Shatter the Standards

Shatter the Standards

Home
Album Reviews
BLAST
Blackpolitan
Lists
Milestones
Soulpolitan
Wednesday Roundups
bmr
Words Past da Margin
Album Review: We Will Be Brief by Defcee & steel tipped dove
Two years after steel tipped dove mailed the beats, Defcee came back and rapped his way through his debts, his age, and a business he calls a mass…
 • Shatter the Standards and Koda Lin
Album Review: What Does It Take to Bloom? by Somi
Somi wrote and starred in a musical about Miriam Makeba before making this, and her own songs here put grief, blame, and leaving in plain, hard terms.
 • Shatter the Standards and Osei Addae
Album Review: WD, Vol. 1 by DyMe-A-DuZiN
Twenty years into his career, DyMe-A-DuZiN turns every grievance back onto himself, and the album is excellent hip-hop.
 • Shatter the Standards and Devon Kai Brooks
Dawn Richard Is Clocking In for Love
The legacy of Static Major turns up in the credits of a new Brent Faiyaz single, while Lalah Hathaway gives her first verse of the week to the…
 • Soulpolitan
JAŸ-Z, Kanye West and the Road 2 the Throne
Teacher and student, partners, comrades, and each other’s fiercest rivals. The story of JAŸ-Z and Kanye, who built a joint album together.
 • Shatter the Standards and Reginald Marcel
Milestones: Watch the Throne by Kanye West & JAŸ-Z
The luxury-rap era’s high-water, built under a paranoid lockdown at the Mercer Hotel by two rappers coasting through an expensive hour, with a core that…
 • Shatter the Standards and Owen Baptiste
Milestones: 8701 by Usher
The Atlanta R&B prodigy’s third album was gutted by Napster and rebuilt by a committee of hitmakers who bet everything on his voice over his…
 • Shatter the Standards and Kendra Oluwaseyi
New Music Drops: August 7, 2026
As new albums and singles get constantly flooded into our radar, look no further than skimming through the release week of August 7th. We know it can be…
 • Shatter the Standards
Album Review: DO YOU SEE ME? by Q
The South Florida singer and producer’s follow-up to Soul,PRESENT is a long address to a boy who won’t listen, his falsetto staying soft over cops…
 • Shatter the Standards and Marjani Fields
Album Review: Blue Island by Ravyn Lenae
On her second album with Dahi executive producing, the Chicago singer moves from character studies into first-person accounts of leaving that put a…
 • Shatter the Standards and Chiamaka Boudreaux
Milestones: King’s Disease II by Nas
A Queensbridge rapper and a Fontana producer locked the door, kicked everyone out, and made one of the strongest Nas albums in his discography.
 • Shatter the Standards and Phil
Album Review: Therapy at the Club by FLO
Writing with Amy Allen, Steph Jones, and Julian Bunetta, FLO turn a run of bad romances into pop-R&B that admits fault before anybody lays a charge.
 • Shatter the Standards and Charlotte Rochel
© 2026 Shatter the Standards, LLC. · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture