Lav's Music Corner

Review by Lav: A few years ago when I did my deep dive into Griselda the member who most impressed me was Westside Gunn, who was fresh off his excellent Pray For Paris  at the time. Since then Conway The Machine has indulged on an incredibly prolific run of music sporting massive highlights of his own like his 2022 effort God Don't Make Mistakes , likely my favorite project from any of the trio yet. Despite being arguably the most consistent of the bunch, I've still been waiting for the DEFINITIVE Benny The Butcher album. And even though Benny spent the last year hyping up this project, it still doesn't feel like the best work he's capable of.  Sonically I can say Everybody Can't Go  has more variety than I was anticipating, but it all still exists within the tight spectrum of Benny's comfort zone. Opener Jermaine's Graduation  has a glistening piano beat that feels like The Alchemist doing his best Madlib impression with strong results. The production on TM...

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...

Boldy James & The Alchemist are a pairing of Detroit and California rapper and producer who first met up last year on the critically acclaimed The Price Of Tea In China . Both artists have proven to be quite prolific recently with Alchemist scoring critical successes last year alongside Freddie Gibbs and this year with Armand Hammer. Boldy dropped a number of projects in 2020 headlined by China  and the Sterling Toles collaboration Manger On McNichols .  Review By Lav: In the past 16 months Boldy James has gone from a rapper I had only ever heard mentioned in passing, to somebody whose every move I am anticipating in 2021. His brand of storytelling and lethal vocal delivery made for effective and often conceptual hip hop tracks and has already been attracting the attention of some legendary producers. Boldy and Alchemist's second collaboration in as many years has massive potential and while the record is quite good, neither of them does anything we haven't heard them do b...

Conway The Machine is a Buffalo, New York rapper and one third of the acclaimed Griselda records trio alongside Westside Gunn and Benny The Butcher. The trio have been incredibly prolific in recent years garnering the attention of both mainstream hip hop and numerous critics with 2020 in particular being big for the label. They've continued releasing prolifically with both Conway and Benny dropping collaborative tapes with producers already before La Maquina  was dropped. Review By Lav: Last year after flirting with the label for years I finally took a deep dive into Griselda and all three of its prime artists and came out pretty satisfied. While they've each had their moments across the past few years as far as 2020 was concerned, I was much more pleased by big albums form Westside and Benny than Conway's From A King To A GOD . I was hoping that Conway would show his talents off more consistently on a new project that would definitively put him in the same high tier as h...

There is more great rap music out there than I can possibly cover in full reviews, or even in rapid fire reviews. With many of the years most talked about releases being hip hop crossovers I decided to once again return to some records I didn't get the chance to review in full to make sure I don't fall behind with plenty more great rap music surely coming in 2021 Haram  - Armand Hammer & The Alchemist Armand Hammer is the New York duo of Billy Woods and Elucid who have spent the last decade releasing some of the most abstract and indulgent rap music around with highlights coming in the form of projects like Paraffin  and Race Music . The Alchemist is a producer with a resume that rivals just about anyone with a number of great collaborative projects in the past few years, most notably the Freddie Gibbs meetup Alfredo . For fans of The Alchemist you'll find these instrumentals mostly recognizable if not a bit more grimey than usual. There are those classic moments of spa...

All year I've gotten requests to review new albums from Griselda records big three artists Benny the Butcher, Conway The Machine and Westside Gunn. Given the heads that the trio have turned in 2020 I didn't want to let the year slip away without talking about their projects. The difference between these projects can often be slight aside from which MC is taking point, they are all reminiscent of classic hip hop, they all dive into personal history of street life and they all feature Freddie Gibbs. But there's a surprising amount of variance between the Mc's styles that made some of the records far more enjoyable than others.  Westside Gunn - Pray For Paris This is the one Griselda record from this year that I'm already seeing pop up on year end lists from major outlets so I thought I would take it on first. It's easy to see why the record has stuck with people so much since it's release all the way back in April starting with the fantastic instrumentals. A s...

Freddie Gibbs is a Gary, Indiana rapper who spent the last decade dropping some of the most explosive and hard-hitting rap records around, highlighted by a pair of collaborative releases with Madlib in 2014 and again in 2019. He first collaborated with California produced The Alchemist in 2018 alongside rapper Curren$y on their Fetti  project and has now surprised dropped his long awaited official first true collaboration with Alchemist on record.  Review By Lavender: Freddie Gibbs has been one of my favorite rappers in the modern day. With his hard-hitting blend of lyrically sharp and thematic bars and a knack for choosing great production. Even though he has managed to impress me with solo material plenty of times the best Gibbs projects have come when he works in tandem with a legendary producer for an entire record. Given that Freddie has worked with Alchemist effectively before and he released one of my favorite albums of 2019 I was very excited for this album the moment ...