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Milestones

Milestones: Anti by Rihanna
After seven albums in seven years, Rihanna stopped the machine. Anti is what happened when she finally made a record for herself.
 • Shatter the Standards and Keziah Amara Reid
Milestones: Step in the Arena by Gang Starr
DJ Premier and Guru drop the blueprint for what East Coast hip-hop should sound like when the bullshit is stripped away. This is rap music for grown…
 • Shatter the Standards and Asa McKenzie
Milestones: Malibu by Anderson .Paak
On his breakthrough second album, Anderson .Paak doesn't just sing about survival—he makes you hear exactly what it costs after years of homelessness…
 • Shatter the Standards and Kevin Matthews
Milestones: Heaux Tales by Jazmine Sullivan
Six years after Reality Show, Jazmine Sullivan returned with a project that altered R&B confession as collective testimony, building a narrative cycle…
 • Shatter the Standards and Kendra Oluwaseyi
Milestones: The Breakthrough by Mary J. Blige
The Breakthrough is the triumphant crescendo that still leaves room for what comes after—affirming Mary J. Blige is a lifelong work-in-progress. And…
 • Tai Lawson and Shatter the Standards
Milestones: Mothership Connection by Parliament
Mothership Connection an entry point into a sprawling universe of P-Funk mythology—one that continues to inspire artists to look toward the stars while…
 • Imani Raven and Shatter the Standards
Milestones: Tha Carter II by Lil Wayne
Tha Carter II remains a monument in his catalog and a milestone in 21st-century hip-hop—the moment Dwayne Carter, Jr. definitively stepped into the…
 • Rafael Greene and Shatter the Standards
Milestones: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West
We’re still watching, still debating, and still moved by this lavish, confounding, and brilliant record. Kanye West’s modern man-myth fully came to…
 • Phil and Shatter the Standards
Milestones: Mama’s Gun by Erykah Badu
Great Black music as the past, present, and future conversing together over a beat. Mama’s Gun is exactly that. It’s Afrocentric and funky, spiritual…
 • Imani Raven and Shatter the Standards
Milestones: Waiting to Exhale (Original Soundtrack Album) by Various Artists
Babyface’s all-women celebration of R&B and soul remains a milestone. We’re still inhaling and exhaling its artistry, knowing that this treasure of an…
 • Tai Lawson and Shatter the Standards
Milestones: Friday Night Lights by J. Cole
J. Cole’s magnum opus functioned as the stepping stone to Cole World. In that sense, it was the final proving ground before the big leagues—the last…
 • Brandon O'Sullivan and Shatter the Standards
Milestones: Liquid Swords by GZA
As people mistakenly labeled this as his second album, Liquid Swords by GZA became a slow burn for underground rap. No Wu album embodies the philosophy…
 • Asa McKenzie and Shatter the Standards
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