Bar for Bar Podcast

On March 3, 2023, Bay Area native Mani Draper released his latest project in collaboration with Steven King, titled 33. A couple weeks later, he joined me on stream to talk about the album and a whole lot more. Huge thanks to Mani for taking the time to talk to me about the project. Be sure to check out 33, as well as the Comminion projects he's released recently!

It's everyone's favorite time of year, list time! Here's my top 24 albums of 2022. This year was filled with some pretty solid music, and I definitely didn't listen to everything, so let me know what's on your lists in the comments! 

Joining me this week to discuss his latest albums, ROUX and DELUXE EDITION, and a whole lot more is Oakland's very own Roux Shankle! Definitely be sure to check out his latest releases and tap in with him!

Brookfield Duece took some time out of his busy schedule to talk to me OUTSIDE about his latest album Coordinates. Throughout the conversation we touch on a few other topics including his time in Amsterdam and Grand Nationxl. 

This morning Kendrick Lamar announced Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers will be released May 13, 2022. Now that we have a title and release date, what does it all mean? What is Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers? What's the album going to sound like? Where's the singles? All of these questions and more partially answered in this week's Bar for Bar Podcast.

We've just gone through a quarter of the year, and a whole lot of music dropped. A lot of it was pretty dang good, so here's some of my favorites including Earl, Ian Kelly, Saba, Roux Shankle, D. Bledsoe, Mani Draper, KXNG Crooked & Joell Ortiz, Denzel Curry and Sadistik & Kno! 

I'm sure there's other projects I missed, so let me know what you've been listening to so far this year!

The 64th Annual Grammy Awards just happened and because hip hop and hip hop adjacent awards are so prevalent, I have some thoughts. There should also be a discussion about the title "Hip hop fashion designer". Congrats to all the the nominees and award winners! 

Back in 2008, Joe Budden inadvertently formed the rap super group known as Slaughterhouse. Over the years we've gotten a handful of projects and the eventual disbandment of the group. Not much has been said about it, until KXNG Crooked and Joell Ortiz announced their upcoming project, The Rise and Fall of Slaughterhouse. Now through all the discussion and arguments, we may be witnessing the real fall of Slaughterhouse. 

Conway The Machine just dropped a new mixtape to prepare us for his Shady Records debut, God Don't Make Mistakes. Is this the beginning of the mixtape resurgence?

The most hip hop super bowl halftime show featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blidge and Kendrick Lamar just happened and I loved it. Obviously there's some things to talk about here. Also, Kanye's just said that Kid Cudi won't be on Donda 2 for some strange reason.   

The Super Bowl is very soon, and given how important this year's halftime show is for hip hip, I have some thoughts. Especially about Kendrick's album rollout. This week I also introduce a new segment showcasing artists and songs I think are dope. Be sure to check out Scorpion The Dance Emcee and Push Kahlon!   

Send me music you think I should mention too!  

Colder Times - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhh3CMDLVfw

Easy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfCf91uzxX8

Kanye's been going through a lot it seems over the past couple of weeks, and with his song Eazy he talks through some of it. While this track is new and has a decent amount to talk about, there's a bit more to try and understand where he's coming from. 

2022 has just started, but it's already time to discuss what we're looking forward to aside from Kendrick Lamar's album. So far we have confirmed releases for The Weeknd, Cordae, Earl Sweatshirt, EarthGang, Saba, and more, but who else are you looking for?

It's that time of year again, so here's the list of my top albums of 2021! There were plenty of albums that dropped and were really dope, to the point where I also had to make another honorable mentions list. Let me know in the comments what's on your list!

As the year comes to an end, it's time to look back and think about what we've experienced. In music. Here's some of my honorable mentions for 2021! Don't be sad if your favorite album isn't mentioned here, because it might end up on my top 10! Or I just forgot about it.

This past weekend, Travis Scott held his third and what may possibly be his last Astroworld festival due to the casualties and many hospitalizations. That is, unless there are fundamental changes made. Condolences to all the families affected by this tragedy.

It's been a little while, so let's catch up with the music I've been listening to this month!

Joining me this week to talk about his upcoming release, The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly, is Rodeo, California native, AlbySound. In this conversation we talk through how he got interested in rap, production as well as the upcoming project itself. 

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly drops October 7, 2021, so be sure to check it out!

Shady business practices exist in most every industry, but it feels more seen when it comes to music. This past weekend, Joyner Lucas revealed some information regarding his early days and what impact Karen Civil had.

There's been a lot of things happening over the past few days ranging from CLB getting an official release date to Donda being released without Kanye's permission, so let's take some time to talk about it!

On August 20, 2021 Kendrick Lamar came out of hiding to let us all know that he's wrapping up production on his final TDE album. There's many questions to be asked at this point, like will this be his last album period, what is oklama, and what's going to happen with pgLang, so let's get to it. 

Last week a well known reviewer gave an unsavory review of Isaiah Rashad's latest album, and many chimed in. Maybe as reviewers we need to understand the artist more and as consumers realize that reviews are opinions. It's always more nuanced than that though.

I'm neither defending nor attacking anyone with this, I'm just trying to see both sides.

Last week at Rolling Loud, DaBaby had said some questionable things to say the least. There's also a bit of other news to talk about including August 11th being named Hip Hop Celebration day!

