Sometimes it finds you when you need it.

Sometimes albums are meant to find you, you’re not supposed to find them. I have to tell myself that when it nears the end of the year and the musician that I said I loved dropped a new project 7 months ago and I had no idea.

 

These two albums came to me because Spotify has been leaving me want more. I use Apple Music and Spotify both but for different things. Spotify has been disappointing me lately and it’s probably because I’ve been using it for 5 years and my liked songs are in the 10,000s. Shuffle kind of stops working at that point right? My New Year’s resolution is going to switch back to Apple Music to be able to find more music. Of course we should also be scouring Bandcamp and SoundCloud but sometimes I just want to open my main app and get a solid recommendation. As of right now, Spotify is really failing me with this mission.

 

I woke up in an awful mood starting Monday, the weight of the world really fucking with me like it is with anyone who has a sliver of consciousness living in end stage capitalism. By Tuesday I was feeling ready to die and music couldn’t help me disassociate this time.

Schoolboy Q’s Blue Lips dropped in March but I just found it on Election Day, today. I needed this right now. I love that this album opens with a meditative mantra over this beautiful guitar. It reminds me of a sunrise overlooking water, it’s a distinct sound that the LA guys have fostered over the past 15/16 years. Almost everyone at Kendrick’s Juneteenth concert has had a hand in that sound.

 

I was in tears almost at THank God 4 Me and that’s only the third song on the album. There’s just something so radiant about the beat that I haven’t heard in a project from a larger artist in a long time. It’s nice to hear something that takes the funk jazz sample and continues to tell a story with the beat by giving us ups and downs and tempo switch ups but more importantly, SBQ knows how to ride the beat.

 

Lost Times like much of this album has a Westside Gunn type feel to them in production and Schoolboy is def dipping into the kingpin flow but I enjoy it.

 

That’s where Blue Lips comes in for me. Schoolboy Q has a flow that is his own but this project shows that he’s not afraid to dip into other rap sounds to make a song. This is easily the best project that he’s made. So good that I had to start doing a little bit of research to compare his works with each other. I have been a fan for years but this felt so different from what he’s done before. To his credit though, I don’t believe ScHoolboy Q was ever pigeonholed nor has he given us anything less than gold but I think it’s worth saying that this album feels older.

 

This album has 18 well rounded songs but the album taps in at just under an hour and yet ever song feels fleshed out, cohesive and can still stand independent of each other. I would say that only song that seems out of place is unfortunately the single for the album, “Yeern 101” by the time I’m wondering if the album is over, there’s just two more songs to go.

 

As I said before, he still knows himself. I think he’s collaborating with new friends and familiar faces to express himself in new ways yet he’s still the same dude. He does not let us forget where he’s from, “Movie” reminds me of yet another aspect why it makes it so hard to leave Cali, there’s just no one who’s gonna slide on a beat like that. He still gives us the immaculate energy that he always gives on an album, it’s fiery and it’s cocky. Dare I say that Q and Larry June might have been hanging out? There’s a certain laidbackness in this album as much as there is hype moments. It’s still a rap album where one is supposed to talk their shit but it’s now classy. As I listen to this album I can’t help but think about those photos of Q on the golfing range. He’s on to some shit that y’all can’t even conceive of. That’s a rapper mantra to me.

 

I’ve been so biased lately so when I make these sweeping generalizations, keep in mind that I’m talking about these male rappers. I’m writing this after listening to Eternal Atake 2 yesterday and I’m gobsmacked. It’s a total disappointment and I need to flesh out how I feel about it at another time because that’s not what this particular piece is about.

 

What I will say to tie this in, is that Uzi did not make the best use of the beats he had. He let his creativity faulter and I wonder if that’s because of the demands from the label that he’s signed to or if it really is a creative burnout.

 

I can’t help but think about what it means to be a rap artist in this day and age. In the scheme of the music industry and historical racism, the dilution of the genre and the opportunities to achieve infamy have dwindled to say the least. Even in rap, the way you get money these days is being in a Cheeto or a Sprite commercial or hawking some kind of brand. Do they even make money from tours anymore? Tickets are never less than 100 bucks for nosebleeds but maybe then you can turn it into some investment or nest egg for the future. Unfortunately, it’s clear that this industry isn’t just chewing you up and spitting you out anymore. Instead, they’re grinding down your bones and making a nice sourdough from the dust.

 

Which also reminds me, I need to speak on Chromakopia because what I’m saying here about Blue Lips also applies to Tyler’s most recent release. This album came to me when I needed it but thankfully, I was aware of the release date.

 

I’ve figured out that there is no seasonal depression for me, just extreme highs and lows every other month but that’s okay! In this day and age we really are ALWAYS going through something. We ARE constantly realizing things.  Music helps me process and this album is like reading a diary or eavesdropping on someone’s therapy session.

