Lav's Music Corner

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 ...

Last year I covered some of the biggest releases in rap music from the boys in one big rapid fire review. Now, the women have been throwing out some of the most notable moments of the year so let's dig into what they have to offer. MEGAN  - Megan Thee Stallion I like Megan Thee Stallion a lot but it isn't because of the quality of her projects. Calling someone a "singles artist" is deeply patronizing but there isn't really another way to explain why Megan has so many amazing songs and no full projects that I can say I genuinely enjoy. Savage , Thot Shit , Hot Girl Summer , Plan B , these are the kind of songs that launched her to fame, and yet all of the projects they landed on were muddled messes with as many bad ideas as good ones. That could have even been the case with this record, which featured one single in particular, the lethal diss track and opener HISS , that I absolutely love. Unfortunately though, MEGAN  has some of the same pitfalls that have plagued...

This week some big favorites dropped duds and the best songs came from a few surprising places.  5.  Life  - Jamie xx (feat. Robyn) Even lacking the variety of his legendary debut album, the singles from Jamie xx's long-awaited follow-up have still been satisfying. Life  sees him teaming up with Robyn, who appears to be fully back in 2024, for what may be the most satisfying of the bunch. Jamie's vibrant house beats combine with Robyn's unmistakable direct swagger for a crossover that meets the moment perfectly. Listen 4.  TGIF  - GloRilla Glo isn't slowing down off the release of her admittedly pretty solid mixtape earlier this year. Her voice continues to be one of the most commanding in all of rap and the sparse popping beats she chooses to lend it to make things hit even harder. Even if this track has one or two lyrical moments that tend to drag down the energy with silly punchlines it's still an absolutely thumping song.  Listen 3.  Favourite...

Dummy Corporation  EP - Actress Actress is a British house and electronica act that I admittedly should have been paying more attention to in the time I've been reviewing music. While most of the biggest highlights from the project came before I started, they have still released some interesting house and dance music worth covering in the past few years and after hearing this new EP which dabbles in micro house and ambient techno, I knew I had to cover it. Though it's only 4 tracks the EP runs about 40 minutes and nearly half of that is taken up by the monster title track which kicks the record off and spans just under 19 minutes. It starts with a long ambient intro that you may not realize is a build-up at first, but around five minutes in it starts to work towards the core of the song with gentle vocal samples, glittery synths, and steady pounding percussion. While I think the full length of the song might be a little bit more indulgent than necessary I also think it's th...