| The Third Mixtape of Spring – Max Bell | April 24, 2014 |
Max Bell is just chillin eating lamb brain I gave up on my unspoken dream of becoming a rapper a long time ago. There are enough decent white rappers and Aesop Rock is already Aesop Rock. But there was a time when I wrote rhymes in the margins of college ruled notebooks, more focused on […]
| The Sketches of Broke/ | April 21, 2014 |
Max Bell is flush. RZA and GZA were right: You have to read the labels. If you don’t, you might get poisoned. Oakland based independent label Hot Record Societe released Chester Watson’s Space Nobility (review here) last year. Their latest release comes from 22-year-old Santa Ana rapper/producer Broke/ (the slash is intentional), whose five-track EP Sketches dropped earlier […]
| Back For the First Time: “Hot Soup” and The Old Danny Brown | April 14, 2014 |
Max Bell is on a liquid diet You probably weren’t checking for Danny Brown in July of 2008. (I wasn’t.) Sure, you might’ve if you live in Detroit or had friends who attended The Shelter regularly. There’s also the possibility that you frequented Michiganhiphop.com, Hoodhype.com, or that you were one of the 11 people to […]
| The Candy Paint Stalactights of The Outfit, TX | April 11, 2014 |
Max Bell rolls them Rolls. If you listen to Texas rap, you’d be forgiven for thinking all similes and metaphors devoted to syrup slathered slabs had been exhausted. The abundance of references to dripping jheri curls, ice cream, etc. will inevitably dull the gleam of the proverbial paint job for some. Yet, once again, The Outfit, […]
Max Bell spends far too much time on Bandcamp. Sifting through beat tapes on Bandcamp can be daunting. The boom bap wormhole is infinite. Distinguishing shit from shine is not. It takes time. Clicking and scrolling takes less physical exertion than trekking to Amoeba and sifting through the racks of plastic only to find the listening […]
| The Blue Sky Prayers of Chicago’s Max Wonders | April 1, 2014 |
Max Bell never listened to Wilco Occasionally I fear the canonical line has been replaced by the quotable. The former resurfaces as reverent homage in future rappers’s rhymes. The latter usually fits neatly into your tweet and quickly moves to the bottom of the timeline. That said, it’s always comforting to know some still believe […]
Max Bell choo-choo-chooses you. Not every Nicolas Jaar release is deeply, inexplicably resonant, but all are distinctive, wholly and uncompromisingly his own. He doesn’t crib from contemporaries, though I’m sure he’d rework a Zaytoven beat better than Jay Electronica jocked the Migos flow. Compare his solo work to any Darkside track. Even with Dave Harrington’s psychedelic […]
| Wara from the NBHD Peels Off | March 21, 2014 |
Max Bell hasn’t lost a dice game this month. Flee the crime scene. Hear the scorching rubber. Wara from the NBHD has seen this scene more than once or twice before. “Squeal (Peel Off)” is the first single off of his upcoming album Kidnapped. The beat is ominous. The drums the and bass line are […]
| The Most Villainous: Freddie Gibbs & Madlib Break the Piñata | March 18, 2014 |
Max Bell is not against rap or those thugs. Freddie Gibbs rose from scary Gary to Interscope refugee to widespread critical adoration. Some argue that the dexterous Gibbs can rap well over anything. Yet his last album, E.S.G.N. received mixed reviews. The album was solid, but it was also what you’d expect too. It didn’t help […]
| Isaiah Rashad – “Heavenly Father” | March 14, 2014 |
Max Bell went to Catholic school. Cilvia Demo is the best TDE release of 2014 thus far (review here). Oxymoron has its merits, but Rashad deals in introspection more poignantly. His wit and wordplay are sharper. His precocious wisdom is tempered by bursts of willful waywardness. In other words, he loves smoking trees and hates advice. So […]
