| The Most Overlooked Albums of 2014 | January 5, 2015 |
Max Bell selects his picks for last year's best and unsung.
| Trap House Door Wide Open: South Carolina’s Roc & Yella | December 8, 2014 |
Max Bell is liable to flip like things that flip. Bone Thugs will always be relevant. Imitated yet forever inimitable. But part of their success stems from the fact that their biggest hits dealt with the universally imminent — before the crossroads comes the first of the month. “Wide Open”, the best song from South Carolina […]
| Dirty Dancers in the Tesla: Rae Sremmurd’s “Illest Walking” | December 5, 2014 |
Max Bell will be celebrating Festivus. Kriss Kross released three singles in the year after “Jump“. “Warm It Up” wasn’t multi-platinum, but it hit #1 on the rap charts. The next two (“I Missed the Bus” and “It’s a Shame“) proved Jermaine Dupri and the duo he ostensibly discovered at a mall weren’t immune to the […]
Max Bell interviews the man who was an accessory to the death of autotune Janko Nilovic
| P.O.W Fall Mixtape: Windy City Rap Blended By Max Bell | November 14, 2014 |
For his Fall Mixtape, Max Bell blends his favorite Chicago rap songs from Da Brat to Chief Keef.
| Shades of Blues and Blakroc: Hanni El Khatib’s “Moonlight” | November 11, 2014 |
Max Bell is looking for a spoonful. Hanni El Khatib likes hip-hop. See his website for the pictures of Outkast and vintage Mac Dre album covers. For aural evidence, listen to his latest single, “Moonlight.” The title track of his next album — out via Innovative Leisure in January of 2015 –“Moonlight” sounds as if it […]
| Guzzling Your Rations: Earl Sweatshirt’s “45” | November 7, 2014 |
Max Bell once watched several Asher Roth videos in a row. If you remember Earl’s introduction, you’ve always known — he was taught to take your rations and guzzle them. But time changes all rappers. The Asher Roth vids have buffered. The dust from the initial tornado-like Odd Future hype cycle has settled. Earl left the […]
| The “Boomerang” Soundtrack: Atlanta’s Russ Keeps Throwing Curves | November 4, 2014 |
Max Bell moves in silence. You know it’s real when you show her where your mom lives. Russ knows this more than most. After a largely transient childhood, his mother’s residence is, understandably, a sensitive subject. For the still unfamiliar, Russ is a rapper/producer of the white, southern fried stock who went left where Yelawolf went […]
| Sleeping With The Enemy: Tyga’s “Make It Work” | October 29, 2014 |
Max Bell is money holda, shot caller, blunt smoker, hot roller “I don’t like Drake as a person. He’s just fake to me.” – Tyga There is an alternate universe where Tyga is added to “No New Friends.” When Drake learns of the addition he runs home from the studio to comfort himself by drinking champagne […]
| Migos, The Beatles, and Bando Stories | October 21, 2014 |
Max Bell had a turkey sandwich and strawberries for lunch. You cannot compare Migos to The Beatles. The music, decades, and locales are as distant as they are dissimilar. Yet people on Twitter continue to claim the brothers bando are better than Liverpool’s biggest band pre Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Flock of Seagulls. Some are probably being facetious; […]
