When I listen to “Mingus Ah Um”, I rarely consider the many people, events, and pieces that form this magnificent puzzle. I instead always see a pathway lined with naked trees and carpeted with orange and brown leaves stirring with the breeze, and Charles Mingus never fails to engross me in his wonderful, autumnal world. Released in October of 1959, “Mingus Ah Um” plays like fall weather. It can turn from a gentle, relaxing breeze, to a whipping, howling gale in an instant, and Charles Mingus isn’t afraid to place those two sides together in stark contrast…
Erykah Badu is a certified legend in all senses of the word. She is an empathic artist who has changed the game for all to follow. Rising to stardom in the mid nineties, her pure talent of both singing and songwriting separated her R&B, neo-soul hits from her peers, and she is still creating to this day. One of my most favorite masterpieces of her’s is the mix tape she released in 2015, ‘But You Caint Use My Phone’…
With their conspicuously violent, horror-core sensibilities, the Misfits confounded audiences in the late 1970s—mainly childlike onlookers come to witness the primordial fatalism of East Coast punk rock up close. The Misfits greatest songs encapsulated a minimalistic post-Ramones translation of rock ‘n’ roll invoking peculiar 1950s doo-wop harmonies delivered straight from the warm coffin of Elvis Presley…
When I am feeling overwhelmed and stressed I love to distract from my current state of mind with an upbeat and funky album, and there’s no better remedy than Steve Lacy’s, ‘Apollo XXI’. Singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer, Steve Lacy is a jack of all trades when it comes to the music industry…
There’s something about the swooning guitar and consistent drumbeat that gets my fingers moving across the keyboard. I’ve written some of my best—and by that, I mean “most passable”—papers while listening to Wolfmother or other music like it. Something hard, fast, and not commanding enough to distract me from my paper. The ticka-ticka-ticka of my keyboard joins the clashing of the drums and the shrill guitars in an orchestral harmony…
King Tubby’s mesmeric songs are sonic resurrections, and his body of work is, in a word, a sublime tribute to the artists whose songs he’s reimagined, setting the blueprint for likeminded recording engineers and head-expanders worldwide…
Tekashi 6ix9ine has always been seen as that annoying kid in school that never seems to run out of new things to annoy you about. That business model has proven to be quite effective, as 6ix9ine has become one of the most talked-about rappers in the world. I’d estimate every teenager who listens to hip-hop, the largest genre in the world right now, has heard of 6ix9ine. But with his post-’rat’ releases, most recently his 2nd studio album TattleTales, everyone seems to suddenly, finally, be losing interest…
After pushing and testing modern music boundaries for more than thirty years, Napalm Death goes further by continually refining their sound, refusing to get stuck, pressing forward, growing, and evolving…
My favorite single to come out this year was without a doubt from Billie Eilish titled, ‘My Future’. Not only is the melody and arrangement such an easy listen, but the lyrics are what make this song so special to me. She has a sense of candor that lets the listener in as she sings about how she is hopeful about the future…
Activism can come from many sources. While many of us see people come together in the streets to protest, American rapper Lil Baby expresses his desire for change in the form of his lyrics…