Lav's Music Corner

And Then You Pray For Me  - Westside Gunn The main core of Buffalo-based rap collective Griselda releases a LOT of music. So sometimes you just have to pick your battles and only cover the most relevant releases. That's why I wanted to make sure to get my opinion out on this album after missing some of Westside's other work last year. The biggest reason being that from the album art and sonic motifs of the record it is clearly meant as a sequel to Gunn's 2020 album Pray For Paris . That project is one of my favorite in the entire Griselda catalog and I had high hopes for him returning to that well of icy, spacious, and vintage instrumentals with his lethal, detailed and distinctive flows. Unfortunately though, And Then You Pray For Me  delivers a full 75 minutes of music and much of isn't Gunn's best work.  That doesn't mean that the album doesn't have highlights. Mamas PrimeTime  is an early standout on the record with a chilling JID verse that might be my ...

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...

Component System With The Auto Reverse  - Open Mike Eagle I've been a fan of Mike for a long time, since his verbose art raps on Dark Comedy  wowed me with their creativity and bouncy pop culture references. While I thought his previous album Anime, Trauma and Divorce  was just okay I still came into this record expecting the same level of greatness that I do for pretty much every new OME project that drops. The first thing you'll notice about this record is that it's pretty chaotically organized with 14 tracks that vary quite a bit in length and add up to less than 40 minutes of total runtime. The record also features several collaborators, particularly across the second half, giving it more of a spur-of-the-moment mixtape style flow than a conventional album. Despite that when more fleshed-out tracks emerge they can occasionally be great. Early on in the record 79th and Stony Island  and I'll Fight You  come back to back as big highlights full of the kind of n...

Joey Bada$$ is a New York rapper and member of the Pro Era collective who broke onto the scene a decade ago with a now-classic debut mixtape 1999  which was released when Joey was still a teenager. After pivoting from his NY boom-bap style into a more conscious and political focus on is 2017 album All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ , Joey is returning with 2000 , a sequel to his original breakout mixtape. Review by Lav: Despite a discography that is pretty slim compared to some of his contemporaries, largely due to the 5-year gap between studio albums, Joey Badass has carved out a place for himself among the top-tier artists of today. He did this by emerging as an extremely talented individual at a very young age and continuing to impress with both his music and his far-reaching collaborations. Even though I've enjoyed some of his side work ultimately this is what I was waiting for, not only a full-length return from Joey but also a project that's thematically connected to his still legenda...

Conway The Machine is one of the principle members of Buffalo hip hop collective Griselda who has bee prolifically releasing material for nearly a decade. Conway had a breakout past two years, releasing his debut studio album in 2020 and following it up with the acclaimed La Maquina  mixtape in 2021. God Don't Make Mistakes  is officially Conway's 2nd studio album and it's his first being released by Eminem's Shady Records. Review By Lav: Conway The Machine doesn't know who I am and doesn't give a shit what I think about anything. BUT, I'm fully content on pretending that I sparked a fire in him in 2020. When I reviewed all the Griselda albums from that year his debut was my least favorite of the bunch and I specifically mentioned that I was still waiting on Conway to release something that was on the same level as the best work from his contemporaries Westside Gunn and Benny The Butcher. Well last year he did just that with the impressive La Maquina  mixtap...

I don't really have anything to say about this week from a high spun cultural observation standpoint but I did recently release a video on the Music Corner YouTube channel about how terrible the charts have been recently, so maybe one of these songs will be a big hit. 5.  John Woo Flick  - Conway The Machine (feat. Benny The Butcher & Westside Gunn) These three have enough tracks together for a greatest hits album and while this isn't anywhere near the best it does have the chemistry you'd expect from them at this point. They deliver verses that are separate in composition but built on one another and show off the similarity in all of their talents and the reasons they work so well together.  Listen 4.  Saoko - Rosalia Rosalia's newest single is short but makes the most of its runtime. The rumbling beat is an absolute hard hitter and she brings the vocal intensity it deserves with both the primary vocals and the impressive array of background singing. The song i...

Every year it just seems like there are WAY more rap albums than I can listen to and review. I've had rapid fire reviews for rap collaborations, trap albums, conscious rap, abstract hip hop and even one that was just for Griselda. Yet there are still mountains of rap albums I want to cover. I'm taking on these four in an attempt to make a dent in that pile with some of the most pressing of the available choices.  The Color Blu(e)  - Blu After having not heard much about Blu in quite a while he has entered an incredibly prolific and acclaimed stretch across the past few years. His last two collaborative records have both been fan favorites and the latter, last year's Miles  was one of my favorite rap records of the year and one of the smartest rap albums I've ever heard. So I was excited going into this concept album because it's clear how talented Blu is and if anybody could stretch a concept album about a single color to nearly 45 minutes it's him. While I do h...

Kanye West is an artist who really needs no introduction. One of the biggest and most controversial figures in popular music who has maintained a devoted fanbase and commercial success for nearly two decades. After a trio of stadium shows where unfinished versions of his 10th studio album were played to fans, Donda  finally dropped at the ever so unconventional time of 8 am on a Sunday morning.  Review By Lav: Well here it is, the record everyone has been talking about. For the better part of a month the general music community has been caught up in the tailspin of Donda  that Kanye's biggest fans have been toiling in for months if not even years going back to Yandhi . So what are my credentials. While I'm not a Kanye stan who defends his actions regardless of quality or context, I am a big fan of his music with records like College Dropout , My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy  and The Life Of Pablo  being among the best high profile hip hop records of their era....

This week was light on content for a reason, I'm on vacay <3. But I have found the time to catch-up on a few records I've been meaning to talk about and I'll be back soon to cover Torres, Billie Eilish and a bunch of other new releases I'm excited about.  Afro Pessimist  - Censored Dialogue CENSORED Dialogue is a rapper who I first discovered from their absolute tour de force performance on the Backxwash song Terror Packets  from her album earlier this year. I was so impressed with the verse and the directly personal approach through which Censored Dialogue handled trans issues that I wanted to know what else they had done. I was surprised to find an album that was much more conventionally hip hop than Backxwash, with production that could easily be slotted into many contemporary rap albums that have a classic instrumental flare. The lyrical subject matter here is also much more commentary on race and racial politics than trans issues. Neither of these things are a c...

Mach-Hommy is one of the most notable voices in the world of underground hip hop, having prolifically dropped projects for years while maintaining his distinctive lyrically dynamic sound. On Pray For Haiti  Mach-Hommy is re-uniting with Griselda records and more specifically Westside Gunn who executive produced the project and makes numerous appearances on it.   Review By Lav: Mach-Hommy is one of those voices that you can't really talk about underground rap over the past few years without getting into. While I haven't commented on all of his numerous projects leading up even to earlier this year, I've mentioned him frequently for his features on other records from the likes of Earl Sweatshirt, Your Old Droog and more. This record saw Mach-Hommy linking up once again with the Griselda records crew, but since the last time they collaborated, Griselda as a brand has grown massively in recognition and status in the hip hop world. As a result this was one of the most talked a...