Lav's Music Corner

Because I moved last week I just combined the two weeks into one, enjoy <3 10.  It Won't Be Like This Forever  - Neck Deep Don't make fun of me. I've been waiting for neck Deep to return to their catchy meets angsty brand of pop-punk bliss since 2015 and this is among the better tracks they've released in the past 8 years. In no way is this rewriting the book on any element of their sound or style but come on, it's catchy and explosive and fun. Listen 9.  Murder At The 18th St. Garage - The Mountain Goats You have to respect the hustle of The Mountain Goats. Dropping a new album pretty much every year the band doesn't have the most stylistic versatility to them but they play to their strengths occasionally. On this track they absolutely nail their dorky and occasionally over-written style with a simple energetic instrumental and some lyrics fans will love pouring over.  Listen 8.  SHAQ & KOBE  - Meek Mill & Rick Ross Am I crazy or is Meek soundin...

We're at that time of year where I try to cover as much as I possibly can before 2021 is out and that starts with some of the albums that have spawned quite a bit of discourse. These are rap records that came out over the past month or so and inspired Instagram rap page admin discussion, profuse memeing and second hand listening experiences outside bumping car windows.  Expensive Pain - Meek Mill Is it just me or was there a lot more discussion about Meek like, two years ago. Obviously during the Drake beef and Dreams Worth More Than Money  era he was quite the headline grabber but even in recent years during his very public battle with the legal system I just saw a lot more people talking about him. This record seems like it's gonna chart pretty well and it certainly attracted the attention of a number of high profile mainstream hip hop artists, but I can't shake the feeling that it's his most culturally inessential album to date. As a pop culture observer that's a...

Future is an Atlanta trap rapper who really needs no introduction at this point. He has been around for almost a decade now and has frequently released commercially successful projects that have heavily influenced the popular psychedelic trap sound. High On Life  is technically Future's 8th album but with a dense catalog of mixtapes and EPs we have had no shortage of music from the man and at 70 minutes long this record is no different.  Review By Lavender: For somebody that has been popular and influential for nearly a decade now it can be kind of difficult to narrow down Future's music to just the good stuff. While there is certainly enough Future tracks for a greatest hits album or two that is just a drop in the ocean of content he has released and with the exception of DS2  those tracks rarely align into a cohesively great record. Just last year Future wowed me with a handful of tracks on his The WZRD  album and even more on his Save Me  EP yet I consider th...

Post Malone is a Texas based hit-maker who has ridden fame off of his breakout single White Iverson  into a complete dominance of popular music. With a number of high profile collaborations across his discography Post has certainly been one of the most influential figures in popular music the past few years and with two #1 singles and a potential mega hit collaboration with Young Thug all being released before this record dropped in full it is certain to be one of the years most commercially significant releases. Review By Lavender: Post Malone is an artist I am more than comfortable saying that I have never really enjoyed. His breakout tune still does nothing for me to this day and through his Stoney  era he spawned some of the weakest and most uninspired singles and features of any mainstream artist around. He began a slight upswing on the bloated but bearable Beerbongs & Bentleys  when he traded out flat out annoying for blissful background pop and tr...

YBN Cordae is a Maryland raised rapper and member of the YBN Collective trio with YBN Nahmir and YBN Almighty Jay. Last year YBN Nahmir was selected as a XXL freshman and his solid performance brought more attention to the trio and at the end of the year they released their YBN: The Mixtape . On top of this YBN Cordae drew attention to himself with his response track to J. Cole's 1985  track from his KOD album and after being named a XXL Freshman in 2019 and releasing a number of well received singles expectations and hopes were high for his debut record. Review By Lavender: Ever since I first heard the sharply written argument Cordae made to J. Cole in his response track to 1985  I was anticipating what he would do next at every point for over a year. While I was very disappointed by the YBN Mixtape  Cordae has been pretty much undefeated in 2019 thus far. He killed his XXL freshman cover opportunity delivering an excellent freestyle and an even better cypher perf...

1. Bon Iver - Faith Bon Iver grabs a second #1 debut of 2019 with the announcement of a new record and two follow-up singles to the two excellent songs they released a few months ago. 2. Jenny Hval - Ashes To Ashes Jenny Hval takes off strong in 2019 after her excellent solo EP and the debut of the lost girls project made waves in 2018. 3. Of Monsters And Men - Wild Roses Of Monsters and Men return with their second single and attempt to turn back the clock to the early years of this decade. 4. Common - Hercules  (Feat. Swizz Beatz) Common recruits veteran Swizz for production on the lead single to the legendary rap artists new project. 5. Nas - Jarreau Of Rap Nas' Lost Tapes  series gets its first true taste with this out of the blue single. 6. Future - 100 Shooters  (Feat. Meek Mill & Doe Boy) Future proves to be as prolific as ever and drops yet another single after releasing a full length album and a follow-up EP earlier this year. 7. Rosalia - M...

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...

Every year this list gets closer and closer to being the "Top 10 Guests SPOTS", as the mainstream catches up with the feature trend that's been in rap as long as there's been rap. Lana Del Rey/The Weeknd, Iglooghost/Mr. Yote and Charli XCX/Carly Rae Jepsen all made solid cases but for likely the last year ever the "Guest" list is limited to rap features. And in a time when there's more rap than ever before it was exciting to know that any day there could be a 200th Young Thug/Travis Scott song or exactly as likely something wildly new like DRAM/Neil Young. This year's list isn't quite as full of surprises as years prior but it's no doubt full of just as good performances. 10. J. Cole - "Legendary" by Joey Bada$$ Who'd have thought that in 2017 J. Cole would be less corny, what a time to be alive. Joey's VERY low key approach made it easy for Cole to hop in and ride along a jazzy, smooth beat and deliver his trad...