Diamond-Dust Baroque Diamond-Dust Baroque
The Get Down, Baz Luhrman’s fairy-tale remix of the birth of hip hop, offers a glimpse of the beginning of the end of US power.
Sep 15, 2016 / Pop & Circumstance / Joshua Clover
The Extra Ordinary Bryson Tiller The Extra Ordinary Bryson Tiller
Despite his laconic demeanor, lowered expectations, and swag-proof wardrobe, the singer has still managed to create a platinum-selling album.
May 2, 2016 / Frank Guan
The Lakers Can Kindly Shove Their Bro Code The Lakers Can Kindly Shove Their Bro Code
D’Angelo Russell is being dragged through the mud by his teammates and the media. But it’s his entire organization that should be looking in the mirror.
Mar 31, 2016 / Dave Zirin
Faith, More, Safe, War Faith, More, Safe, War
On The Life of Pablo, where Kanye West most fully shares his doubts, he is more convincing as a Christian than on his other albums.
Mar 18, 2016 / Frank Guan
Sneakers, Through the Looking Glass Sneakers, Through the Looking Glass
The comedian Kevin Hart’s new signature Nike shoes represent a complicated mixture of pride and injury.
Jan 27, 2016 / Hanif Abdurraqib
The Fierce Urgency of Nina Simone Now The Fierce Urgency of Nina Simone Now
Perhaps her real audience was not her contemporaries in the civil rights generation, but their grandchildren.
Jul 2, 2015 / Syreeta McFadden
Cover Me Cover Me
Today's Altercation features interesting and relatively obscure cover songs.
Jun 19, 2015 / Eric Alterman
Jobs and Empire Jobs and Empire
The music of Empire is the theology of capitalism.
Apr 8, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Joshua Clover
Have We Reached the End of Jazz Itself? Have We Reached the End of Jazz Itself?
John Coltrane and other “lost” musicians of the ’60s are teaching a new generation of artists to bend time and space.
Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Gene Seymour
David Stovall: What Can Hip Hop Teach Us About the World? David Stovall: What Can Hip Hop Teach Us About the World?
Hip hop and the Occupy movement have even more in common than you might think.
Apr 26, 2012 / Books & the Arts / On The Earth Productions