Mar
31
LCD Soundsystem, “All My Friends.”
Christina Lee.
Freelance writer, D.C.-ATL transplant.
Mar
21
“Human nature and how we experience it, or perceive it individually and collectively, is our main influence. Music is the dumpster that we throw that trash into and other people dig around in there for things that they can use or relate too. We all dig for the trash.”
Flatlander, Death Grips producer and videographer, in an insightful but also frustrating interview with The Quietus. (I mean, how many times and in how many ways did Flatlander have to say that he doesn’t care for these comparisons to other artists — Odd Future, Eminem, DMX — only to have the interviewer press on?) Anyway! This is how every artist should answer the question, “Who are your primary influences?”
Feb
11
Now that’s what I call a power couple. (Old Fourth Ward, Atlanta, Ga.)
Jan
29
“Work It,” Missy Elliott. From the second rap album I’d ever purchased, Under Construction.
Dec
21
Future interview outtake.
- me: Watching a kitten video is the same as watching a baby video, or maybe even interacting with either one for like five minutes. You may not actually want those things in your life at all times, but for those brief distant seconds or minutes, it seems like a super good idea/really amusing addition to your life.
- STV SLV: I can't even speak for the baby videos. The only baby videos I've chosen to watch are when the sounds of the babies are Auto-Tuned.
Nov
6
Beyonce -” Year of 4.” You deserve three stacks, word to Andre.
Oct
5
“I Hate Mondays,” Banksy. Ah, the images that haunt my dreams.
Sep
25
“Cole’s restless intelligence works against him almost as much as it helps him; you end up wishing he’d just take some delight in a new car or some nice clothes without reminding us, again and again, that he used to be poor. While it’s a major theme in rap— if not the major theme in rap— that up-from-nothing rise is implicit for most rappers, something to be touched on, not to continually fall back on.”
Pitchfork’s review of J. Cole’s Friday Night Lights, a decent read that ends on an infuriating note.
Sep
14
St. Vincent’s Annie Clark on Strange Mercy, the ‘Worst Year in Life,’ and the Little Girl in Her ‘Cruel’ Video
A few weeks ago I talked with St. Vincent’s Annie Clark about her new album Strange Mercy. An edited version of our conversation is already online, though I heard yesterday that it’ll also appear in a future issue of New York magazine.
Don’t get me wrong — I’m really excited to see this conversation in print. Around this time last year, I had just moved to Atlanta and was already feeling lost, wondering how I was going to find work as an inexperienced freelance writer. However, some part of me — the part that’s always searching for thug motivation in some way, shape or form — wishes that New York’s version ended on the note I originally intended:
As a writer in my mid-20s, sometimes I still struggle with writing with authority when there’s still so much more of life that I need to experience and navigate. Have you ever felt the same way, and if so, how do you get over that insecurity?
Oh, I know. I think insecurity is completely natural, but I think you just have to trust that if you are experiencing life in a certain way, it’s universal. That other people have felt that certain way, and it doesn’t matter what vantage that is; if there’s any number of people who are at that same vantage, it could mean something to them. Sure, I mean, at some point when you write in 10 years or 20 years from now, you’ll certainly see something different and richer than what you’re doing now – but that’s no reason to not begin and do it now. To trust your univer-, universal – blah. Universality? You’re a writer, what’s the word I’m looking for?
Alright, back to work.
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