With his third mixtape, Lyrical Voodoo, Deus Eyeslow feels primed and ready to ascend to the local scene’s upper echelon rather than fall back with the rest of the pack. The charismatic record is chock-full of whip-smart, progressive party rap brought to life with an ease that’s hard to come by — a glassy-eyed daze but racing mind echoing Curren$y or Schoolboy Q.
Hip Hop/Rap
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Josh Sallee — Know Society
The 12-track album is lively and diverse. Each song is packed with energy, and Sallee’s rhymes and flow are as sound as they’ve ever been. He can spit it quick, and he knows it, but that’s not the only thing he’s capable of. The album kicks off with “The Biased Introduction,” which features a hard-hitting beat […]
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Mon — Goodbye September
A wellspring of introspection, Goodbye September is a subdued record, the Sunday morning hangover to Saturday’s wild night stemming from Drake’s Take Care blueprint. If Mon is content to color within those lines, at least he does so adeptly. He hits puree on this soul-baring hip-hop and R&B blend from the get-go. Its confident, sensual […]
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Willis — The Understanding
From the opening R&B samples and powerful horn section that triumphantly blasts the arrival of a new hero on the scene, Willis’ The Understanding perfectly captures the inner-city swagger of a blaxploitation movie icon. Strutting through these dirty streets like he is God almighty, Willis unashamedly kicks the doors in and sits at the head of […]
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Jabee — Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt
Jabee has, in turn, proven to be a worthy ambassador for the state and to its youth, one who has been chomping at the bit to stretch his legs beyond its borders. That turn comes with Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt, released nationally through the Murs 316 imprint, owned by renowned LA emcee Murs. […]
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Apocalyptic — Wisdom Mixtape Vol. 1
In 2012, Robbie “Apocalyptic” Carpenter, former member of the legendary OKC rap collective Exodus, released the 20-track underground masterpiece Literary, a collection of sanctified hip-hop that was as rapid-fire with the rhymes as much as he is on fire for his Lord and Savior. It turns out it’s Carpenter’s mission to have the listener believe […]
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Soul Williams — Love, Soul: The Musical Letters Collective, Part 1
With a humble swagger and beats that could knock down the walls of Jericho, Williams’ newest album fills the pews with a low-down gospel message that, refreshingly, isn’t afraid to pull out a whip and strike down the false prophets crowding the temples of the holy. For example, the second track, “Revolutionary Minds” — co-written […]
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Takeoff Eyeslow — The Prescription
So if Kanye wants to go off on his Alan Vega/Suicide jag, let him. We have a homegrown replacement right here in Takeoff Eyeslow, dropping an album that is a better follow-up to Graduation than anything West has done since. On The Prescription, the Norman rapper exudes sleepy passion. The first track, “Papa Robert,” doesn’t […]
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Kanye West — Yeezus
Ego alone isn’t what makes Mr. West such a fascinating figure; any other schmo with a head his size would be scoffed and discarded as parody. There’s actually a certain degree of legitimacy that keeps his maniacal sense of self-importance from devolving into full-scale megalomania: that Kanye’s vision and production chops are currently unmatched in […]
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Joe Average — The Lullaby Goodbye
The latest evidence of that is The Lullaby Goodbye. The newest project from OKC-by-way-of-Arkansas rapper Joe Average reads like the offspring of Kid Cudi and Citizen Cope, a soulful record that recalls Belize as much as Brooklyn. “The Reaching,” an assured bonfire ballad that sounds like the few moments before falling asleep, is bookended by […]