Harold Stallworth has flats in other continents. Mobb Deep’s brief tenure with hip-hop’s evil empire G-Unit Records had few salvageable moments. But such moments certainly did occur. I’d like to think of “Shark” as the belated fruit of 50 Cent’s puppeteering, a remnant from that steep trough in the duo’s corrugated career arc. The Alchemist-produced […]

Harold Stallworth wears his leather in the winter Bobby Shmurda wedging his stage surname into the hip-hop lexicon will ultimately have more impact, but Boldy James gets my vote for this year’s most valuable slang editorialist. The greatest slang is functional. It rolls off your tongue like a folk song and tastes good in your […]

Harold Stallworth fell to the third round of the draft. Shallah Raekwon is more observant than the secret service. He whips the Call of Duty Wrangler, frequents warehouses furnished with strippers, punches holes through his lady’s drywall partitions, and occasionally serenades bitches. These are just a few of the devilish details from “Stop Tripping,” the […]

Harold Stallworth held you down for six summers. Last week, after many months of grueling deliberation, I finally trudged down to my leasing office and served the property manager with a notice to vacate. In the very near future, I’ll bid a fond farewell to the quaint streets of Montgomery County, to the farmers markets […]

Harold Stallworth doesn’t know how to spell Basquiat. The bad news is that the latest leak from Cormega’s long-awaited sixth album, Mega Philosophy, bears the unfortunate title of “Rap Basquiat.” The good news is that said record, produced by the incomparable Large Professor, is the furthest thing from shallow art gallery bluster. Drake would be […]

Harold Stallworth is but one of Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s many pen names. With the release of his self-titled debut EP, an elusive Coney Island-based rapper by the name of Your Old Droog has leapfrogged the likes of Ali Vegas, Mic Geronimo, The Game, and Biggie’s mock baby picture to become the most convincing Nas impersonator […]

Harold Stallworth nicknames everything. For the those keeping tabs, “Goose Egg,” a cut originally featured on DJ Frank White’s Bout That Life mixtape, is the first real Boldy James record to surface since his Alchemist-helmed LP dropped last fall. The modest buzz from My 1st Chemistry Set earned a cosign from Nas, a vague partnership […]

Harold Stallworth will always roots for the villain. This year’s spring has been absurdly slow in arriving to Washington D.C., but better late than polar vortex. Bidding farewell to old man winter is a bittersweet occasion, seeing as how my dearest strains of music and fashion were born out of blistering winds and torrential snowfall. […]

Harold Stallworth carries switchblades on the reg’, duke. Revenge is the sweetest joy next to drinking D’usse. It took precisely a decade, but it would seem that Cormega finally redeemed himself for the thrashing he took at the hands of Ghostface Killah on “Tony Montana,” a standout cut from the first—and, unfortunately, last—installment of his […]

Harold Stallworth is trapped in the ’90s You know what was way better back in the 90s? Grocery baggers. Today’s youth have absolutely no appreciation for geometry or material properties. If I had a dime for every time a teenager tried to stack beer atop my avocados, I’d be the wealthiest man this side of […]