At a time when a new crop of queer rappers and producers are beginning to threaten hip-hop’s heteronormative, queerphobic status quo, Washington-based rapper Michete seems to stand apart. Her debut EP Cool Tricks discards the avant-garde, high-art signifiers of her peer’s music in favor of intentionally chintzy beats and rhymes that seethe with rage and […]
Hot Sugar’s Cold World is a Surprisingly Emotional Journey Through the Creative Process
Earlier this year when I caught Hot Sugar’s Cold World at SXSW, the kids I was sitting next to leaned over and asked if I was a fan of the indie producer. “I actually don’t know much about him, I just had a gap in my schedule,” I told them. “OH MY GOD! He’s a genius! […]
First I Made You Who You Are: What Drake’s Mopey Misogyny Says About Us as Consumers
Earlier this week I came across a disorienting essay: Tahira Hairston’s “Sorry, but Drake’s obsession with good girls is sexist.” It was strange to me not because I disagreed with the thesis — Drake’s music is sexist as an Etruscan pope — but because it was a subject that someone evidently felt required an entire […]
Dare to Be Stupid: Michete’s Cool Tricks Embraces Qrappy Rap
At first glance, 22 year old transfeminine rapper Michete (who has no particular preference re: pronouns) reads as a novelty act. From the chintzy beats to the low-production value videos to the litany of pop culture references, whether or not Michete means business isn’t entirely clear. But that all gets cleared up toward the end […]
They Wish They Was Me: Myke Bogan Demands to Be Heard with Casino Carpet
Plenty of album titles are gibberish, but as random as it might seem at first glance, Myke Bogan’s Casino Carpet strikes me as a pretty apt and efficient encapsulation of the album’s major themes. I mean, casinos are admittedly full of sad, hungry symbols, from old folks losing social security payouts to one armed bandits on […]
Nacho Picasso’s Blunt Raps 2 is an Excellent Introduction to the Sith Lord of Seattle Rap
Seattle hip hop is too varied to have one immediately defining quality but dwell on it long enough and you’ll notice most of the city’s important acts have had a gray texture to their production, not necessarily somber but dark, hazy, listless. You see that especially well in the scene’s current avant wave, with Shabazz […]
Positive Thuggery: Croatoan Crimewave is a Stunning Early Work by BB Sun
Normally when you stumble across an early artifact from an artist’s career it’s more curious than satisfactory, offering you glimpses at the promise that was there all along but ultimately serving as a reminder that artistry needs time to develop and early failures are as important to the DNA as initial successes. So the fact […]
Raps for When It’s Just You and the Abyss: Open Mike Eagle’s A Special Episode of is Sincerity as Art
There is a new meta-suicidal Drake mixtape out and you’ve probably heard it or at least heard the pundit brigade’s thoughts on it. It’s got a cover that, to paraphrase a remark by The Roots, looks like it was written by one of the Chick-Fil-A cows but beyond that it’s another salvo in hip hop’s […]
Everything is No Longer Boring: Does The Upside EP Mark the Real Return of Spank Rock?
For whatever reason, when it came to make a follow-up to his still revolutionary debut Yoyoyoyo, Spank Rock decided to spend five years smoothening out his rough, crass edges and obliterating the bulk of the alien weirdness that made him so unique on Yoyoyoyo. The result was the (prophetically titled) Everything is Boring and Everyone is a Fucking Liar, an […]
Pop Rehabilitation: Amanda Blank’s I Love You
Not content to let their pop passions go unloved by the masses, Loser City staff have banded together to provide Pop Rehabilitation to the works that have been unjustly maligned and forgotten. This month, Nick Hanover wonders whatever happened to Amanda Blank, and why her shouldabeen breakout album I Love You didn’t click with audiences but now fans […]