 

Tyler is consistently a rapper who gets vulnerable with us on every project but his last two I believe, showcased more talent and feelings and that’s okay. Chromokopia picks up where flower boy left off. His earlier projects. In a time where I am yet again realizing things, I’m glad that my Pisces friend is also in an era of self reflection and healing from the rough parts of realizing.

 

One thing that ties these albums together for me is their features. I always say this, I LOVE giving props and credit to people when I can. I love that these features on both albums don’t feel forced. Yes, Tyler has some of the most relevant rap girls on the album but one thing about Tyler is that he always makes his albums a Pee Wee’s Playhouse type of event.

 

I don’t think that SBQ is trying to act like he’s still some kingpin drug dealer though, he’s being realistic about his experiences. He embellishes just as any other rap star would but it’s not a far fetched exaggeration like some of these cats.

oHio’s lazy jazz loop is what I’d expect from a song with a Freddie Gibbs feature but the arrangement is everything. I haven’t fact checked it yet but it sounds like that song that was on every windows media player in the early 2000s along with that David Byrne song. Old heads HAVE to know what I’m talking about.

 

Another album that I should have BEEN listened to this year is Brittany Howard’s album that came out in February, What Now. God, I love this woman’s music. Even as a 10+ year listener, I have to spoon-feed myself her music at times because, musically, her daddy was in fact a glassmaker and we are constantly looking at her musical beating heart. One of the things I respect so much about Ms Howard is that she exudes vulnerability. She makes it cool, she makes it okay. Her graciousness in letting us unpack and process with her is always appreciated.

 

Theres a five song run at the beginning of the album and it makes it clear to me that this album is about finding yourself after a breakup. We can agree that this topic will be a well that never runs dry because going through a dissolution of a relationship is so hard whether that is romantic, platonic, or something that transcends both.

 

I think this year was that for me, ending a number of relationships that no longer served me. The last time I did something of this nature was 2019/2020 and once again it is so refreshing to not be alone in this matter.

 

What Brittany Howard does instrumentally with this album is take the listener on a journey through grief, understanding, relief, and healing. It’s never linear and sometimes even the hurt twists itself into something jovial. What’s the way to put it? like some times you look back at something you let slide in the past and just have to laugh because that mf was absolutely on some nut shit.

 

Red Flags resonates with me on a lyrical level because I just do shit for the plot. I often let my impulses guide me, I often give chance after chance even when the evidence is glaring that I should just cut my losses and keep it pushing. In theory and in media it’s romanticized to ignore the red flags. “what’s the worst that can happen” and then BOOM.

 

What Brittany Howard does with this song is remind me of what an out of body experience it is to lose control and give into something that may not be good for you even though it feels so good in that moment. The production on this song is foggy yet tantalizing and sensual not unlike certain red flags.

Where I see cohesion in SBQ’s Blue Lips, What Now has a theme but it is utterly chaotic. I would expect nothing less from an album that is born from loss of love. That’s what it should be but it is also acknowledges that there is harmony in this catastrophic life event. It resonates with me because this is the kind of journey is all over the place but it is apart of the ebbs and flows of life. I’ll be cliche and say that the phoenix rising from its ashes will never be an easy experience and I think Howard proves that with What Now.

 

Howard’s growth in this industry doesn’t leave her sound stale, in fact her referentials let me know that she is collaborating with fresh minds but also not forgetting the sounds that made her.

This new album has the soul and doo wop vibe which I love. I can see her going on tour with Thee Sacred Souls with this album. However, I find Howard to be more of a harder rocker, she is from Alabama so she gets down but this album has an unexpected tenderness to it in the instruments that I’m not used to with her.

She’s playing with electronic sounds in tandem with her blues sound. The horn arrangements and piano show me that she’s leaning into jazz elements that weren’t always apparent in her music prior to this. I wouldn’t be me if I also didn’t call out the Prince influence. It’s not the electronic 80s Prince nor is it the funky rocker Prince but Brittany Howard is taking a page from his acoustic playbook. If you’ve never heard the International Lover studio sessions, please listen.

I appreciate that Jamie, her first solo album, came out in 2019 but she rereleased it as a remix album with talents such as Georgia Anne Muldrow and Earthgang. I find that so fun especially when I think about the black experience.

I’m finding that the reason that I’ve been able to switch back and forth between these albums today isn’t just because they’re new to me but because there’s common threads there. You don’t expect Howard to have an reimagining of very rock/blues forward sound because how does one connect this style to these other genres but The gag is… when you come from the creators of these genres and when you have the musical training there’s a deeper level to your understanding. It also becomes a matter of who you know because you hung out in the same area and that creates a bond. I think about Childish Gambino’s artistic reach or even better how Chaz Bear is from South Carolina and came to the Bay Area yet has fostered so many eclectic and creative friends. I rant about it to say that black people are so multidimensional it’s amazing.

