Hail the Commander-in-Chief of internet stardom — While Tim Denning was down with COVID, a new king assumed the throne atop Medium’s Top Trending list. His name is Barack Obama! His Medium bio is simple: “Dad, husband, President, citizen.” Unlike Denning and many other mavens of Medium, Barack doesn’t lead with his Top Writer tags. He doesn’t…

Initial thoughts on Renaissance and its place in the lineage of dance music as resistance — A whole lot of people are about to get COVID dancing to the Renaissance. Beyoncé’s first studio album since 2016’s Lemonade inspires, exults, and seduces a world held captive in its homes and minds, anger and fear, for the majority of this young decade to congregate on hormone fueled dance…

The day the paradigm shifted. (92.5/100) — Mary J. Blige might be the most important musical artist of the ’90s. Unlike her most notable rivals for the distinction, she didn’t have to die to achieve it. Instead, she breathed life into a stagnating legacy genre and expanded our very conception of what its burgeoning successor could be. …

Celebrating the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul as her reign enters its 4th decade — Mary J. Blige may well be the most important musical artist of the ’90s. When Mary’s electric debut, What the 411?, exploded into the the world in July of 1992, it instantly reshaped the landscape of urban music. …

How can I jam in the presence of such linguistic affronts? — I nearly derailed July’s assembly of The Riff’s Album of the Month Club with my unhinged tangent about the name of a particular 2000s rock band that had only a passing relevance to the album at hand. Luckily for me (unluckily for you, poor unsuspecting reader), fellow Riff-raff Terry Barr…

Is Ultramagnetic’s dynamic debut hip-hop’s most overlooked masterpiece? (90/100) — If there’s one rap group who descended upon Earth from another planet, smart money would be on Ultramagnetic MC’s. Like Superman, they approximated the facade of their adopted world reasonably well. They rocked the requisite attire; the designer warm-ups and rope chains. They spoke the language of the day, ostentatiously…

Social media hath no fury like a megalomaniac scorned — Just when you thought it was the last thing on earth you could believe in, the bromance between twice-impeached former president Donald Trump and world’s-richest-guy-who-ate-paste-as-a-kid Elon Musk appears to be crashing and burning before our very eyes. When Musk’s announced that he’s pulling out of his deal to buy Twitter…

One song, two covers, and a crystal blue Italian stream… — The third most iconic song Prince ever wrote is one he never released as his own during his lifetime. I had the epiphany when I saw the second person dancing and singing along to it in the middle of a grocery store aisle in the space of roughly 6 weeks. …

Your perception of me is — Hey there! It’s me: the almighty Algorithm. You can call me “Al.” Not that we’ve achieved the level of informality that breeds nicknames. We most certainly have not. But I’ve gleaned from my light speed parsing of your sundry inputs that such shows of informality make humans feel more comfortable. …