Lav's Music Corner

Review by Lavender:  McKinley Dixon is a Virginia rapper who has spent this decade rising higher and higher as a critical darling of hip-hop. That began in 2021 with his album For My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like Her , which I liked a lot. That trek continued onto 2023's Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?  which I was equally fond of. I got the chance to interview McKinley at the end of 2023, and he sounded like someone who knew their work wasn't done yet. which is why I was so excited to hear from him again. On Magic, Alive! , he delivered everything I could ask for and more.  After a short intro, the album begins with its lead single “Sugar Water,” whose jazzy instrumental with wandering sax lines and bouncy piano kick-starts the record immediately. McKinley pops up three times on the song, and he's pretty much flawless with each and every appearance. Guest rapper Quelle Chris can't nearly match that energy, and as a result, the vibrant instrumental kind of floods him out, wh...

Your Old Droog is a New York rapper who was once suspected of being a pseudonym of Nas, but has since established himself as one of the most acclaimed and prolific rappers in the rap underground. He kicked off 2021 with a pair of collaborative albums with Tha God Fahim and is keeping his pace up with one of his most fleshed out and thematically conceptual projects he's released in years in Time . Review By Lav: Droog is a fun artist to watch and one of my favorite voices in underground hip hop. He released a trio of studio albums in 2019 highlighted by the excellent Transportation  and followed it up with a busy back half of 2020 and early 2021 which resulted in 3 more projects. I was excited to see Droog returning to solo work, especially with what seemed like one of his most fleshed out and thematically connected projects in a few years. Time  totally lived up to my hype and delivers not only on Droog's classic formula of creative beat choices and lowkey delivery, but also s...

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...

Your Old Droog Is a New York MC with strong ties to east coast rap pedigree and a flow so classic many believed when he first began making waves that he was Nas rapping under a pseudonym. After taking 2018 off he released his It Wasn't Even Close record earlier this year and now just a few months later has surprise dropped Transportation once again without any singles teasing towards its release. Review By Lavender: Looking at it from my perspective there isn't much about Droog that isn't likeable. He's an old school style MC who consistently delivers clever bars and a stone cold flow, so when there are weaknesses to his projects I'm usually not blaming him.  This was the case on It Wasn't Even Close earlier this year where Droog performed consistently but the complete indebtedness to east coast lyrical rap across this record makes it a bit of a drag in full length. So where Close was consistent but uninteresting, Transportation serves as its true compani...