Jake Slesinski revists E-40's 2003 record, 'Breakin' News.'

A look back at why Pretty Toney might be Peak Starks.

Paul Thompson grabbed his pink fur out of storage while revisiting Cam'ron's breakthrough LP

Fellow sartorialist Douglas Martin looks back at Interpol's second album (with no tie clip)

Jimmy Ness usually be holdin’ In 1996, G-Funk was still the soundtrack to bouncing cars, block parties and Malt Liquor bottles. DJ Quik dropped the classic Safe + Sound the year prior and 2pac was yet to introduce rap music to suburbia with “California Love.” Oakland’s Moe-Man took influences from G-Funk as well as the […]

In the context of his new record, a look back at Aphex Twin's seminal "Drukqs"

Think Paul Thompson’s a joke? Har-dee-har Every now and then, there are glimpses of the old Jay Z. You hear the half-maniacal laugh, you can still smell the crack in his clothes. But underneath the Samsung deals and the half-hearted veganism lies a bleak, existential truth: Jiggaman got rich and took the doo-rag off. Shawn […]

Paul Thompson eats rappers as part of a complete breakfast You know MF DOOM as the villain. Operation: Doomsday was the warning shot, the fractured origin story; Vaudeville Villain and the rest of the early-aughts side projects served as a slow crescendo to the main event. When Madvillainy finally hit shelves and cerebellums, there was […]

Paul Thompson’s doctor is Bill Murray. The hero’s story seldom changes. Whether it’s Jean Valjean or Brett Favre in Wranglers, our heroes follow the same trajectory. You might not be able to rattle off the important steps of your favorite stories, but you know them when you see them: Leo entering the police academy in […]

Alex Koenig found the needle in the haystack. On Oscar night 1998, Elliott Smith graced the stage in a crisp white tuxedo to perform “Miss Misery,” a tender ballad written for Gus Van Sant’s coming-of-age film Good Will Hunting. Nearly 40 million home viewers fixated on a performer who a little over a year prior […]