Tom Breihan

The Queens underground rap veteran Homeboy Sandman has been busy lately. Earlier this year, he released There In Spirit, an EP that he recorded with producer Illingsworth. Then, Sandman revived Lice, his collaborative project with Aesop Rock; their three EPs are now on streaming services.  » Read More

All year, the Compton rap great YG has been releasing one-off singles like “Toxic” and the J. Cole/Moneybagg Yo collab “Scared Money.” It’s all been leading up to next week, when YG will release his new album I Got Issues. A couple of days ago,  » Read More

In the prime pandemic time of 2020, Las Vegas musician Stu Folsom put together a metallic hardcore band called SpiritWorld and released the hellacious debut album Pagan Rhythms. That album alone was enough to get attention; SpiritWorld’s whole sound is a theatrical riff-rumble attack, and the LP is a concept album about Satan coming to earth to destroy humanity.  » Read More

Finally, someone let Del The Funky Homosapien out of his cage. In 2001, Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz project released their self-titled debut album. Two of that LP’s tracks had guest verses from the loopy Bay Area indie-rap hero Del The Funky Homosapien. One of those singles was “Clint Eastwood,” which was Gorillaz’  » Read More

Right now, the Memphis rapper GloRilla is going through a wild, dizzy come-up. Earlier this year, she released “FNF (Let’s Go),” an underground smash that went viral and crossed over to the Hot 100. That success won GloRilla a deal with hometown rap king Yo Gotti’s CMG label, and she made her debut for that label when she released her song “  » Read More

In recent years, Devonté Hynes, otherwise known as Blood Orange, has been doing a whole lot of soundtrack work, and he also just opened Harry Styles’ 15-night run at Madison Square Garden. Last week, Hynes released the new Blood Orange EP Four Songs. Last night, Jimmy Fallon,  » Read More

Lil Baby is playing the game — not soccer but the other game. The Atlanta rap star has never been allergic to corporate sponsorships; last year, for instance, he had the best song on the soundtrack to the cinematic atrocity Space Jam: A New Legacy.  » Read More

The Mars Volta have fully returned. Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López founded the Texan prog-rock band in 2001, after the demise of their other band At The Drive-In, and they spent a decade-plus expanding the outer reaches of the sounds that they could make together. But then the Mars Volta went dormant for a decade,  » Read More

In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.  » Read More