Focus Hip Hop

Music Writing with a Focus on Underground Gems

  • Best Singles of the Week | 2020: Week 33

    This was another very terrible week for me personally, so I honestly didn’t start working on this blog post until yesterday. As a result, I probably missed a few songs that otherwise would’ve made it into this list, so you’ll have to forgive me for that. All I’m gonna say is that when it rains…

  • EP Review | T.Lucas & Substantial – Dirty Sneakers

    This extended play was released on May 22nd this year. T.Lucas is an artist from the DMV who I learned about thanks to Substantial. This project was my introduction to him. After I learned about this EP, I heard his feature on K-Beta‘s recent EP, Stuff, and I was really blown away. He slaughtered his…

  • EP Review | Lupe Fiasco & Kaelin Ellis – HOUSE

    This extended play was released on July 24th this year. Lupe Fiasco is one of my favorite rappers of all time, so I was really elated by the announcement of this project. I was even more thrilled when I actually realized who was producing it. Earlier this year, Kaelin Ellis, an obscure beatmaker, posted a…

  • Best Singles of the Week | 2020: Week 32

    I tried to be lowkey about it, but this was genuinely the worst week of the year for me. Not in terms of music, just in terms of my life. Hopefully it stays that way. Anyway, I wanna talk about something kinda random, but I think it’s important to address. I was planning on posting…

  • EP Review | MISTER & ialive – Sounds of Pets

    This extended play was released on July 10th this year. I first heard of MISTER when he was featured on ialive’s great album from February, I’ll Wait Forever. I really enjoyed his performance on that project, but I guess he got kinda lost in the shuffle since there were so many artists that I discovered…

  • Album Review | BLUu Edwards

    This album was released on July 3rd this year. It’s the self titled debut from a newly formed duo made up of Curly Castro and Small Professor. Curly Castro has been involved in a lot of dope shit that’s come out this year, and I feel like I haven’t really written about any of it,…

  • Best Singles of the Week | 2020: Week 31

    Today is Friday, July 31st, and I haven’t even started writing this post yet. This is about to take me a long ass time. It’s gonna be a long night. I might miss a few singles that dropped this week since I’m starting so late, so you’ll have to forgive me for that. Anyway, as…

  • Album Review | NDNI – Lifted

    This album was released on July 24th this year. NDNI is a duo comprised of two artists named ANDY MUSA & PHNTMSKY. I first discovered their music when they followed me on instagram last year, and for whatever reason I was curious enough to check out their most recent single at the time. Just FYI,…

  • Did Logic Redeem Himself on No Pressure?

    As most of you probably know by now, Logic is an easy target for online music communities. I was in a Hip Hop related Discord server for about a year, and Logic was the one artist who people seemed to constantly shoehorn into every conversation. It’s not because he’s a super interesting, complexed, fascinating artist.…

  • Best Singles of the Week | 2020: Week 30

    I thought it’d be kind of unnecessary to write an update in a separate post, so I’m just gonna use this article to mention this… I’m gonna be switching up my format for reviews indefinitely. There’s too much shit that I wanna cover, and I’m gonna be really busy starting in August since I’m heading…

  • Album Review | Doc Wattson & Ronesh – Bonsai

    This album was released on July 24th in 2020. I honestly don’t really have much to say in this preamble because I’m really going into it blind. Doc Wattson is a rapper whom I have zero experience with. I’m mainly checking this out because of Ronesh’s involvement. He produced Ikarus Rising, which is one of…

  • Album Review | Torito – Meat Circus

    This album was released on July 3rd this year. Torito is an artist who I’ve become familiar with just this past year. I mainly know of him through his work with other artists affiliated with Cold Rhymes Records and U Don’t Deserve This Beautiful Art—namely ialive & Darko the Super. Every feature I’d heard from…