"Clearing Out My Mind"

Commercially speaking, there has never been a better time to be a female rapper. As I have spoken about both on this platform and my podcast platforms , we are existing in an era of female dominance in rap like we have never seen.  Whether it be Meg dominating social media and running up the charts. Doja Cat dropping a new hit single every 3 months. Saweetie constantly delivering hits. Rapsody laying waste to your favourite male rapper every time she hops on a feature. Cardi becoming the first solo women to win rap album of the year. Or the return and resurgence of the Queen that is Nicki Minaj. Black women in rap have been so dominant over the past few years that it would be easy to think there is no better time to be a black women in music. And for Black women to be fans of hip-hop music and culture. However, in reality our spaces within the hip-hop and R&B music scene and culture still have a long way to go before we can truly call it a safe and inclusive space for b...

- Gil Scott-Heron (1970) The untimely, inhumane and grotesque, racially-motived murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmuad Arbery and Belly Mujinga have sparked an anti-racism uprising and revolution like no other in modern world history. To echo the word’s of Ms. E Tendayi Achiume (UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance); “ The world is witnessing the largest ever transnational mobilization against systemic racism…” and long may it continue. From its inception, Hip-hop music has always been used as an avenue to advocate for change and address critical issues and topics within Society. As a medium of art dominated by Black people but for the most part owned and financed by white millionaires (and millionaires turned billionaires off the back of Black artists), hip-hop is an art form which acts as a microcosm of wider society. However, my goal here is not to speak specifically to this dynamic, (but maybe...

If we have learnt anything from this Coronavirus induced lockdown, its that Black culture is popular culture. And Black people continue to move the needle and dominate what’s important within society. It has been readily accepted for over a decade now that the music genres dominated by Black people; Hip-hop, Soul, R&B and Drill, are the most popular forms of music on the planet. But what this period of lockdown and quarantine has shown, in no uncertain terms, is just how much Black people and the culture that we cultivate truly dominates popular culture and wider society in ways that no other cultural force or phenomenon can even compare to. Now, of course I’m biased and thus think Black British Afro-Caribbean culture is the true dominant force in this aspect, but really Black people of all nationalities, ethnicities, and cultures hold this power to have monumental impact just by virtue of being ourselves. Within this lockdown period alone, we’ve seen Swizz Beatz & Timbaland ...

I'm not even 23 years old, and already I feel like the new generation of hip-hop artists are too young for me to really get into and enjoy. Barring a few exceptions, the quality of rapping is generally bad, and what's more with these new rappers it genuinely feels like every other week a new artists is in jail, involved a very serious altercation or doing some dumbshit all over social media. With that, it becomes entirely too difficult to parse out the talented artists from the whack ones and parse out the ones with common sense from the ones raised by wolves. What's worse, is that it appears the ones considered to be talented in the new generation, were also simultaneously raised by wolves. Why do I say this? Well, for the past week, which in all honesty, has felt like an eternity & that's not due to the quarantine, my social media platform have been providing me with almost daily updates on the life and times of an NBA Youngboy and the tragic and quite fran...

One of the defining aspects of hip-hop in 2019, was the distinct lack of starpower on display. For the most part, all of the genres biggest names stayed home with almost no album releases and very few significant singles. With the exception of J. Cole who would release “Middle Child” in January and eventually lead the way on Dreamville’s “Revenge of the Dreamers III” in July. It was an erringly quite year for the genre’s leaders. Hov, Cole, Kanye, Drake, Pusha T, even Travis, (although he would finish the year strong with "JackBoys" ), those who typically sit at the forefront of hip-hop had a surprisingly quite 12 months. However, as we approach the end of 2020’s 1st quarter, it feels like this trend is about to come to an abrupt halt. Of course, we're still expecting “The Fall Off” album which J. Cole promised for early this year, and Drake has been periodically and systematically leaking singles a lot over the first few months of this year. But in addition to t...

