2 Chainz is honestly underrated as hell, always kills his guest features and he may have low-key had the best album out of Atlanta this year, though since he doesn't have the hype of a Future or Migos it's hard convincing anyone of that.

I think the way both verses on that track reflect different headspaces, with AZ's being all single-minded, youthful exuberance, and Nas coming in with a more subdued and reflective take, and then of course Olu Dara providing the lovely instrumental coda at the end. The whole song plays to me as a progression of…

I looked this up and immediately put it on hold at the library, it sounds really interesting. I can see myself wanting to read more of her afterwards, what would you say her best work(s) are?

Bobby fucking kills me. Powerful Man, Alina, and Sportstar are the other standouts so far, the whole album's fantastic though.

That's a good one, but I may have to go with Shine a Light if we're doing a Stones song - Mick Taylor's p damn good…

The Ex Hex record is like if Breeders made the first Cars album and it's amazing, especially impressive since she'd never done anything so straightforward/accessible before but still maintains the quality of her off-kilter Helium/solo records.

I think we underestimate just how much our response to 9/11 shaped both the character and behavior of large parts of the American public and politicians, and how in some ways it even set the table for both the rise of something like the current administration and its wave of supporters. Add to that Bush's good…

I mean Bush & Co, under the manipulative and arrogant guise of it all being a justified response to the audacity of a band of violent sickos launching an attack on our sacred territory in order to further their twisted political goals, invaded two sovereign nations, took the already fucked-upness of the ME to even…

I caught her doing this hour live a few months back and it was really awe-inspiring how she remained honest and vulnerable while also being in total control of her craft, nailing every bit, dancing across the stage, riffing on the crowd's reactions like some sort of comedy magician.

The loop on feedback and the fantastic Arthur Russell flip on 30 Hours nearly redeemed all of the bad (not bad-good, just bad) lyrics and uneven musical moments peppered throughout Pablo. There were also some good tracks that felt too derivative of other artists/ongoing trends like FML (mixtape Weeknd) and FSMH pt. 2…

I mean if we're reducing TPAB to "jazz-rap talking about social issues", then we sure we have MM, but also a couple of Common's records, like half of The Roots Discography, maybe even the Blackstar album and others I'm overlooking. But TPAB is an excellent album, with extremely personal yet direct/resonant music and…

Haha exactly. Actually one of the biggest drawbacks TLOP had for me was that parts of it felt like him just riding existing waves, when at his best/most interesting he sets or jumps ahead of existing trends and takes them into his own direction, as with 808s.

I got you, I was just pointing out that Chance (who in general clearly has been influenced a lot by Kanye) had been in that musical mindset for a while before TLOP, regardless of whether one thinks of the quality of those works. Also I'm somewhat touchy about the over-inflated view of Kanye's power after someone…

Haha I was being facetious/shitting on the people who think Kanye is the One True Hip-Hop Innovator (not that the post I was replying to was doing that). Plus I actually think hip-hop's in a good place right now, imo there's a good diversity of acts and styles successfully doing their thing, young and new. Tribe had…

The beat on Humble kind of reminds me of 8ball & MJG, which is always a plus in my book.

It's actually my fault for forgetting that every piece of hip-hop made in the last ten years owes its existence to Kanye West's influence.

Chance definitely didn't pinch the gospel thing from ULB at all, he put out a collab album in summer 2015 with Nico Segall & The Social Experiment that was bunch of gospel/soul mashed up with hip-hop (plus some jazz). If anything ULB drew from that record, not that either was the first to add gospel influences to the…

Quite a bit of older Southern album covers (even one from otherwise awesome artists) are…not good.

I actually think Scott's funniest when doing "interviews" and pushing the characters into silly/unexpected directions, but if the improviser isn't quick enough to take it into interesting directions it can be good to have the structure of the games to fall back on.

I feel kind of the same way, sure the consistency's gone down a bit but it's highlights are often still among the best comedic moments in any medium imo. Plus additions like Claudia O'Doherty, Gino the Intern, John Lennon have been amazing, and the PFT, Daly, Mantzoukas, and the rest of the old stalwarts haven't lost…