Category: Music

Bubble Rap

As I walked back from precept on Wednesday something about the sickening humidity reminded me of a song my sister and I shared last July. And though I knew the two-day heat-wave to be cruel and short-lived, still I was lulled into summertime nostalgia by the eighty-degree April breeze.

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We Are The Walrus

My father and John Lennon.

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The Decline of Marshall Mathers

To my parents’ horror, I discovered Eminem at age twelve when my uncle gave me a copy of Encore for my birthday. I was enchanted; I loved the tenderness of ‘Mockingbird’ and the humor of ‘Puke,’ and the unbridled rage and violence that riddled the album were more visceral and real than any emotions I had ever heard in music.

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BROTHER ALI’S CURE FOR MODERNITY

An underground Muslim rapper diagnoses our sickness and offers some remedy.

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Suicide Music

A teenage girl is found dead in her bedroom. The culprit? Emo, a death-obsessed youth subculture. But while some teens claim emo romanticizes mental illness, others call it therapy.

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Listening for Change

Reflections on environmental protest songs.

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We Need Black Star

In 1998 the hip-hop community was reeling from the mysterious and tragic murders of two of its biggest, and most beloved, stars: Tupac and Biggie. Questions swirled around their deaths, the role of rap in their killings, and the future … Read More

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Fuckin’ Problems

In the middle of the night, Drake released a yearning slow-jam called “Girls Love Beyoncé.” It plods forward, and Drake sings unsteadily over a codeine-soaked sample of the Destiny’s Child classic “Say My Name.” He laments what fame has done to his love life and ability to connect with women, so the subject matter doesn’t veer far away from Drake’s usual meditations on his fame-induced trust issues.

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Beautifully, Golden: Marigold by Pinegrove

In which Pinegrove’s new album softens the New Jersey winter.

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Becoming Drake

A look at a musician and his softness.

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Dear Joanna Newsom

In a directory on my computer titled “smiles” is a collection of short recordings, musical ideas I wish to return to without going through the trouble of proper notation. The longest and least interesting of them I listen to every few months to ground myself. I’ve renamed it again and again, attempting to remove it from the series of events that surrounded its recording. Now, it is simply the inconspicuous “note 2.aup.”

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Spirits in the Night

Bruce Springsteen & Bon Iver live and alive.

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