Lav's Music Corner

Young Thug has been one of trap music's biggest stars for the past few years. Hailing from the genre's inception city of Atlanta and participating in collaborations with all of it's biggest stars as well as high profile crossovers with more pop oriented acts like Drake and Camila Cabello have all risen Thugger's profile dramatically. Now after releasing the most commercial album of his career back in 2019 he's following it up with a lightly indulgent venture into acoustic and singer-songwriting music, though it's all still heavily steeped in trap influence.  Review By Lav: *sigh*, I really like Young Thug. While his occasionally transphobia is, lets call it alarming, he's hip hop's ultimate charmer. His brash willingness to experiment with his personal and musical style compared with his capacity to write charming and silly lyrics that go over perfectly on song after song has made him one of contemporary rap's most protected voices. After a high prof...

Ariana Grande is an artist who turned from a pop star into a mega star over the past few years. With her last two album cycles she's collected numerous #1 hits and translated that success into a massively successful multi-media presence. Unlike many contemporaries who travel the same path Ariana has done so with critical success at her back alongside her commercial success, with her 2019 record thank u, next  in particularly receiving massive critical acclaim across the board, positions  is a relatively quick follow-up for an artist of Ariana's stature and only had one single dropped just a week before the album was ultimately released.  Review By Lavender: I was always a casual appreciator of Ariana's music in her early days but it wasn't until the one-two punch of Sweetener  and thank u, next  that she established herself as one of the best and most capable performers in all of pop music. The prospect of her releasing one of my favorite pop albums of the year ...

Thundercat is a Los Angeles based singer-songwriter who is well known for his unique style of bass playing. He has appeared on songs with artists like Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott and Childish Gambino but is most well known for his attachment for Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder Records and his numerous collaborations with FlyLo. It Is What It Is  is the 5th record from Thundercat and his 2nd since his big breakout singles. Review By Lavender: Thundercat is one of my favorite musical personalities. He's great on Twitter and has released a number of awesome singles over the years, not to mention excellent contributions to fantastic hip hop records over the past 5 years or so. The only issue I have with his music is that I haven't loved a single one of his records yet. They all carry some pretty similar issues starting with tons of short and meaningless interludes that round out already stark tracklists, as well as production that often falls on the dryer side and hurts his s...

Mac Miller was a California based rapper, singer, songwriter and producer who passed away in 2018 at just 26 years old. Circles  is a project he was in the midst of creating at the time of his passing and the record was finished by its executive producer Jon Brion who tried to best complete the album to Mac's vision. Review By Lavender: It is always a difficult tightrope walk critiquing the work of an artist that has passed. Both to avoid sounding disrespectful to their legacy as well as trying to gauge how much of it was their own artistic intent verses work done on the record after their death. Mac Miller was by all accounts an absolutely great dude and his death is a tragedy that I wish could have been avoided just as much as anyone else. This doesn't change the fact that I was never really that big of a fan of Mac, I thought his 2013 record Watching Movies With The Sound Off  was decent but since he moved to a major label it had been one disappointment after another...

1. Burial - Claustro Taking the #1 spot with a last minute swipe preventing a second three-peat in the first half of 2019 if Burial who returned to drop a new split single which is his first new material since 2017 and has the electronica community waiting with baited breath. 2. Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Giannis (Feat. Anderson .Paak) After dropping what is probably their best single yet and scoring a #1 on this chart Gibbs and Madlib recruit Anderson .Paak for what could have been their third chart topper but get sniped by an artist with some serious pedigree. 3. Free Nationals - Time  (Feat. Kali Uchis & Mac Miller) Anderson .Paak's touring band hits it off with their second single featuring the always indelible Kali Uchis and a surprise feature from the late Mac Miller that was allegedly recorded all the way back in 2017. 4. Dreamville - Down Bad  (Feat. J. Cole, JID, Bas, Earthgang & Young Nudy) The Dreamville sessions earlier this year were one of the...