Only the first one gets a pic this time

DJ QUIK AND KURUPT—BlaQKout (Mad Science)
This was the year of the “temporary” rap duo, as declining record sales and other factors led everyone from EDO.G and Masta Ace to Buckshot and KRS-One to pool their resources into one-off collaborative albums. BlaQKout was easily the most revelatory of these releases, a decidedly un-gangsta, throw-everything-in-the-kitchen-sink type party album that works from start to finish. Kurupt sounded reinvigorated in his role as hype man and pinch hitter while Quik continued to quietly elevate his production and mic game, almost 20 years in. Read the rest of this entry »

Listen, pal, I’m having a smartly soundtracked existential crisis here

While preparing this piece about Karin Dreijer Andersson of the Knife’s Fever Ray guise, I came across some interviews where Andersson cites Miami Vice as one of her primary influences for the project. I had what Oprah might call an “aha” moment. The perpetual tension, the melancholy, the sense of impending doom—the songs on the Fever Ray LP do create a feeling akin to Miami Vice’s music video-style sequences: those overly melodramatic moments where Sonny (and sometimes Tubbs) get to look cool while sulking over some mistake (usually someone they were trying to protect getting shot) to the sounds of an emotionally overwrought ’80s power ballad handpicked by music supervisor Jan Hammer. Among them are some of the coolest looking montage scenes ever committed to film, in my opinion. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not buying the sauce the Bawse is selling on Deeper than Rap. I explain why in this review from this week’s Time Out. The assignment encouraged me to revisit Trilla, though. Now, that is a solid album. Been cranking this, too. Dude sounds real good on a fast early ’90s beat. Or maybe it’s just this one in particular. I don’t know why he stops after the one verse—I’m left wanting to hear a few more. “Fake Saigon, maybe”> any line on Deeper Than Rap.

Time Out also published my review of the new Wu-Tang covers album by El Michels Affair. A solid pickup for serious Wu fans, but are there enough of those any more? On a side note, I feel silly typing this but Blackout 2 could end up being the best rap album of…the quarter? first half? I heard it in a very muggy, dude-filled room last week, and was semi-amazed by the consistent quality of the tracks I heard.