For this week's podcast, we touch on a handful of topics instead of just a singular one to change things up. The major topics at hand are the delay of Kanye's next album, Donda as well as the beef that's been brewing between Royce and Lupe Fiasco.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Kanye held a listening event for his upcoming album, Donda on July 18, 2021 in Vegas with another one scheduled for July 22, 2021 in Atlanta. Are we getting the album sooner than we had expected? Maybe

As streaming services have gained significant popularity, artists have shifted the way they announce and roll out their projects. Many release within a month of the announcement while others maintain the slower roll outs, but what's best?

On July 2, 2011 Kendrick Lamar released his debut studio album, Section.80. Ten years later, how well does it hold up?

It's about half way through 2021, so it's time to talk about my favorite albums so far. With artists like Ian Kelly, T. Carrier, Mach-Hommy, Khrysis, Rome Streetz, Armand Hammer and more having dropped dope albums, there's a lot to consider.

Every year, XXL compiles a list of artists that they deem to be on their Freshman Class, and this year is no different. As with every year, people have their own thoughts and opinions on who should be included as well as wondering what exactly the criteria is to be on the list. This week, that's what I try to figure out. 

We're just about half way through the year, so it's almost time to talk about the best albums of 2021 so far and what my favorites are. However, before we get into that, let's talk about what projects I'm looking forward to for the rest of the year. 

Just about a year ago, Killer Mike and El-P returned to bring us the fourth installment of their Run The Jewels tapes with RTJ 4. Seeing as it came out during a very tense time and the messages were very relevant, it's only right to go back and see how well it's held up. I also go into quite a bit of other news as well as listed with the timestamps listed below. 

Drizzy, K-Dot, Cole and ??? Who takes the fourth spot on the Mount Rushmore of the 2010s? This was a question posed by Rap Caviar last week, which stirred quite a bit of conversation around who the fourth spot should be. The polls show Nicki Minaj, but who else should be considered and why? 

About three years ago when HipHopDX's The Breakdown series was hosted by MURS and Justin Hunte, I was inspired to go out and add to the conversations they started. Today I'm incredibly happy to say that we've reached episode 100. This week my discussion will primarily be focused on why I started this and a bit of a history of the podcast as well. After that, I go into my typical discussion on what happened last week and some preliminary thoughts on music.  

Thank you to everyone that's subscribed and supported Bar for Bar over the past 100 podcast episodes!  

Over the past week or so, there's been a lot of discussion online regarding producers from both T-Pain and Flying Lotus. This week, I give my thoughts on what they've said as well as go a bit into how pxvce might have stolen some beats.

Apologies for the audio, we wanted to record outside with a microphone meant for one.   

Poetry and hip hop go hand in hand and for a time in the early 2000s we saw a resurgence in interest in poetry, especially slam poetry. Joining me on this week's podcast is my good friend Jose to talk about Russell Simmons' Def Poetry and why we need it to come back.  #BringBackDefPoetry  

On April 28, Top Dawg tweeted out "THE WAIT IS OVAH!!!! #TDE" accompanied by a video that ended saying 5/7/21. Everyone assumes it's Kendrick, which is fair given how long it's been since he's released, but what if it's someone else? That's the main topic of discussion this week, but we'll also get into the possibility that J. Cole may be dropping The Off Season very soon as well. 

Over the years the conversation about longevity has been brought up and talked about briefly, but how does that apply to hip hop and how does that tie in with the allure of inaccessibility? On this week's podcast, this is exactly what I'll touch on.

Back in December 2020 4 west coast legends, Ice Cube, Too $hort, E40 and Snoop Dogg, came together to form the newest super group, Mount Westmore. On this week's podcast we'll be discussing what we know about Mt. Westmore so far, as what we might expect from them.

Just over a year ago we were first introduced to the idea of pgLang and in that time we've gotten glimpses of what it could actually be. The main thing that we've really learned in this time is what we saw from their Calvin Klein collaboration as well as the songs that Keem's released, but there's definitely more

It's kinda crazy that we're already a quarter of the way through 2021. So much music has released, so let's talk about it. 

Recently Lil Nas X released his latest track, Montero (Call Me By Your Name), and the internet has some words. Disclaimer: I fully support LGBTQ+ communities, and this video will be addressing that as well as my thoughts on some of the homophobia within hip hop.

Back in the day we could only spend so much on music, but now for the same cost we have access to an unlimited amount. As we've been in the streaming era of music for some time now, it's time to take a look at how it might have affected our listening habits. As it turns out, there might not be as much of a change as you'd think.

The 63rd annual Grammy Awards aired this weekend, and there's some things to discuss. Was Freddie Gibbs snubbed? Did Nas really deserve a Grammy for King's Disease? Maybe.

The biggest news of last week was that Square, Inc had bought a majority stake in the streaming service, TIDAL for $297 million. It sounds like a strange acquisition for Square, but there's probably good reasoning behind it. Join me this week as I run through the possibilities.

Hip hop finds inspiration everywhere, and that's no different for my guest today. With an album, comic and video game coming soon please join me in welcoming rapper and host of the Anime & Hip Hop podcast for Undergroundhiphopblog.com, Cthree! We talk about everything from his project Spirit Language to representation in anime and comics, so be sure to check it out! 

For months, TDE president Punch has gone between trolling fans clamoring for a new Kendrick album and promoting a new venture, A Room Full of Mirrors. BUT WHAT IS IT?!

Five years ago, Kanye West revealed The Life of Pablo at the Yeezy Season 3 event. How's it hold up now though? Join me for this week's podcast where I talk all about TLOP!