Focus Hip Hop

Music Writing with a Focus on Underground Gems

  • Album Review | Royce da 5’9″ – The Allegory

    This album was released on February 21st this year. This was another one of my most anticipated releases of the year, even though I had mixed feelings towards some of the singles. I love when albums are super black, and Royce’s last two solo albums were both amazing to me. I haven’t loved every single…

  • Album Review | Vinnie Paz – As Above So Below

    This album was released on Valentine’s Day this year. I’m a huge fan of Vinnie Paz, and I think he’s one of the most consistent artists in Hip Hop, so this is actually one of my most anticipated releases of the year. The reason it took me so long to finally listen to it is…

  • Album Review | Jadakiss – Ignatius

    This album was released on February 28th this year. I think I mentioned this when I rated The Lox’s discography in 2019, but Jadakiss might actually be my least favorite member. He’s the only one who doesn’t have a single good solo album in my opinion. I think I like a few of his mixtapes…

  • Best Singles of the Week | 2020: Week 14

    As you probably noticed, I was on hiatus this past week, but I thankfully got a lot of shit done, so the blog will be a lot more active now. My favorite thing that happened this week was the face reveal of Adonis Graham. Bro… That shit was fucking hilarious. The memes were glorious. I…

  • Best Singles of the Week | 2020: Week 13

    Shit’s really starting to hit the fan now. Slim Thug has tested positive for COVID-19, and now Scarface has as well. In terms of pop culture, that’s probably the most devastating news I’ve heard this year. I know people were heartbroken by the Kobe Bryant thing, but I wasn’t really affected by it. This is…

  • Album Review | Rav, Kill Bill & Scuare – SKIN

    This album was released on February 26th this year. Rav, Kill Bill & Scuare are perhaps the three most popular artists on the EXOCIETY label. I first became familiar with all of them in late 2017. This was back when I was trying the whole Patreon thing. Someone requested a ton of reviews for different…

  • EP Review | UllNevaNo & JR Swiftz – Technical Foul

    This extended play was released on January 1st this year. I’d personally never heard of UllNevaNo before seeing this project, but I decided to give it a shot due to the production from JR Swiftz, who I’ve become a big fan of over the past year or so. Again, I was completely unfamiliar with UllNevaNo.…

  • Best Singles of the Week | 2020: Week 12

    I know things were super slow on this blog for the past week, so I apologize for that. Truthfully, I don’t have a legitimate excuse. I’ve just been super unmotivated to do anything aside from sleeping and listening to my depression playlist. My psychiatrist prescribed a new medication on Thursday, so hopefully that’ll start kicking…

  • Album Review | Jay Electronica – A Written Testimony

    This album was released on March 13th this year. I said that I’d go live on Instagram the night Jay Electronica’s album was supposed to be released, but at the last minute my social anxiety kicked in and I got too nervous. So yeah. This project is just out now. I genuinely think it’d be…

  • EP Review | TXTMS

    This extended play is scheduled to be released on March 20th this year. TXTMS is a newly formed duo consisting of OneWerd & Dan Dillinger. I personally hadn’t ever heard any music from either of these artists before checking this self titled project out, so I went into it relatively blind. All I knew is…

  • Best Singles of the Week | 2020: Week 11

    This week was fucking insane. It was fucking madness. All I’m gonna say is COVID-19 + Jay Electronica + Childish Gambino. The good outweighs the bad in my opinion, but that’s just me. Monday, March 9th Lax by Eto featuring CRIMEAPPLE produced by 38 Spesh This is the first single from an album curated by 1000Words, who’s a prominent photographer in…

  • Album Review | Clear Soul Forces – Forceswithyou

    This album was released on March 13th this year. Last year, Clear Soul Forces released my favorite album from the month of February with what I believed to be their best work up to that point, Still. I’m cautiously optimistic that this latest project will be even better. Obviously this is an exciting moment for…