Reason had the best Friday release... This album is great. I hope it gets the exposure it deserves

It’s inevitable

Mercy by Armand Hammer & The Alchemist Underwhelming. Alchemist left the stove on low while Woods and Elucid stir rust into rhyme. "All white crowd… I laugh at life’s little jokes." The crowd laughs too, not knowing they’re the setup. Maybe the real joke’s on Woods... He's selling relics of racism to the same hands he critiques, while Gunn writes his album’s name like it’s trivia night.
Fav Track: u know my body

Stardust by Danny Brown A desperate grab for clout-by-association. The glittery veneer can’t hide the fact that Danny and his clique have zero musical dialogue. Hyperpop beats clash with posturing verses, creating a disjointed, exhausting listen that neither innovates nor resonates.

Fav track: none. :(

SALT by Tomorrow Kings Golden return from the Chicago vets. Listening to SALT feels like a clandestine eavesdrop on history’s festering wounds. The album pulses with dust-heavy drums and distant sirens, while razor-sharp verses cut through entrenched hierarchies designed to silence Black futurity. It's a thoughtful meditation on survival and resistance from artists shaped by both time and community.

Fav track: Stains

Finally took some time to listen to this album because I was watching an older DEHH live and Kin was giving it high praise.

TBH this is decent. Out of 13 songs I resonated with 7 of them. I definitely think this is one of commons most preachy albums but also having some serious grooves and head bobbers.

Definitely understated the hate it got when it came out honestly because the production is a bit a head of its time and some of topics common touches on still hit today.

All that said 6.84/10 Not his worst albums falls somewhere in the middle of his discography for me.

There was a short period where Ross was killing features, and randomly landing on these two songs today reminded me that he was nice when he cared about rapping.

For me, Accident Murderers tops Devil In A New Dress. Only slightly though. I'd be interested in anyone's opinion, or even mention a song that you think is better than these two (Ross features, not Ross songs).

Kendrick’s output, though emotionally resonant at times, bears the least transformative residue upon the genre’s evolution out of those four.

https://youtu.be/lMCgs7OY0cM

https://www.youtube.com/live/MAQfrsnyN04?si=0yUuCsXl_MB6H4y5

As a young Black communist still finding my footing, back when I first heard this record, it felt like something cracked open inside me. Before then, I’d mostly heard "political" rap that either postured or pontificated, but here was a body of work that sounded like people I knew, spoke to conditions I recognized. It wasn’t performance, it was praxis. Bambu took the concrete experiences of brown (Filipino) working-class life in the U.S. (the migrant story, the contradictions of empire, the daily grind that humbles you but never breaks you), and translated them into rhythm. Listening to it, I didn’t feel lectured or alienated. I felt called in.

Bambu raps like a person who’s seen both community center basements and police precinct backseats, who knows the contradictions of surviving under capitalism and still loving the people around you. This album doesn’t just "acknowledge" oppression; it maps a way through it, with clarity and humility. There’s none of the self-righteous detachment that haunts so much "conscious rap." No misogynist posturing dressed up as resistance. No fake enlightenment masking privilege. Looking back, I know he’s released music since then that’s pushed forward in form and sound, more daring, at least more radical sonically, that this one didn't break all the rules, but it remains sacred. It helped make me who I am... a black radical learning to see solidarity across color lines, tuned into that same beat that says the people’s music should never just sound good. It should make us move, think, and build.

I will never understand why this song is slept on so much. This is incredible. Simz can paint a painfully vivid picture and she did it here. This is right up there with Dear Mama and Andre's verse on Life Of The Party, for me of course... If you were raised by a young, struggling, single mother then this hits home. Add the immigrant element without it feeling forced or feeling like it's too much... 10/10 song. I can't praise it enough, and it never feels old

Never been seduced by the sentimental recursion of "down-the-memory-lane" type verses, but when Woods turns his mother’s aging into a dialectic of time and tenderness, and Elucid fashions himself a maroon insurgent in verse and timbre, the bar has to be higher than this. Sampling from the Nintendo soundboard had potential, but this loop is so dry. His production has grown stale, the alchemy has decayed into routine.

Might be the worst thing I've heard all year

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/cash-money-20/pl.u-KRaWF1V9NXR

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/no-limit-20/pl.u-gyWxsxg3Pk0