Lav's Music Corner

Rico Nasty is a Maryland based rapper who first rose to prominence in 2018 off of some hard-hitting trap singles fuzed with hard rock and metal music. In the years since she has expanded her profile, sound and range of collaborators specifically with a spot on the XXL Freshman list in 2019 and a collaborative mixtape with beat wiz Kenny Beats . With a number of mixtapes under her belt Rico released a number of singles in the lead up to Nightmare Vacation  which is serving as her debut album. Review By Lav: I expected to have this review out sooner but gathering my thoughts on the record has been surprisingly difficult. I should start by saying that this record is incredibly samey, at least 10 of its 15 tracks run along a nearly identical formula of short trap bangers with explosive beats and a mix of shouted and rapped vocals. There is also a similarly homogenized but smaller collection of tracks on the record that take a more R&B style approach and are rarely successful. What ...

DaBaby is a Charlotte based rapper who has blown up in 2019, scoring a top 10 single on the hot 100 with Suge  a number of high profile features, and an impressive spot on the XXL 2019 Freshman list. Baby dropped a record earlier this year Baby On Baby  that was commercially successful and turned around quickly to transition into Kirk . Review By Lavender: I've wanted to like DaBaby since he first showed up on the hip hop scene, he's from my home town of Charlotte after all and I have to represent. However I have been pretty mixed by what DaBaby has brought so far. I'm not in love with his breakout hit Suge  and I ended up choosing to skip reviewing his first record Baby On Baby  because it didn't do nearly enough to stand out from the sea of trap records that come out seemingly every day now. I have enjoyed a few of his tracks and a handful of his features this year though so now that he is more popular than ever I figured I would give this album a fair shot,...

Gucci Mane is a now legendary Atlanta rapper who came up in the 2000's and has made a sharp transition to trap music while staying relevant and releasing tons of music in constantly released mixtapes throughout the first half of the 2000's. While it is hard to point to any specific Gucci Mane mixtape that encapsulates his influence or style, his entire back catalog is one well worth diving into. Review By Lavender: Trying to review all the nearly 100 Gucci Mane projects is a job for somebody with patience well beyond me, but that doesn't mean I haven't at least heard nearly all of them and have my favorites. Honestly Gucci had been on a little bit of a creative peak recently releasing three albums in 2017, two of which I actually enjoyed quite a bit Droptopwop and the even better Mr. Davis . Unfortunately the single release he dropped in 2018 was one of the most generic and uninspired releases I had heard from him in years and Delusions Of Grandeur  follows in it...

Offset is an Atlanta rapper and one third of superstar trap trio Migos. The group blew up over the course of a few viral singles in the mid 2010's and have exploded into one of the most popular acts in the world, and as each member has ventured off into various collaborations and solo projects Offset is the last in line to release a solo album after poorly received projects from Quavo and then Takeoff preceded Father of 4. With only one promotional singles very close to the albums release it is hard to get a read on what exactly to expect from Offset this time around. Review By Lavender: When Migos dropped Culture in early 2017 it felt like the most important album in the entire world. After Childish Gambino shouted out the groups hit Bad & Boujee and it blew up to one of the biggest hits of the year they used the album as a platform to launch a full scale takeover of the music industry. 2017 also included a flurry of features for the trio and more imitators than anybody...

After a slow one last week we kick it into high gear with 7 new releases across all genres and quality expectations. Let's get into it. 7. "Ogilala" William Patrick Corgan Better known as Billy Corgan the frontman of once great rock band Smashing Pumpkins, the music has certainly gone downhill as the line up of musicians surrounding Corgan constantly changed over the years. Though he's far from heyday he also hasn't crashed yet and even though some of his most recent work is just plain boring, it's not outright bad, here's to hoping he can turn it around for a late career comeback effect, but I wouldn't hold my breath. 6. "Carry Fire" Robert Plant Here we are again, this time Plant of the great Led Zeppelin is dropping his 11th album as a solo artist. Coming off a solo career high point in 2014 with Lullaby... And The Ceasless Roar it's an uphill battle to expect Plant will come back with a classic. The singles have been managab...