Reviews
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Album Review: Buckshot – The Package: Brooklyn in Hand
Buckshot returns with a compact Duck Down statement that treats Brooklyn legacy as motion, not museum glass.
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Album Review: FATHERS – FATHERS: Beat Culture With Hands on the Instruments
Nate Smith, Kiefer, CARRTOONS, and Kenny Beats turn producer-brain jazz fusion into a loose, readable groove record.
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Album Review: M-Dot – A Notebook With No Light: Gumshoe Rap With Teeth
M-Dot builds a noir-leaning independent rap record around grit, vulnerability, and the stubborn craft of being overlooked.
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Album Review: Chuck Strangers – Glory of the King’s Hand: Weight in the Palm
Chuck Strangers turns a stacked producer bench into a grounded, restless underground rap record that still keeps his voice at the center.
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Album Review: Juicy J & Project Pat – Dem Goats: Memphis Muscle Memory
Project Pat and Juicy J stretch a long-overdue Memphis family reunion into a heavy, uneven, frequently fun survival manual.
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Review: DJ Premier & The Alchemist feat. Evidence – No Explanation: No Wasted Motion
DJ Premier, The Alchemist, and Evidence keep the assignment compact: one tense beat, one veteran pocket, no wasted motion.
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Album Review: Little Simz – Sugar Girl EP: A Flex Disguised As a Playground
There’s something quietly defiant about releasing an EP where you barely rap. For an MC who once promised a Pyramid Stage crowd they were “witnessing greatness” — and meant it — to step back from the thing everyone knows you for isn’t retreat. It’s the kind of move only available to someone who’s already proven…
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30-Year Throwback: Dr. Octagon – Dr. Octagonecologyst
Kool Keith’s debut as Dr. Octagon remains one of the most singular, unsettling, and influential underground hip-hop records ever made — 30 years later, it still sounds like a transmission from another dimension.
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Review: Hieroglyphics – Drum Talk: Oakland’s Cipher Reopens
Hieroglyphics return with a compact, drum-forward cipher that makes their next crew album feel necessary instead of nostalgic.
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25 Years Later: Cannibal Ox – The Cold Vein Still Sounds Like the Future Def Jux Promised
Twenty-five years after its May 15, 2001 release, The Cold Vein still feels less like a nostalgia piece than a transmission from underground rap’s alternate future.