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Justin Timberlake is an artist (yep, I called him an artist, what of it?) whose appearances on the pages of this blog have been fairly infrequent, mostly because I don't really write about R&B or pop albums.  But the man has done a fucking amazing job of reinventing himself over the past decade: he could have, and under different circumstances would have, faded into obscurity after the

XXL dropped their annual Freshman Class list later than usual this year, and as such, I have followed suit with my ongoing series, which looks at the class of 2012 and what they have or haven't yet accomplished.  At least that's the excuse I'm running with: I debated internally for quite some time as to whether I should even bother, and when I finally decided to do it, laziness took a hold

I'm sure the reappearance of the Max-Approved Mixtape threw a couple of you for a loop the other day.  I hadn't intended on going that hard on the remix posts, but shit happens, and either way, these kinds of posts are a hell of a lot easier (and faster) to write than actual album reviews.  However, I really ran that "Respiration" post because I counted up my past offerings and realized I was

Artist: Mos Def and Talib Kweli (as Black Star) featuring Common Title: "Respiration" Producer: Hi-Tek Album: Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star (1998) I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but September 29, 1998 was easily one of the most important release dates in hip hop history.  I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but the stars aligned that day, making it far too easy

Tomorrow marks the twenty-year anniversary of The Pharcyde's sophomore album, Labcabincalifornia, so I figured today would be the best day to run this review.  It's a project that has already seen multiple reissues, with the extra tracks, instrumentals, and whatnot that come with, but today I'm running with the original version, the one the Los Angeles-based quartet dropped in 1995, so if

(If you haven't already done so, be sure to visit my previous post and throw your shuffled playlist in the comments section.) Odds are pretty good that if you regularly read this blog, you're at least somewhat familiar with "Big Poppa".  The second single from The Notorious B.I.G.'s debut album, Ready To Die, "Big Poppa" was a track aimed squarely at the ladies in the place that Biggie

As I try fruitlessly to get some actual reviews together from California-based artists, I figured now would be a good time to try to spark up another conversation between the two readers.  I'm a big believer of a person's musical taste speaking volumes of who they are, and if one were to take my iPod and put it on shuffle, one would see that I'm kind of all over the

(Getting back to the Cali theme that it looks like I've abandoned, but damn it, it's still happening, Jay turns in a Reader Review for Blackalicious' second EP, A2G.  Leave your notes for Jay below, and in the meantime, I am actually trying to get back to this whole "review" thing, but time is a luxury I don't always have.) As a young’n, I was only ever allowed to buy "clean" versions of