With Jhené having just dropped this weekend. Brent Faiyaz dropping the month before. Snoh Aalegra’s stunning tiny desk performance releasing earlier this year, alongside her 2019 album “-Ugh, Those Feels Again” continuing to receive widespread acclaim. All the while Summer Walker continues to go crazy on, and control, social media. R&B is in a great place. Personally, I can truly say, that this is the most diverse and widespread R&B has been in my adult lifetime. Almost, every other week, it feels like there is a new album, or new artist dropping great, soulful, emotional, thought-provoking and rhythmic music and carving out their own lane within R&B. Moreover, R&B’s growth in recent years is even more exceptional as the genre has grown, somewhat, void of the overt presence of its most prominent stars. Neither Beyoncé nor Rihanna have released a solo project since 2016. Bar a few throwaway tracks spattered about, Frank Ocean has remained his typically si...

This ain’t gonna be long. And I know a lot of people still may not know who I’m speaking on, or even agree with what I’m saying but I just felt like this needed to be said. Earlier this week, Complex Musi c named DaBaby as their best rapper alive for 2019, and although I wholeheartedly understand this decision and how and why they came to it. I unfortunately have to strongly disagree. DaBaby had a phenomenal year. Truly phenomenal. Between “Suge”, “Bop”, “Under the Sun”, “Cash Sh*t”, even “Panini” with Lil Nas’ X, everywhere you went, you heard dudes voice. I can’t knock it at all. He had a stronghold on the charts, Spotify playlists and social media alike. And having dropped two albums with 1 (Kirk) going number 1, it’s hard to question his #1 ranking. Yet… here I am to question it. https://www.discogs.com When we talk about rap, and the best rapper of 2019, the real answer to that question in Benny the Butcher, plain and simple. Aside from having what I truly believ...

Between “Life is Good” and the leak of “Desires” and a suspected full project being leaked on DatPiff early last week. It is almost abundantly clear that Drake and Future are gearing up a release to act as the follow-up to What a Time to be Alive, in the very near future. And although I am eagerly anticipating this project and can’t wait to hear what these two legends have in store, the impending release got me thinking about collaboration albums more broadly. In thinking on this, I came to the conclusion that honestly, less is more. In the last 5 year we’ve seen a lot of artists attempt this collaboration album model to varying degrees of success. And although everything pales in comparison to Kanye West & JAY Z collaborating on the masterpiece that was “Watch the Throne” in 2011, there have been a number of these projects which have reached great heights and produced some great music. Of course, the aforementioned “What a Time to Be Alive” , was an almost instant class...

  In my lifetime I don't remember a time where the UKs scene and its influence has been greater. Stormzy's out here doing press runs with Hot 97 and Charlamange. Mo Gilligan had his Netflix special in the US top 10 for stand-up comedy. And Everyone and their uncle was learning about street life in the UK from Top Boy. Britain's influence in music, and entertainment more generally, has been, and is, growing to astronomical levels. With that however, there becomes a lot of risks and issues that are set to arise which I believe, in the past, and in the future have the potential to hamper British artists and the UK from having its desired impact and influence globally. Thus, with that I mind, I’ve identified a few issues which need be addressed within the UK scene in order to avoid falling into some of the same traps which have derailed the British artists in the past from having an even greater global influence. Firstly, PAY PRODUCERS AND ENGINEERS. I have seen too ma...

Having finished off 2019 recapping the artists and sounds which dictated the previous decade, I wanted to start off 2020 looking forward over the next ten years and predict who I feel is set up to take over this new decade. I took into account a number of factors in considering this, mainly age, output and how versatile I believe the artist can and will be. There are a great number of artist who I think are set for astronomical success over the next ten years. I firmly expect the likes of Da Baby, Roddy Rich, Rapsody, Tierra Whack & Dave to have a huge influence on the state of rap music throughout this decade. However, I’ve singled out YBN Cordae, as the artist who I feel will greatly define rap over the next ten years. In saying this, I do still expect the current big names such as Drake, Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar and Tory Lanez to continue to have a significant hold upon hip-hop music, especially within the first 5 years of this decade. And if I had any faith tha...

My Favourite Male R&B Albums of the Decade: Okay, one last one for the road. Last week was the women, this week I go through the men. In a very eclectic and wide-ranging decade for R&B as a genre the men were more than did their fair share to push the genre further and further. Same rules as always, 1 album per artist. And again these are purely my favourite albums. #10 Album:                                                 American Teen Artist:                                                  ...