rap

Album: LL COOL J - THE FORCE

Saturday, 07 September 2024

This album only has one serious flaw: LL COOL J didn’t open it with “OK you can call it a comeback”. Sorry, cheap joke (if you didn’t know, his classic hit “Mama Said Knock You Out” starts with the lyric “Don’t call it a comeback!” and this, his...

Kneecap review - Irish Republican rappers for real

Saturday, 24 August 2024

A few recent documentaries have challenged the definition of the genre through the cheerful and wholesale dramatic reconstruction of past events, key moments that weren’t captured by a camera at the time.This is unnerving to those of us brought up...

WOMAD Festival 2024 review - exuberant global roots sounds, hippies young and old, and blissful weather

Wednesday, 31 July 2024

The weather is perfect. Rare at a festival in this country. The sun shines. Occasional clouds pass. There’s a light breeze. Flamingods are on the Charlie Gillett stage. They are a London-based unit of primarily Bahraini origin who make psychedelic-...

Album: Joe Goddard - Harmonics

Monday, 08 July 2024

Joe Goddard’s torrent of creativity rarely fails to amaze. As well as eight albums as a crucial part of Hot Chip, he has made two in the 2 Bears duo with Raf Rundell, one as Hard Feelings with Amy Douglas, and there’s been various other...

Album: Kehlani - CRASH

Monday, 17 June 2024

The noise in the international mainstream in recent years might be about dance-pop, hip hop beefs and the serious balladry of Taylor, Billie and Lana – yet at the same time, R&B has been strange, brilliant, ultra-popular, but generated a tiny...

Albums of the Year 2023: Jim Legxacy - HNPM

Saturday, 30 December 2023

In 2023 Dave and Central Cee had the longest running number one UK rap song ever with "Sprinter", a song about the logistics of being very rich. The real star of the show, however, was the spritely, luxurious instrumental which was partially...

Albums of the Year 2023: Janelle Monáe - The Age of Pleasure

Monday, 18 December 2023

It was a year of bleak and brutal conflict, ugly and stupid imposition of power, overt Fascism in the mainstream public sphere, decay of infrastructure and apocalyptic weather. So what better than a record of total pleasure? And Janelle Monáe’s...

Trans Musicales Festival 2023 review - a smorgasbord of global sounds

Tuesday, 12 December 2023

FRIDAYRennes Airport Parc Expo is about three miles west of the city. It’s vast, consisting of 110,000 metres of cavernous warehouse-like hangars, and has hosted everything from Holiday on Ice to France’s hugest annual agricultural conference. Every...

Korea On Stage, OVO Arena Wembley review - a symphony of lights, beats and empowerment

Friday, 10 November 2023

Choruses rocked, choreo popped, and thousands of light sticks danced in unison, as an incredible lineup of nine acts lit up this fourth edition of Korea On Stage, celebrating 140 years of UK-Korea relations.The evening commenced with the beautifully...

Album: Drake - For All the Dogs

Saturday, 07 October 2023

Drake’s new album is his fourth full-length in under two years. While his peers like Kendrick Lamar and J Cole disappear for years at a time, Drake seems to be afraid that leaving the limelight means he will evaporate into thin air. As a result, For...

Album: Burna Boy - I Told Them...

Friday, 01 September 2023

There’s been a lot of flak flying around this album already. It’s mainly been triggered by Burna Boy’s public activities which have included disparaging the wider Afrobeats music scene of West Africa, and some somewhat overcooked expressions of his...

We Out Here Festival, Wimborne St Giles review: it's a family affair, and then some...

Friday, 18 August 2023

We Out Here Festival, now in its fifth year (and fourth edition, as 2020 was of course cancelled for Covid), has become an institution. Curated by jazz-centric veteran DJ Gilles Peterson and actualised by Noah Ball – best known for his role in...

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