Lav's Music Corner

Pop Smoke was an up and coming rapper from New York who became one of the most prominent voices of the cities drill scene off of his hit song Welcome To The Party last year. Pop Smoke was tragically murdered in February of this year, a crime for which arrests were just made this week. Shoot For The Stars  is his posthumous debut album which was unfinished at the time of his death and was completed under the guise of executive producer 50 Cent. The record also attracted some controversy directed at designer Virgil Abloh for his original album cover design, which was changed before the records release.  Review By Lavender: Just typing the words posthumous debut album is something I find difficult, especially in the case of an artist like Pop Smoke who had so much creative and artistic potential ahead of him. While I have never outright loved any of his music he was carving out a unique lane for himself with unmistakable vocals and a thirst to push further beyond the mundane soun...

Gunna is an Atlanta trap artist who has emerged as a Young Thug protege and is signed to his YSL label. This is Gunna's 2nd official album but he is much more known for his collaborative project with Lil Baby Drip Harder  back in 2018. Lil Baby released his big sophomore record earlier this year to commercial success and Wunna  sees Gunna attempting to do the same.  Review By Lavender: I skipped out on reviewing Gunna up to this point for one key reason, I had nothing to say. You could describe his solo debut Drip Or Drown 2  as well as his slightly better collaborative project with Lil Baby Drip Harder  as nearly comatose generic trap records with inconsistent vibes and underwritten songs. It was clear that nobody in the process was really trying as they made music so I didn't try when it came to reviewing it. But Wunna  felt like a more significant statement from an artist who has proven to have some more commercial staying power than I anticipated given ...

DaBaby is a Charlotte based rapper who blew up last year with a couple huge singles, and has kept his profile high through 2020 off of a number of successful features. Review By Lavender: If you'll refer to my last review you may remember that DaBaby was an artist I was pulling for initially. He's from my home town and gave Charlotte a chance to get on the map for hip hop and some of his biggest singles are not bad songs, particularly the excellent Intro from his last record and his marquee feature on Camila Cabello's My Oh My . But DaBaby's short time in the spotlight has shown off two things very quickly. Firstly he is quite the problematic character as he is constantly embroiled in new controversy just about everywhere he goes, and secondly and much more importantly for our purposes here he has proven to be a pretty one note artist and Blame It On Baby  shows that even further. The record had two singles that didn't have me very confident in Baby's vers...

A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie is a New York MC who has had a meteoric rise to success starting with a prominent spot on XXL 2017 freshman list. He released his debut record to moderate critical acclaim and commercial success later that year, and followed it up with his sophomore record Hoodie SZN  which spent multiple weeks at #1 in the beginning of last year. Now after a run of singles and feature Boogie is gearing up to release his third album Artist 2.0  a sequel to his debut record. Review By Lavender: I enjoyed Boogie's debut album The Bigger Artist , it didn't blow me away but as far as trap records go I found much more of it interesting than mundane. Unfortunately I could say the exact opposite for the follow-up Hoodie SZN  which came out late in 2018 and underwhelmed me to the point of where I didn't even give it a formal review before my list week. What had me worried coming into the album was the success Boogie found with Hoodie SZA  commercially, and wonde...