Destined to be a stoner classic, Tha Carter III should silence critics who think Lil Wayne can’t make a cohesive album. His vision and self-confidence have improved exponentially since the humorless mishmash of styles that was Tha Carter II. Instead of trying to record the hardest Southern gangsta album of…
Seeing Sounds is the third album from N.E.R.D., the “artist” project from the members of production team the Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo), plus their buddy Shay Haley. It’s the compact-disc equivalent of an ad campaign trying to appeal to the Red Bull/sorta grown and totally sexy/BlackBerry generation. “We…
Naturally, Foxy Brown is the object of Ali G’s affections. With her foul mouth and short skirt, she epitomizes the fake gangsterism he parodies. At least she has the track record to support it — she recently finished a stint at Rikers Island, having violated probation stemming from attacking a…
Few rappers give better interviews than Black Moon/Boot Camp Clik alum Buckshot. Naturally, the pioneering underground MC sometimes refers to himself in the third person, makes bogus political predictions (“We are going to have a female president [this year]. That’s just something that my energy tells me.”) and takes full…
Narrow Stairs sounds just like Plans, right down to the obvious production, weepy lyrics, and inoffensive guitar, continuing Death Cab’s tradition of aping Morrissey lyrics without Moz’s counterintuitive turns of phrase or dark jokes. Songs like “Long Division” seem the product of some sort of indie-rock, nerd-crafted lyric generator: “And…
We expect a lot from our indie-ethos, crossover pop stars nowadays, even from a duo as inspired as Gnarls Barkley, AKA DJ Danger Mouse and rapper/singer/preacher Cee-Lo. We expect guilt-free yet radio-worthy earworms such as “Crazy,” plus genuine pathos, groundbreaking production, and minimal amounts of filler, all of which Gnarls…
All of my life my father encouraged me to be open to all good music,” St. Louis rapper Black Spade sings on the intro to his debut album, To Serve With Love. On his MySpace page, he reaffirms his dad’s influence on his genre-defying new work, describing his sound as…
Remember when people were calling Avril Lavigne the great grrrrl hope? Remember when Women-Who-Rock-minded scribes got all excited by Lavigne’s punked-up image on the cover of 2002’s multiplatinum debut, Let Go? Remember when feminists cheered along to songs on 2004’s Under My Skin, which included lines like “Don’t think that…
(A) First of all, don’t do your shout out track as an intro. No one cares that you like the city of Chicago. (B) If you’re going to have DJ Khaled do an interlude, ask him not to refer to you as “the definition of the projects,” because that doesn’t…
Last July, thousands of folks, including the mayor of Detroit and the governor of Michigan, gathered in Motown at the NAACP’s annual convention for a symbolic funeral for the n word. This wasn’t long after Michael Richards flew off at the mouth at a Los Angeles comedy club, Don Imus…
Irrational exuberance is so widespread in hip-hop right now that Alan Greenspan might freak out — if he understood rap lyrics. There are no two ways about it: Hip-hop sales are declining. Album sales dropped 30 percent in 2007, a figure that includes digital downloads. And ringtones, which have given…
Lenny Kravitz hates it when critics call him retro, contending that love, revolution, and smooching should belong to every generation. But the problem with Kravitz’s new album, It Is Time for a Love Revolution, is not just its bland message; it’s that it rips off artists like David Bowie, Led…
With hip-hop increasingly a boys-only drug cartel, it’s not surprising that the top urban hit makers are increasingly females in the R&B genre. Like Alicia Keys on her recent chart-topper As I Am, Mary J. Blige plays things safe on her own new blockbuster CD, Growing Pains. The album functions…
Kate Nash’s debut LP, Made of Bricks, was released in the U.K. last summer, and she became an overnight sensation, with both the CD and the single “Foundations” going to number one. The 20-year-old from a London suburb pals around with Lily Allen, to whom she’s frequently compared. Yet unlike…
Beanie Sigel’s rough-and-ready new CD, The Solution, stands in contrast to the latest from his mentor, Jay-Z. American Gangster saw Jay reminiscing about the days before he settled into his plush corporate lifestyle, but Sigel is still living hard. Having been acquitted of attempted murder and done a prison stint…
With his long dreadlocks, croaking voice, and penchant for zaniness, Lil Wayne is an unpredictable MC. He’s also a prolific one, releasing albums and mixtapes by the handful. In 2007, he recorded guest verses with everyone from Shakira and Beyoncé to Chris Brown and Little Brother. But his newest collaboration…
Wu-Tang Clan’s fifth album, 8 Diagrams, comes at a time of group strife. Ghostface Killah and Raekwon have laid into Wu ringleader and beat maker RZA for the album’s creative direction. Calling Wu a sinking ship and RZA a “hip hop hippie,” Raekwon claims the beats on 8 Diagrams are…
‘NSync was so freaking popular around the turn of the millennium that even I — jaded, posturing music critic — bought the second album, No Strings Attached. It sold more than a million copies the day it was released in March 2000, and I was swallowing a lot of LSD…
Chris Brown has been well-known to the screaming underaged masses for a minute now, but he broke out to a wider audience at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards. There, he perfectly parroted “The Gloved One” ‘s Moonwalk dance, prompting Justin Timberlake to tell the world he felt old. This…
Soulja Boy’s entry in the minstrel rap sweepstakes is called Souljaboytellem.com, and it has been virally marketed in a savvy way. Still, it’s about as stripped-down as a record can be. This is what rap would sound like if it had been invented in the 19th Century — simple snaps,…
Rap’s Grateful Dead? Hova? Young? The number one MC of all time? None of the above. A more appropriate title for Jay-Z is Most Overrated Rapper. Ever. With the release of American Gangster, his second post-retirement album, it’s time to clear the air. Jay-Z has fallen off. Perhaps, he was…
“I came back from NY, nigga lost his deal/Felt sick to the stomach, almost lost his meal,” Phonte raps on Getback’s first track, “Sirens.” He’s referring to his duo Little Brother’s exit from Atlantic Records after sales of its major-label debut, The Minstrel Show, failed to meet expectations. Getback was…
