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30 JAŸ-Z Storytelling Records Ranked by Craft
In honor of JAŸ-Z 30, a countdown of the narrative songs that are built the best. Structure, pacing, dialogue, tension, perspective, characterization…
4 hrs ago • Shatter the Standards and Phil
Album Review: WHY EQUALS SELF by Raz Fresco
The Toronto rapper-producer turns Five-Percent lessons and a family split by borders into the deepest album of his career.
12 hrs ago • Shatter the Standards and Aicha Odilia
Album Review: Alchemy by Davion Farris
The eldest of Inglewood’s Farris brothers devoted years to writing songs for other singers to take home. On thirteen songs of grown two-voice R&B, he…
12 hrs ago • Shatter the Standards and Noura Haddad
Album Review: Underdogs Win Eventually by Bizzy Crook
Bizzy Crook gave a decade to other people’s hits while his own family went quiet. In Underdogs Win Eventually, he writes the silence better than the…
12 hrs ago • Shatter the Standards and LeMarcus
Album Review: The Ends, Never Ends by Joe James
Thirteen homes before secondary school, homeless at sixteen, years of silence with his mum. The Essex rapper’s debut turns all of it into the most…
24 hrs ago • Shatter the Standards and Ameenah Laquita
Album Review: The Real Me by Future
Four years after his last solo album, Future promises to be the man behind the Pluto alias. He keeps the promise on a handful of songs that hold his…
Jul 10 • Shatter the Standards and Phil
Album Review: NEVER SAY DIE by PFG
J. Cole went home to Fayetteville to produce PFG’s NEVER SAY DIE, and the Sheltuh rapper fills his minimal, bass-heavy beats with the hardest, most…
Jul 10 • Shatter the Standards and Harry Brown
Album Review: Love/Hate II by The-Dream
Nineteen years after Love/Hate turned bedroom synth-R&B into a serial, the Radio Killa returns with Usher, Pusha T, and Rick Ross and picks the dirty…
Jul 10 • Shatter the Standards and Tai Lawson
Album Review: RHYTHM & MELODY by Sango
On his debut for Mass Appeal, the Seattle producer runs Detroit rap, New Orleans bounce, Chicago footwork, and Rio funk through one set of top-tier…
Jul 10 • Shatter the Standards and F. Qureshi
New Music Drops: July 10, 2026
As new albums and singles get constantly flooded into our radar, look no further than skimming through the release week of July 10th. We know it can be…
Jul 9 • Shatter the Standards
Album Review: Highway 79 by Ne-Yo
On his first country-inspired record, cut in Nashville twenty years after his debut, Ne-Yo writes the plainest songs of his career and lets the R&B…
Jul 9 • Shatter the Standards and Jamila W.
Album Review: YEARNALISM by Baby Rose
After two albums made to steady herself, Baby Rose turns the contralto outward, and the yearning finally has a direction.
Jul 9 • Shatter the Standards and Ivy Mensah
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