1+ hour, 14+ min ago  (978+ words) Shatter the Standards Mixtape Review: I Heard You Paint Houses by Conway the Machine & DJ Whoo Kid Conway rhymes over beats jacked from 50 Cent, Eminem, and Biggie while DJ Whoo Kid hollers across the top. The writing makes the borrowed…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago  (711+ words) Shatter the Standards Album Review: U, Me & My Ego by Chxrry A Scarborough debut where the ego shows up uninvited and orders for the whole table. "Fuck a popstar, baby, I'm a cinema." This one line illustrates all the confidence…...

2+ week, 1+ day ago  (789+ words) Shatter the Standards 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. Before anything hits on "Intro (Kingdom Kome),…...

2+ week, 1+ day ago  (938+ words) Shatter the Standards 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 has more to…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago  (1886+ words) Shatter the Standards 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. Walk into…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago  (744+ words) Shatter the Standards Album Review: Electric Love by Brother Wallace A debut soul record made of live drums, walking basslines, and a voice that knows when to lean into a sarcastic chorus. The platitudes blunt the better songs. A kid…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago  (1080+ words) Shatter the Standards Milestones: Pray for Haiti by Mach-Hommy Mach-Hommy walked back into the Buffalo rap label he helped found in 2012, accepted Westside Gunn's executive-producer credit, and used the wider room to fund schools in Port-au-Prince. He left them, or…...

3+ week, 5+ day ago  (553+ words) Shatter the Standards Album Review: EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL DIED EARLY by ANKHLEJOHN & V Don V Don's loops run chest-level and will not budge. On the right songs, ANKHLEJOHN's bars push back, and the pressure pays. Wiring his verses to Navy Blue's…...

1+ mon, 1+ day ago  (854+ words) Shatter the Standards Album Review: Planet Frog by Action Bronson The eighth Action Bronson album takes the drums away and fills every bar with proper nouns. A few songs slow down long enough to let a single image hold. Most…...

1+ mon, 3+ day ago  (1192+ words) Shatter the Standards Milestones: Dr. Octagonecologyst by Dr. Octagon The weirdest rap album of 1996 was made in a basement that smelled like glue. Thirty years later, nobody's sure who should get the most credit for it. A homicidal extraterrestrial gynecologist…...