Posted on 02/03/2010
A rare breed of artistry grows through the cracks of Nneka's concrete jungle. It's an intuitive sound that inspires, kicks ignorance in the ass, and is triumphant with lush opposition. Her truths—like thorns—prick you back to reality, while her affirmations of promise have you dreaming of a better day.

Posted on 02/03/2010
Get ready for a celebration as percussionist Sunny Jain and his New York based band, Red Baraat, releases their festive foot-stomping debut, Chaal Baby!

Posted on 02/03/2010
Music is often times the beginning of a new, unfamiliar journey. The artist’s creative vision is ultimately responsible for the journey’s directional path as listeners are naturally carried along the way. New African soul-jazz artist Somi endeavors to do just this as she strived more than ever to ensure her third studio album, If the Rain Comes First, is a matchless, cultural voyage through her East African heritage. The eclectic...

Posted on 02/03/2010
The Honeyis a delightfully odd EP from Iowan emcee Zachary Lint, otherwise known as Coolzey. My expectations were low for this record: I figured that an album crafted this far off the traditional hip-hop grid, in a place as widely unknown as Iowa, would either sound totally insular—loaded with banner waving and regional idiom that’d strain my ears and imagination—or be violently generic. But the mutton-chopped emcee steers clear of...

Posted on 02/03/2010
What makes many people skeptical about a pair of Lesbian recording artists from the Midwest doesn’t have as much to do with homophobia itself, as it does with the sexuality of music in general. In one way or the other, people want to fall in love with who they listen to. In that regard, God-des and She, and the legion of reasonable, liberal-minded consumers who follow this gifted duo really...

Posted on 02/03/2010
Teleseen is the pseudonym by which Brooklyn based Gabriel Cyr stretches conceptions of Dub across a frame of electronic neo-psychedelia. Some of Fear of the Forest can be found in the deep bass and driving chord stab of Dub. But it is the album’s multiple layers of abstract samples, unconventional use of conventional instrumentation, autotune vocals, and moments of revolutionary MCing that results in a bizarre journey through sound.