KENDRICK LAMAR - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers DAMN. was only an interlude. After he delivered that (relatively) starker album, Kendrick Lamar went back to his old bad habits. His last release, indeed, looks like a big fat wedding cake. One thousand one hundred and […]
VINCE STAPLES - Ramona Park Broke My Heart The positive press on his latest album shows it once again: nowadays, Vince Staples is an established rapper. Each time, his records are praised by both specialized and generalist medias. And there are good reasons for […]
ICE BURGANDY - Progress Involves Risk Unfortunately Last year, Lonnie Bands from BandGang released his strong KOD album. And there, the "Detroit To Inglewood" track underlined the many connections between the Midwest and the Californian scenes, with people like […]
AZJAH - Princess Diaries The contemporary rap scene in Los Angeles is not specifically known for its feminine faces. Recently, though, someone occupied this niche: a rapper called Azjah pretended that she was the "Princess of Compton". […]
BILLY WOODS & KENNY SEGAL - Hiding Places We didn't really notice that last year, when listening to Armand Hammer's third album, Paraffin, but Kenny Segal contributed to two tracks in there. If we had paid even more attention, we would have noted that this old […]
03 GREEDO - The Wolf of Grape Street California is the land of all dreams, the motherland of mass entertainment, the ultimate fantasy factory. And as such, it often benefit from an inflated attention, especially when it comes to rap music. Quite frequently, […]
FIGURES OF SPEECH - The Last Word One peculiarity with the Good Life Café, is that it was headed by a woman, B. Hall, and open to feminine talents. The Project Blowed compilation shows this clearly. One of its highlights, the "Heavyweights Round […]
CAM & CHINA - Cam & China By the end of the noughties, a dance style called jerk, or jerkin', became all the rage in the streets of Los Angeles. Soon, it would create its own musical genre, a bit like its Bay Area cousin, hyphy. Though ephemeral, […]
VINCE STAPLES - Shyne Coldchain Vol 2 The latest mixtape from Vince Staples is not what you would expect from an Odd Future affiliate. While the Californian collective is infamous for its nihilism, provocations, and jackass attitude, the Long Beach rapper […]
ELIGH - Enigma In the early noughties, the Living Legends were the archetypical underground hip-hop band. They were highly revered in the backpacker rap world, where they fully deserved their name. In the Wu-Tang way, this collective […]
OMID - Beneath The Surface The reason why Beneath The Surface is so crucial a record is, primarily, historical. Discovered by many on the same websites that, by the end of the century, offered illegally music from the likes of MF Doom or […]
