Reviews
Olivia Rodrigo Doubles Down on Teen Angst With Sour
Being a teenager still fucking sucks and Olivia Rodrigo is here to tell us all about it. That’s really the thesis of Sour, the pop ingenue’s impassioned, sassy and highly satisfying debut album. Sure, it’s largely a break-up record as Rodrigo explores the waves of sorrow, anger and confusion that follow a heart-stomping loss of young love. But more thrilling are the tracks that veer away from those emotional cataclysms. Rodrigo, 18, has quickly proven she’s an exceedingly self-aware songwriter, with a knack for unraveling the insecurities and expectations that cripple teen girls — even blooming superstars. “I kinda wanna throw my phone across the room, ’cause all I see are girls too good to be true,” Rodrigo croons on “jealousy, jealousy,” a slow-burning clarion call to her fellow Ge...
Facebook hit with campaign by pro-Palestinian activists leaving 1-star app store ratings
A social media campaign by pro-Palestine activists has pushed down the ranking for Facebook’s app in Apple and Google’s app stores, NBC News reported. The activists are seeking to protest Facebook’s alleged censorship of Palestinian accounts on its platform, and are instructing people to leave Facebook’s app a one-star review. According to NBC News, Facebook is treating the situation as a high-priority issue internally; one software engineer wrote in a post on an internal Facebook message board that “users are upset with our handling of the situation,” adding that the users “have started protesting by leaving 1-star reviews.” Facebook has reached out to have the reviews removed, but so far, Apple has declined the request to remove the reviews. It’s not clear how or if Google responded to t...
REVIEW: Davido Makes Amapiano Experiment Alongside CKay, Who Perfects The Experiment
“La La” is a vibe, and CKay’s embellishments on the song savored its great taste; he rendered the record to an appealing height with his pristine hook whereas Davido’s take was formed nicely and was all about enhancing the vibe with his verses likened to an experiment with his vocal ability and lyricism to deliver perfectly on Amapiano on a joint with Ckay, who understands how to distinguish records with perfecting the hook & chorus. His vocals are glorious. I understood how the record relaxes to be much of an enticing collection with CKay’s chorus and his hook that never refutes exceptionality, and so I requested my friends take on the song and he confessed to greatly love it for the sake of CKay’s delivery, I asked for the reason why and my friend, Jerry said, “Oboy, CKay vocal lovel...
Mannequin Pussy Haven’t Lost Any of Their Luster on Perfect
Since 2019, the Philadelphia-based punk band Mannequin Pussy has been operating on another level. They began working with prolific emo producer Will Yip, moved to Epitaph Records, and garnered widespread acclaim for their third record, Patience. COVID-19 may have slowed their momentum, but the now-trio of vocalist-guitarist Marisa “Missy” Dabice, drummer Kaleen Reading, and bassist Colins “Bear” Regisford prove that they’ve lost none of their fury, intensity, or singularity on their new EP, Perfect. After spending time in lockdown, the group reunited in person to record new material. Although they had already written two songs before the recording sessions began, they wrote the other three in that moment. As Dabice said in the EP’s press release, “We just figured if we forced ourselves int...
REVIEW: Ruger’s “Pandemic EP”, The Second Coming Of Rema
I remember vividly publishing a review sometime in April on the release of Rema’s most recent 2021 single titled, “Bounce”, which saw his music-making as creatively damned from his most creative lyrical structuring and a twist, down to his soothing vocal texture, and the manner he grabs and mishandles sonic experiences – it’s all but wonders. Rema is currently signed to Jonzing World and he is directly under the tutelage of Nigerian Omo Oba, popularly known as D’Prince who’s the manager of the subsidiary record label Rema is making music from, and with the coaching of his Brother who’s the CEO of the parent company (Mavin Records), Don Jazzy, has seen Rema’s talent transit as he has been flourishing since 2019 when he became the most wanted young Nigerian music creator, he became the Headi...
REVIEW: Apart From Lamba & Vanity, Olamide’s “Rock”, Is Feministic
Rock is any hedonistic pursuit meant for groove as it becomes realistic and is defined on the dance floor, it is perfectly normal and complete having great fun at any intensity with the opposite s3x, probably dancing and romancing, that is rock, and it becomes abnormally done and yields disgust when both parties become same-s3x as Rock is meant for a he and a she which becomes the exact place Olamide’s “Rock” comes from to lend you a share of fun, the Lamba in between, the vanity, and also as it has been overlooked when it becomes a voice for feminist as well. It’s speaking up in an, unlike manner that you have to listen in between lines to understand. REVIEW: “World” Sounds Like Opener Track To Bella Shmurda’s Forthcoming High Tension EP, 2 Olamide’s “Rock” is a bunch of thoughts about a ...
