A (Not Especially) Brief History of Best New Artist Eligibility

The Grammys are one of music’s biggest conversation starters, about who is nominated, who isn’t, what the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) got right but more often what they got wrong. So it’s not surprising that the…

The Hip Hop Roundup: Black Noi$e, Cliff Notez, Rico Nasty, and more

Album of the week: Black Noi$e – Oblivion Back in the beginning of summer, BET founder Robert Johnson told the U.S. government that roughly $14 trillion is owed to African Americans for reparations from slavery and wealth inequalities. The eye-opening…

Album Review: Drake remains unenthused with his creative vision on “Dark Lane Demo Tapes”

The Aubrey Graham project formula is obnoxiously predictable in 2020. Mixtape, album, EP, “curated playlist;” nothing Drake does surprises me at this point in his sumptuous career. His perpetual fusion of R&B and rap hardly mirrors any semblance of topical…

The TYF Monthly Mixtape: May 2020

In our TYF Monthly Mixtape feature, our music writers share Spotify playlists of the songs – new and old – they’ve had on repeat for the last month. This column is back for 2020, and this time we’re sharing some…

Hip Hop Roundup: The Best from March 2-9

Project of the Week: BBY Godard – Euphoria Welcome to the spiritual macrocosm that is Bby Goyard’s music. For those who aren’t accustomed to this celestial experience of Soundcloud’s next great innovator, Bby Goyard is someone who thrives in an…

Album Review: Khalid – “Free Spirit”

Yeah, he could never be young, dumb and broke forever. We knew that. And like any teen who goes platinum with their first album, the road to maturity that lies ahead is filled with all sorts of perils: artistic, personal,…

The Best Latin Pop singles of 2018

I’ve been a pop obsessive all my life, and I’ve always been particularly interested in its role in the cultural landscapes of certain regions of the world, favoring the most thorough, globally-conscious, production-focused perspectives on the genre. I have a…