Shatter the Standards

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March 2026

Album Review: Hagler Hearns by Numbz & Thought Provokah
Thought Provokah maps his career onto Marvin Hagler’s fight record, bout by bout, with real dates and round numbers. The most obsessively researched…
 • Shatter the Standards and Joelle Figueroa
Album Review: Dads at the End of the World by Sole & TELEVANGEL
Sole stopped reading theory and started planting fruit trees. His first LP with TELEVANGEL is the funniest, saddest dad record in rap.
 • Shatter the Standards and Wesley Durham
Album Review: The Undisputed by Nickelus F
Richmond’s most tenured underground rapper self-produced every beat and wrote every bar. Twenty-six years deep with no label and no features, The…
 • Shatter the Standards and Tariq Belson
Album Review: HATE ISLAND by Teller Bank$
The Denver rapper who got swindled out of his house made a record about what guilt costs when the money shows up. He’s arguing with himself and losing.
 • Shatter the Standards and Devon Kai Brooks
Album Review: Scarred and Sacred by SOLCHLD
A poet brought finished words to a jazz trio, and the trio had the sense to get out of her way. SOLCHLD’s debut is spoken word that doesn’t need music…
 • Shatter the Standards and Sierra El-Sayed
Milestones: Parade by Prince & The Revolution
Prince's post-Purple Rain restlessness yielded his most playful and peculiar funk record disguised as a film soundtrack. It also contains the saddest…
 • Shatter the Standards and Keziah Amara Reid
A Rock ‘n’ Roll Entrance: Black Women Pioneers
All of these rock ‘n’ roll pioneers were African American, coming from jazz, rhythm ‘n’ blues, and even gospel backgrounds. They took an active…
 • Blackpolitan and Esther Blake
March 2026 Roundups: The Best Albums of the Month
From comeback records to quiet stunners, March proved that the year’s best music might already be behind us. Jazz, soul, rap, and everything in between…
 • Shatter the Standards
Album Review: Garden Dance by Rap Man Gavin
A Cape Town–Providence rap album about plant medicine and historical erasure that never separates the personal from the political.
 • Shatter the Standards and Kendra Vale
Album Review: Days of You. by chromonicci
A beatmaker’s second vocal album runs on groove and desire, convincing enough when the details show up.
 • Shatter the Standards and Amaya🎀
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