Just when you thought 2020 might have been looking up just a little, here’s the year’s third album by Toronto rapper NAV. At this point, a review of NAV’s work is little more than a formality, because there is entirely nothing left to say. My thoughts on his latest can be more or less summed … Continue reading NAV – Emergency Tsunami
Gunna
Ty Dolla $ign – Featuring Ty Dolla $ign
One of the music industry’s most consistently versatile figures returns, and this time it’s with a self-aware and feature-heavy odyssey of an album. Two years after linking up with Jeremih for a great project full of confident R&B come-ons and continuing to contribute his vocals to numerous albums by diverse musical superstars, Ty Dolla $ign … Continue reading Ty Dolla $ign – Featuring Ty Dolla $ign
Internet Money – B4 The Storm
Hip-hop producer duo Internet Money – or Taz Taylor and Nick Mira – have been responsible for some of the most inescapable rap hits over the past couple years, including tracks like “Ransom,” “Lucid Dreams” and playing a big role in some of XXXTENTACION’s early success. When jumpstarting an entire movement from behind the scenes, … Continue reading Internet Money – B4 The Storm
Gunna – WUNNA
After generating some serious buzz with a series of snippets played over livestream, one of Young Thug’s YSL label’s biggest superstars releases his sophomore full-length project. The album’s title is supposedly based on some kind of half-baked “alter ego” concept, loosely defined by Gunna as a “more spontaneous” version of himself and never addressed on … Continue reading Gunna – WUNNA
Nav – Good Intentions
The big-name Toronto-area releases just won’t stop for the last couple of months, and this time we have Nav returning all too soon with the follow-up and spiritual successor to last year’s abysmal Bad Habits, titled Good Intentions. At this point, with how much people joke about Nav, I must admit that at times on … Continue reading Nav – Good Intentions
Lil Baby – My Turn
Can we as a society please come together and collectively agree to stop tolerating lowest-common-denominator mid-tempo trap music that sounds like it came off an assembly line? Young Thug protégé Lil Baby has returned with his second full-length studio album My Turn, but you’d be hard-pressed to distinguish it from his first. Spanning an absolutely … Continue reading Lil Baby – My Turn
A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie – Artist 2.0
One of the pioneers of the melodic trap movement that’s dominating in a whole new way after Roddy Ricch’s chart-topping single “The Box,” A Boogie Wit da Hoodie returns after his previous project, Hoodie SZN, far exceeded everyone’s expectations in terms of sales and staying power – mostly due to overwhelming support in his home … Continue reading A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie – Artist 2.0
Pop Smoke – Meet The Woo 2
The internet would have me believe that at the moment it's impossible to walk the streets of New York City without hearing a car driving past blaring the music of 20-year-old drill rapper Pop Smoke. After a high-profile collaboration with Travis Scott and some genre-bending remixes of his track “Welcome To The Party,” he already … Continue reading Pop Smoke – Meet The Woo 2
Rapid Fire Reviews (Joji, Metro Boomin, Robyn)
Joji - BALLADS 1 One of ascendant label 88Rising’s biggest artists, Joji, drops his debut full-length studio album BALLADS 1 which exhibits his unique, lo-fi approach to modern R&B, pop and hip-hop music. A former YouTube star famous for his surreal, absurdist comedy, you can certainly still sense some of his over-the-top personality in his … Continue reading Rapid Fire Reviews (Joji, Metro Boomin, Robyn)
Lil Baby & Gunna – Drip Harder
The year is 2018. Lil Baby and Gunna have narrowly eked out a sales victory over Beyonce and Jay-Z. And the tide of average yet wildly successful trap albums keep on coming. Drip Harder is a collaboration project between two of the bigger names on Young Thug’s YSL label, as well as a sequel of … Continue reading Lil Baby & Gunna – Drip Harder
Ben's Beat - Music Reviews 