Lav's Music Corner

Black Thought & Danger Mouse are a pair of veteran producer and even more veteran MC who have had their hands in dozens of classic records respectfully. After teasing a collaboration for years the pair have finally delivered a proper full length record and brought many high profile friends along with them.  Review by Lav: I love these two. From Danger Mouse's versatile and impressive catalog of production which is nearing two decades of work to Black Thought's time with The Roots and his continued success as a soloist. It's through this lens that the title of this record Cheat Codes  starts to make a lot of sense. The level of professionalism in the delivery and creation of these lo-fi and jazz inspired hip hop tracks really is a cheat code and the pair live up to it.  I was pretty sure this was gonna be good based solely on who made it, but the trio of singles certainly helped. No Gold Teeth  left my rotation at some point in the past few months and I don't know...

Black Thought is a Philly rapper and long time member of seminal rap collective The Roots. Black Thought began his career as a solo artist in 2018 with a pair of EP's that served as volumes 1 and 2 of the Streams Of Thought  series.  Review By Lavender: I love The Roots and I enjoyed Vol. 1  in this series in particular so I was moderately excited going into Cane & Able . Even with some strange features and production credits that sort of lacked the star power of the EP's I had a feeling Black Thought was going to deliver his typically strong blend of intense performances with conscious introspective lyricism. That happens for the most part although there are tracks on the project that take incredibly strange detours.  Good Morning  was the lead off single for this record and while it came out long before the album itself it feels just as fresh and compelling. If you were going to make an explosive, politically charged posse cut I think Pusha T and Killer Mi...

Freddie Gibbs & Madlib Are a veteran MC/Producer duo both of whom have a high tier pedigree in the rap game. Freddie has spent the better part of this decade releasing cutthroat mixtapes and albums full of lyrical bars detailing his upbringing and trapping. Madlib on the other hand goes further back and has a long history of working with legendary MCs and rap figures like MF Doom, J Dilla and Talib Kweli. The two connected in 2014 for Pinata, one of the most critically acclaimed rap albums of the 2000's, and after going their separate ways to continue working they are reuniting five years later to release a follow-up to their already classic first album. Review By Lavender: I certainly won't be the first person to tell you that Pinata is a masterpiece. Freddie Gibbs and Madlib teamed up at a point where they were both working at their sharpest and what resulted is a blend of Madlib's jazzy and soulful sample heavy instrumentals with Freddie's lyrically dense ...