to write charming and silly lyrics that go over perfectly on song after song has made him one of contemporary rap's most protected voices. After a high prof...

Drake is the biggest artist on earth, and frankly it really isn't even close. From his streaming dominance, to his radio dominance to his chart dominance across numerous genres Drake has been an absolutely unstoppable force of commercial music for years. After setting numerous Billboard and streaming records with his 2018 record Scorpion  Drake has already started tearing down his previous accomplishments with Certified Lover Boy  in just the records first few days.  Review By Lav: Compared to the general public I've never been one of the massive Drake fans that you most likely know and interact with on Twitter occasionally. But compared to most music critics I've been far more positive on Drake's output, particularly in recent years, than many major outlets. While Views  and Scorpion  are both undeniably bloated there is also no denying the highlights that run throughout. Drake overcame this on his More Life  playlist which featured contributions from a nu...