Shatter the Standards

Shatter the Standards

Home
Album Reviews
BLAST
Blackpolitan
Lists
Milestones
Soulpolitan
Wednesday Roundups
bmr
Words Past da Margin
Album Review: Confessions of a People Pleaser by CJ Monét
Her debut hands the first words on the record to her late grandmother. Everything that follows is written under that supervision.
 • Shatter the Standards and Janelle K. Moore
Album Review: Circa 01’ by Kastaway & Backpack Beatz
Kastaway and Backpack Beatz were eleven and thirteen when The Blueprint dropped. Circa 01’ remembers that year from the inside instead of curating it.
 • Shatter the Standards and Lance “LX” Brooks
Album Review: The Premise by Ill Conscious & Finn
A Baltimore rapper writes a sermon disguised as a rap album.
 • Shatter the Standards and Harry Brown
Album Review: Mantequilla by Recognize Ali & Giallo Point
Eleven boom-bap tracks of executioner bars from an Accra MC who Praises Allah and stages salaam-position sex boasts in the same eight bars.
 • Shatter the Standards and Blaise Freeman
Album Review: no country for old men by doPE (Chuck D & John Densmore)
An emcee at 65 and a drummer at 81 turn an Org Music gatefold into a record that argues with the easy idea of an elder statesman.
 • Shatter the Standards and Quinn Baptiste
Album Review: Briana by Bri Babineaux
On her third album, Bri Babineaux writes God in the second-person grammar of an R&B love song, and questions whether the form can carry an artist who…
 • Shatter the Standards and Jamila W.
Rob Base Only Needed the Beat and a Microphone
The beat of his song “It Takes Two” was to hip-hop what the guitar solo from “Stairway to Heaven” was to rock. Rapper Rob Base has now died at the age…
 • Shatter the Standards and Terryl Jameson
The Puppetmaster of Rosbach
Boney M.’s gigantic success in the 1970s is actually a dark chapter in pop music history. At its center: producer Frank Farian. An ARD documentary tells…
 • Shatter the Standards and Brandon O'Sullivan
Stay in the Room as Long as You Can
New songs from kwn, Glenn Lewis, Tiffany Evans, Blxst, and Daley—none of them willing to play it safe. Slow jams, self-worth anthems, and reunion…
 • Soulpolitan
The Handguide to ‘90s Hip-Hop/R&B Soundtracks
Hollywood paid the bill for rap and R&B’s best A&R work all decade. Year by year, these are the comps that came out of the deal.
 • Shatter the Standards, Brandon O'Sullivan, and Phil
Album Review: EXPERIMENTAL RAP by JPEGMAFIA
JPEGMAFIA spent half a decade letting his provocation outrun his writing. On EXPERIMENTAL RAP, they arrive at the same time, and leave nowhere safe to…
 • Shatter the Standards and Nehemiah
Album Review: Love You, Mean It by Patrick Paige II
A relationship album that mistakes the recording booth for a confession booth. It survives the mistake as every lyric tells on the man in the booth.
 • Shatter the Standards and Danica Ford
© 2026 Shatter the Standards, LLC. · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture