BEN PEDROCHE – Independent As F***
Posted inBooks

BEN PEDROCHE – Independent As F***

Another book on independent rap? The first one in English? And rather complete, informative, and efficiently put together, no less? There is every reason to welcome the existence of Ben Pedroche’s work. Even if at times it has the dryness of an encyclopedia and relies a bit too much on synthesizing what was already being said back then, without always taking advantage of the hindsight that time affords us.
MAC CRITTER – Back Door Music
Posted inRap albums

MAC CRITTER – Back Door Music

Mac Critter, the Memphis rapper, has been signed to the New 1017. However, he has since left the label, and he doesn’t really resemble a disciple of Gucci Mane. His trap music is more serious and more haunted than the master’s. His dragging, pained rap is more threatening than humorous. He is modern, and very much in tune with the times. And sometimes, too, he is striking.
ABGR LIL CORY – Act Broke Get Rich
Posted inRap albums

ABGR LIL CORY – Act Broke Get Rich

Still unknown a year earlier, ABGR Lil Cory - the rapper from Hattiesburg, Mississippi - releases his debut album, following the success of the single “Old School.” And with this exhilarating release, with its naïve and infectious melodies about money, jewelry, and his hard grind in the kitchen, it brings an entire era rushing back to us: the blessed days of Gucci Mane’s late-2000s run.
G PERICO & DJ DRAMA – L.A. Gangster
Posted inRap mixtape

G PERICO & DJ DRAMA – L.A. Gangster

DJ Drama is a fantastic curator. On his "Gangsta Grillz" mixtapes, he invites rappers to be fully themselves, right down to cliché and formula, in order to better extract the very essence of their art. And he succeeds once again, even at this late stage in his career, when he teams up for a second time with G Perico and elevates the South Central rapper’s highly referential West Coast style.
GHAIS GUEVARA – Goyard Ibn Said
Posted inRap albums

GHAIS GUEVARA – Goyard Ibn Said

Signed to Fat Possum and heard during Kendrick’s Super Bowl performance, Ghais Guevara is enjoying a major moment in 2025. But the Philadelphia native remains what he's been since "BlackBolshevik", his breakout release : a committed, politically engaged rapper. His latest album is a critique of rap-as-spectacle, even if, and thankfully so, Ghais Guevara also takes part in it.