Krystle Thorpe / 04 Aug 2022
No Apologies to Chris Rock
What Will Smith Should Have Said
Everyone has something to say about the violence at the 2022 Oscars, whose host called “the greatest night in the history of television”.(...)
Hip-Hop
Charlie Bertsch / 22 Dec 2021
Hip-Hop Spring
Jolfa, by Alexie Ivanovich
People often speak of a need to express themselves in music. But few in the West contend with the difficulties that face Iranian hip-hop artist Alexie Ivanovich.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 05 May 2021
When the Tough Get Softer
Solo Tutto, by Massimo Pericolo
Unlike so many of the records that fall under the rubric of rap these days, Massimo Pericolo’s Solo Tutto remembers what the term originally meant.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 19 Aug 2020
England From Below
East Man’s Prole Art Threat
Because of its collaborative nature and broad range, East Man’s fine new album Prole Art Threat has the feel of an anthology.(...)
Raz Mesinai / 14 Aug 2020
Sonic Politics
Sound is Power
Black Lives Matter is a human rights movement. It’s about the discrimination that people of colour experience today, in democracies that supposedly guarantee equal rights.(...)
Joel Schalit / 17 Jun 2020
George Floyd in Germany
The America Problem
All of the signs were in English. For most Berliners, the language is so common, they take it for granted. Especially for a city in which a quarter of the population is international.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 12 Jun 2020
Working-Class Cosplay
Sleaford Mods’ All That Glue
As I stared up at the mountains I love, glowing a beautiful and terrifying orange, trying to suppress a cough that just kept coming, listening to the new Sleaford Mods collection All That Glue was surreal. (...)
Charlie Bertsch / 22 Jan 2020
Banlieue Noir
The Suburbs of TripleGo
How you respond to the work of Paris rap duo TripleGo may well depend on your knowledge of the context that produced them. If you know it well, you will likely understand why they have received so much praise for the subdued, yet propulsive tracks on their two 2019 albums, MACHAKIL and Yeux Rouge(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 20 Nov 2019
Council Estate of Mind
The Case for Slowthai
Whenever a record receives as much attention as British rapper Slowthai’s debut LP Nothing Great About Britain has, it can be hard to hear. (...)