 

Even feeling like I’m behind on an album that came out 7 months ago is an effect of this warped industry and our inability to just sit with a piece of art and let the masters hone in on the next project.

 

These two albums give me so much joy because there really are results in slow growth. These albums are rousing because I’m not the target demographic for corporations anymore yet I still heavily resonate with these albums. As much love as I have for Chappell Roan, she is not someone in my rotation at the moment because the music doesn’t resonate with me enough but I think that’s because I’m older. I’ve reckoned with those feelings she’s talking about. It gives me nostalgia at best but I love her and her vision nonetheless. SZA’s songs don’t particularly strike a musical chord to me anymore because I’m not a fiery and unstable twenty something anymore. She’s speaking on bird antics and I’m desperately trying to graduate from it all. I still bump Miss SZA but that’s because she came to me when I needed her. When I listen to her new projects, I can enjoy them but I fail to see the emotional growth in her lyrics and sometimes that can be a turn off. Maybe that’s asking for too much in a Scorpio and that’s just her cross to bear. Future is on the same hype and that’s also why I blame scorpios.

But lest we forget,  I’m still fiery and unstable but I’d like to think that I’m in a phase where I’m not learning the same lessons more than once and in more horrifically embarrassing ways until I get the point.

 

I don’t have it all figured out but I’ve made it this far. I’m more forgiving to myself. I have more grace for some of those who did me dirty (some not ALL).

 

I imagine both Brittany and ScHoolboy Q going through life changes, growing another skeleton (iykyk). Its sweet knowing that these names that have been solidified in their scenes are stretching out and getting comfy. I read this as “the master is the master because they are lifelong students.”

 

Schoolboy Q and Brittany Howard both worked for 5 years on their albums and it shows. Chapelle Roan’s album dropped early last year and she’s now beginning to reap the benefits in a big way. Are we in some ways as listeners being so hit over the head with constant releases and content that we’re inadvertently going back to the old OLD school method where album cycles can last more than two years? I kind of hope so.

Not everything that comes out will be the biggest release of the year and that’s fine, these people I mentioned have staying power and longevity. I don’t think it was always about getting big for them, it was about expression and that’s important to me.

 

There’s something connecting in my brain about slow and steady winning the race. If we aren’t feeling a pressure to create for the external validation then maybe we can reach a true appreciation for the work that people put into their craft?

How can we apply that patience and process to ourselves?

Listening to these albums all day today are an affirmation that there’s a process to most of our goals and processes take time.

To round off my earlier point about Spotify, I find myself listening to the familiar comforts, albums that I play front to back, back to front but how did I get there with them? From what I’ve looked at, if it’s not an album older than I am, it’s a very curated work of art that took years to make.

I find that in the rap game, our favorites are being held to an unattainable standard from these labels so the reaction is to put out whatever because it has to go through teams of people for approval. I think the best example I can think of right now is Doja Cat’s most recent releases. I really really enjoyed them but they have no replay value for me, just a few fun songs here and there. She is extremely vocal about label pressures and the limiting nature of the music industry once you “make it” and she’s not the first one to explain that to those who have yet to experience the industry dynamics. The road always leads back to extracting the most money in the shortest amount of time so that everyone can get their share before the fiscal quarter ends.

 

Another abstract thought I gathered while listening to these albums was their freedom to be creative on a relatively large label imprint. To work on a project on a major label for 5 years and come out proud of it and it sound authentically you and not what’s currently relevant is a rare feat these days. Those two ideas can be intertwined but they should also be divorced in this current industry. I feel that Q and Howard were able to complete such acclaimed and flawless albums due to the label also trusting their process and understanding that there is going to be a return on investment in due time. The way I see it, a record label is always going to come out profitable (especially with these deals that transcend the insidiousness of the fabled 360 deal) with an established artist but the problem is they don’t want a cap on profits. Profits are an infinite concept to them as long as them have someone procure the talent, extract the talent, package the talent, and repackage the talent until the talent is no longer in the room with us…then we get some more talent and start it back again.

It completely bastardizes the process of musical pursuit.

Anyway, I’m rambling a bit more than I wanted to but I absolutely had to share my thoughts on two albums that really did it for me today and beyond, I’m predicting that Kamala will not win and people will be off centered and I think that I’ve found a little bit of peace in these albums to help me reckon with more complicated emotions to come.

You can check out my audio component on BFF.fm every Friday @ 12pm PST