Posted on 05/07/2009
Okay, I get it: Chester French is some sort of post-hip hop Steely Dan. (Album cover with an Asian woman: check. Highfaluting reference in band name: check) I’ve learned to love the Dan, but I used to really hate those guys. Well, you know what? I can’t stand Love the Future for the same reason: bad lyrics and annoying vocals can ruin even flawless musicianship. In the case of Steely...

Posted on 05/07/2009
I must admit, I’m truly vexed. I was under the initial impression that I would be reviewing a dancehall album. Then I got this, this album by Mavado that plays far more like a rap album than dancehall. Mr. Brooks…A Better Tomorrow sounds more like a product of the streets of New York than Kingston. Even the artist’s adherence to the paradigm of analyzing the “duality”...

Posted on 05/07/2009
When I first heard the Russian rapper, MC Comeczechmi, my initial thought was, “Maybe this is a joke or another one of those hip-hop spoof records.” My second thought was, “Oh, this isn’t a spoof,” followed by, “Let me not be an arrogant ethnocentric American.” My third thought was, “Someone wasted a lot of tracks on this guy,” followed by a storm of laughter. Simply put, MC Comeczechmi’s The Cold...

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Posted on 05/04/2009
“From BX to Motown, that’s how it goes down” intones Big Tone over the opening bars of “Broken Logos.” And that pretty much is how it goes down on The Art of Ink. True to his Detroit roots Big Tone has made an album that takes Motown as its base, before chopping it up and laying down some sharp rhymes infused with some good ol’ Berry Gordy hustle. It is...

Posted on 05/04/2009
Christina Applegate may be on the cover of a national magazine, but as far as I'm concerned, Georgia Anne Muldrow is one of the most beautiful people in the world today. Her output in the last few years has been nothing short of amazing, and she does it with a refreshing power. You're bound to be overwhelmed, if not consumed, by her productions and words, whether sung or rapped....

Posted on 05/04/2009
Teisha Marie did not set out to be a musical artist, but one listen to her debut album, Addicted to Life — The LP, quickly dispels that notion. The voice of this England born/Maryland raised singer glides effortlessly across tightly-crafted production, giving her the canvas to paint vivid pictures about life — love found and lost, deception, determination and self-fulfillment.