REVIEW: “World” Sounds Like Opener Track To Bella Shmurda’s Forthcoming High Tension EP, 2
In “World”, the talented Nigerian singer, Bella Shmurda, who loves to make his listeners with street components that takes form from, hustling, cashing out, and enjoying ones-life and everything that it comes with through the piece of his music, now has shown his strength and a desire to press on despite whatever that surrounds him and his career; he focuses on being himself, and he tells the story about the major influence that swindles people in the world where they live in from believing and completely being themselves. The beauty about “World” is that Bella understands how society directly or indirectly influences people, and most times they end up wearing a mask to fit in because they probably want to please the people living around them one way or another and Bella makes this music t...
See Three West African Songs That Has Potential Influence On Pop Culture
In West Africa, music creators like Zlatan Ibile, Olamide, Burna Boy, Naira Marley, Wizkid and Davido, have curated tracks that looped into and balanced in pop culture spaces, and most times they alter our behaviors and perspectives, how we react to their music publicly and see society inclusively. In 2017, Olamide, co-inspired the mainstream success of the popular Nigerian “Shaku Shaku” dance through his street infectious records like “Wo”, “Science Student”, and more before several Nigerian acts began to embrace, and stuck with the creation of records tapping from the glories of Shaku dance that beamed between 2017, and the near end of 2018. Songs like Reminisce’s “Problem” peaked into the street numbers and raised the bar of cultural influence in Nigeria. DJ Consequence’s “Assignment” t...
D’banj set to unveil new female signee
Popular Nigerian singer, Dapo Oyebanjo, fondly known as D’banj, has revealed plans to unveil a new female signee to his record label, DB records. The self-acclaimed ‘Koko Master’ made the announcement on Thursday via his verified Instagram page, where he uploaded a poster showing the female signee but with a covered face. The poster read, “New artiste unveiling by DB records.” In the caption section, D’banj wrote, “Ladies and gentlemen, @dbrecordsofficial has a first lady. Guess who she is!” The singer launched his record label, DB records, in 2012, D’Banj, after leaving the defunct Mo-hits Records, which he co-owned with popular Nigerian beat maker, Don Jazzy. He signed his younger brother, KaySwitch, alongside two producers, Jaysleek and Deevee. He later signed brothers, MossKriss and Ra...
REVIEW: “Sound God Fest Reloaded” Is Runtown’s Intensive Pop Reachability
Sound God Fest Reloaded, is a Runtown pop reachability to delve into the creation of few exclusive pop ballads, and making the perfect collaborations to form great appeal that would see him through his career from this moment amongst contemporaries while his ability, securing himself as the pop star is filing a great strength. “Kini Issue”, “Luva Luva” feat. Rowlene, “Body Riddim” feat. Bella Shmurda and Darkovibes, “Bad Pass Dem” feat. Minz scores an intensive pop sequel and you can testify his weightiness creating appealing pop songs on them ranging from this project that beams many pop products from almost every track on the LP. Sound God Fest Reloaded sits coolly next to his 2019 6-track extended play, “Tradition”, which was perfected and coined from self-expression, overcoming his ene...
St. Vincent Finally Takes a Breath on Daddy’s Home
St. Vincent’s seventh album is her first ever to feel like an exhale, as the patently ambitious songwriter shrewdly forgoes much of the brazen — and regularly challenging — synth-rock spectacles of muses David Bowie and David Byrne. Instead, she’s settled in with the grit and shabby-chic glamor of early ‘70s Manhattan: heels on the subway, bodega roses, threats of love, violence and disillusion around every corner. Scenes from the city fuel the album’s lived-in and retro-tinged aesthetic, as do the sounds that dominated the periods’ airwaves, wedged between The Beatles and Sex Pistols: soul, soft-rock and psychedelia (plus a shitload of moody organs). The arrangements are familiarly nuanced and playful, as the artist born Annie Clark prefers to remain one step ahead, but Daddy’s Home manag...
Spiral: From the Book of Saw Gets Twisted in Its Own Formulas: Review
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-12T19:26:47+00:00“>May 12, 2021 | 3:26pm ET The Pitch: It’s been a decade since John Kramer, aka Jigsaw, spent years terrorizing unsuspecting citizens with a dizzying, disgusting array of homespun torture traps meant to enact karmic justice for their personal failings. Now, a copycat is on the loose, and this time he’s targeting crooked cops, with a mission to “reform the police” (more on that later) and purge it of its corruption. Hot on the case is an idealistic but disillusioned cop named Zeke Banks (Chris Rock), the son of the department’s former chief (Samuel L. Jackson), already a pariah for turning in a crooked cop several years prior. Now he and his fresh-faced ...
