Guest features include Joyce Wrice and Destin Conrad.
Read more
Shawn Wasabi Presents “Mangotale”
Shawn Serrano, or better known as Shawn Wasabi, dropped his first album Mangotale today.
Read more
G-Eazy Presents “The Process 2019”
Young Gerald Earl Gillum documents a mini-series on YouTube and it’s an adventure to follow.
Read more
Best of 2019: Hip-Hop & R&B Albums
Ranking the best hip-hop and R&B albums we had on repeat this year.
Read more
Peep This: Carpool Karaoke with Kanye West
The Late Late Show host James Corden received help from the one and only Kanye West for a flight back to Los Angeles.
Read more
Best of 2018: The Album Picks of the Year
Our definitive list of the albums we’ve had on rotation all year.
Read more
Smino Drops Impressive New Album “NOIR”
A total of 18 dope tracks to keep on repeat.
Read more
Drake Releases New Album “Scorpion”
Two sides of the 6 God.
Read more
Best of 2017: The Album Picks of the Year
Our definitive list of the albums we’ve had on rotation.
Read more
Khalid Drops Debut Album ‘American Teen’
“Let’s focus on communicating”
Read more
Taylor Bennett Releases “Restoration Of An American Idol”
New project from the Chicago rapper.
Read more
Best of 2016: The Album Picks of the Year
Our definitive list of the albums we’ve had on rotation.
Read more
BBNG – “IV” Review
Toronto jazz outfit, BADBADNOTGOOD explore what it means to be contemporary in latest IV album.
Read more
Best of 2016… So Far
Six months into 2016 and we’ve faced another year that’s had such a consistent smattering of good music come our way prior to.
Read more
Album Review: Kaytranada – 99.9%
Joy, that slither of space where the body, mind, and emotion sync beyond the pieces of happiness we are afforded in this life. It’s hard to articulate and difficult to define, but we know joy when we are inside of it; life makes sense.
Read more
Album Review: James Blake – The Colour In Anything
There is no congregation at the church of the lovelorn: only a few scattered bodies that pray with the lover, who is lost. On James Blake’s third album The Colour in Anything, we find an artist searching for meaning about the self, within and post relationship. Here, Blake gets help from Justin Vernon, Frank […]
Read more
Album Review: White Boiz – Neighborhood Wonderful
Get comfortable in that chair of yours, reading this gonna take some time. The two artist who make up White Boiz, Krondon and Shafiq Husayn, have been putting in work for years: leaving their unique imprint on the sound of the west coast underground. Their debut album, Neighborhood Wonderful is about Los Angeles and the […]
Read more
Big Sean and Jhene Aiko’s “TWENTY88” Bears All
TWENTY88, the collabo project from Jhene Aiko and Big Sean, is a concept album on love. That’s the overarching storyline boiled down to a clause. But Jhene and Sean are prone to delve much deeper in their music, using the Ja-Rule-Ashanti rap–and-R&B hybrid here as a blueprint. Showing off their emotional intelligence is where the […]
Read more
Twenty Years Later: Illmatic
Story originally published on The 5th Element Magazine Spring/Summer 2014 Issue Do you remember Hip-Hop in 1994? Some key events may come to mind: Warren G heralded the G-Funk era previously established by Dr. Dre, with his West Coast anthem, “Regulate.” Southern hip-hop flourished with OutKast’s debut and the release of Scarface’s The Diary . […]
Read more
2015’s Best: The Album Picks of the Year
As the year comes to a close, I can’t help but be completely in awe of all the music I’ve encountered, for reasons that are pretty obvious. In 2015, we witnessed a resurgence of music that was not only diverse in genre, but culturally and politically resonant. One of the biggest landmarks in music was […]
Read more
Album Review: SiR – 7 Sundays
In the internet era, it is very easy for “creative” things to catch a huge ephemeral wave, then fade, or on the other hand, become overlooked completely. Rarely is there a nice in-between where products are digested and valued on their own merit. Inglewood native SiR’s debut LP, Seven Sundays, is one of those creative products that […]
Read more
Album Review: Bryson Tiller – T R A P S O U L
Bryson Tiller – T R A P S O U L (RCA, 2015) In a near vanished line that separates rap and r&b as genres in 2015, there is a nexus of three artists that guide the sound of the mainstream, and shape the stylistic impulses of emerging musicians. The three are the evocative, sensitive […]
Read more
THE 5TH ELEMENT MAGAZINE 