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The Earlier Stuff
Exploring the fun, interesting, and occassionally weird world of music.
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Album Review: Amber Coffman — City of No Reply
Album Review: Amber Coffman — City of No Reply
As a breakup record Amber Coffman’s debut solo album is truly refreshing. It’s vulnerable without being either self-defeating or…
Matthew Reyes
Jul 6, 2017
Album Review: At the Drive In — in•ter a•li•a
Album Review: At the Drive In — in•ter a•li•a
Once you get past the mediocre vocals and the fact that all the songs sound the same, you’ll find that At the Drive In’s comeback album is…
Matthew Reyes
May 21, 2017
Album Review: Feist — Pleasure
Album Review: Feist — Pleasure
Pleasure’s stark minimalism compliments the overall theme of the album, which she calls “a study of self-awareness” on ageing…
Matthew Reyes
May 8, 2017
Three Reasons Why We Must Still Create Art in a Trump World
Three Reasons Why We Must Still Create Art in a Trump World
Trump’s regime is built around discriminating against anyone who is different than him. When we put out a new creation, we’re saying that…
Matthew Reyes
Mar 5, 2017
Album Review: Lupe Fiasco — DROGAS Light
Album Review: Lupe Fiasco — DROGAS Light
DROGAS Light is Lupe’s attempt at making a trap album, that at the same time is supposed to be a critique of trap music culture. It’s…
Matthew Reyes
Feb 14, 2017
Despite What Everyone is Saying, Albums Are Alive as Ever
Despite What Everyone is Saying, Albums Are Alive as Ever
Everyone is freaking out about the death of the album, but they’re both overestimating how important albums were in the past and…
Matthew Reyes
Oct 10, 2016
Vice City: How TDE is Changing Hip-Hop by Keeping Gangsta Rap Honest
Vice City: How TDE is Changing Hip-Hop by Keeping Gangsta Rap Honest
Top Dawg is the first successful crew to talk about gang life without glorifying, sugar-coating, or sensationalizing it.
Matthew Reyes
Sep 22, 2016
Lil’ Yachty and Why Artists Need to Know Their History
Lil’ Yachty and Why Artists Need to Know Their History
They may not need to know everything about their genre’s past like hip-hop traditionalists say, but they need to know enough to make…
Matthew Reyes
Sep 6, 2016
Why We Should Judge Music On if it Works, Not if We Like it
Why We Should Judge Music On if it Works, Not if We Like it
How Questlove gave us a better way to talk about music
Matthew Reyes
Aug 29, 2016
Three Ways The Musical.ly App is Changing How We Interact With Music
Three Ways The Musical.ly App is Changing How We Interact With Music
Musical.ly is quickly becoming one of the biggest social media platforms in the world, gaining an incredible 90 million new users in the…
Matthew Reyes
Aug 14, 2016
Everything’s Good: Chance The Rapper’s Difficult Journey to Happiness
Everything’s Good: Chance The Rapper’s Difficult Journey to Happiness
Chance the Rapper has been defying expectations his entire career, consistently challenging what’s considered possible outside the…
Matthew Reyes
Aug 7, 2016
Grease Soundtrack Power Rankings
Grease Soundtrack Power Rankings
Grease has to be one of the weirdest cultural staples that we have. For many of us, it was pushed on us as a kids movie like it was The…
Matthew Reyes
Jul 31, 2016
Justin Timberlake, White Musicians, and Black Culture
Justin Timberlake, White Musicians, and Black Culture
No one expected Jesse Williams to say anything particularly interesting when he accepted the BET Humanitarian Award a few weeks ago. After…
Matthew Reyes
Jul 24, 2016
What’s Missing From Kanye’s Life of Pablo?
What’s Missing From Kanye’s Life of Pablo?
It’s been a few months since Kanye West dropped The Life of Pablo and I think most agree that it’s a pretty underwhelming album. Even I, a…
Matthew Reyes
Jul 14, 2016
Institutionalized: Why Lemonade is Beyonce’s To Pimp a Butterfly
Institutionalized: Why Lemonade is Beyonce’s To Pimp a Butterfly
Beyonce’s Lemonade has received an unprecedented amount of attention this year, most of which has nothing to do with it’s artistic merits…
Matthew Reyes
Jun 25, 2016
Top Five Lesser-Known Reasons Hall & Oates Are Wonderful
Top Five Lesser-Known Reasons Hall & Oates Are Wonderful
Hall & Oates are wonderful. But despite making some of the most fun music ever created they haven’t always gotten the proper respect they…
Matthew Reyes
Jun 17, 2016
Was Hip-Hop Really Better Back in the Day?
Was Hip-Hop Really Better Back in the Day?
Vince Staples did the unthinkable recently: he called ’90s rap overrated. This is blasphemy in our culture where so called “true hip-hop”…
Matthew Reyes
Jun 16, 2016
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