Cyclolore

It's simply so natural to ridicule the modern-day rappers. The face tattoos, the styrofoam glasses, the gibberish promotion bars, the fantasy mumbled streams—SNL sent up the look, Jay-Z blueprint the sound and now, Eminem commits quite a bit of his own unexpected rendition with the album Kamikaze to bringing down the way of life. Any semblance of Migos and Lil Pump are to this 45-year-old ‘reckless’ rapper, what kid groups and Britney Spears were to him very nearly two decades prior: focuses for his vile as well as multifaceted tirades, yet in addition implies through which Eminem can catch for eye and contention. In reality, however, the outrage he heaves against 2018's young stars is of an unexpected sort in comparison to it was in the TRL period. Eminem appears to be really distraught, undermined, and harmed, as opposed to just trolling. That is on account of Eminem's December 2017 collection Revival, regardless of appearing at No. 1 on the Hot 200, neglected to produce hits, discussion and enduring deals. While that record was foreboding and sprawling, Kamikaze is super strong and fast “pyumm” Eminem would personify it as. Also, as opposed to imagining not to be annoyed by Revival's gathering, he's made a collection length Downfall-style freak-out, venting about the specialists who've taken his spot, offending the pundits who don't give him his due, grieving his own particular sentiments of decay, and pre-empting feedback that the greater part of this is a beautiful masturbatory activity.

With Unapologetic Rihanna really put a good, well-crafted album together from up-pace to down-pace and I feel with this album she really proved herself as an Artist that is here to push things to new levels, although with albums before like A Girl Like Me, Good Girl Gone Bad, and Loud, I’m not signifying they didn’t feel thoroughly developed either way by. The amazing Unapologetic Queen, I seriously just loved this album as I was invited by her team to Jay-Z's 40/40 Club for the Album Party in New York City. I was still a newbie in NYC so it was such a huge experience and I just remember hugging her by the end of the night after her security guards had hemmed me up to a corner so she could walk pass as everyone that was at the club had mostly left by that time and it was just a few of us still chilling at the bar. I said to Rihanna "I Love you Baby," all super sensual and if I was white my face would've probably been bloodshot red. Rihanna shrugged her head back in such a familiar way if you'd seen it, kind of "yea right" looking or "ha, look at you" but still flirty and yes for me it felt a little romantic, I couldn't stop thinking about her for days. The first thing that I loved about this era was that there was a symbolic 7 that was marked all around it making it such a significant number at the time that it truly always keep my mind wondering and churning. Rihanna won a Grammy for ‘Best Urban Contemporary Album’ for this album in 2014 and it was her first mega successful album to do something like having a best-selling debut week and a number one album. Rihanna definitely enlisted a powerhouse of producers for this project including Labrinth, David Guetta, The Dream, Mike Will Made-It, Parker Ighile, and StarGate. One thing that also really inspired me about this album was the 777 Tour that Rihanna embarked on where she took 150 journalists to promote her seventh studio album by giving their personal experiences of what it was like to travel with the mega star we know as Rihanna and also giving their experiences on the challenges that they witnessed going on behind the scenes first hand. Like the continuation of flights, and having to carry around all that luggage everywhere, the journalists even gave what they thought about her shows she did on her tour stops and how she performed in them. Rihanna pulled through in the documentary that aired and gave a window inside the experience, as you could see how the tour stops wore everyone’s energy out and they didn’t have ideal things like beds to sleep in but definitely had plenty of liquor and Rihanna would be the one having to go on stage and still sing and perform entertaining everyone. I don’t think she would drink until after the performances but all in all it really gave an additional spirit to the album Unapologetic.

Rihanna has a lot of albums under her belt and that’s one thing we have to keep in mind as she killing the absolute shit out of the Beauty/Fashion world as an entrepreneur. Before she was the Richest Musician making music today she released Rated R in such a highly anticipated moment as everyone, including myself, was so on the edge of our seats to hear what she would be saying in the music and how she would perform within the album. Rated R definitely is the only album I would dare say is better than her best yet. I didn’t know she was this kind of artist one that wasn’t afraid to cut her hair to such an edgy degree in various iconic styles, pushing boundaries, bossing up. and never knew that a female could be so rockstar hard yet so pretty and girly. Now looking at Rihanna at her achievement level versus the escalation in the music world due to many elements like technology, social connectivity, new viral/ or talented artist etc, where Rihanna has reached now seems to reverberate frequencies from and to Rated R. Could this be something that I’m just wishing no, but I’m completely aware of the atmosphere in music scene right now and it reminds me of this wave in a way that does a lot of the prep talking for a Rihanna comeback. In the song “Hard,” which featured Jeezy she sings “They can say whatever, I’ma do whatever, no pain is forever, yup you know this. Tougher than a lion, ain’t no need in trying, I live where the sky is, yup you know this.” where she continues to “and my runway never looked so clear, but the hottest bitch in heels right here. No fear and why you getting your cry on, I’m getting my fly on. Sincere, I see you aiming at my pedestal, I betta let ya’ know, that I, I, I, I’m so hard (so hard) ah yeah, yeah, yeah.”

Beyonce stuck the world with her second (considerably third) visual album Lemonade initially on HBO in on of the most conceptually sound musical visuals I think I’ve ever seen, accompanying its Tidal streaming digital release. I was so specific about everything having to take a back seat that day and had my food and snacks all ready to go because I knew it was going to be such an exciting history creating moment. The album Lemonade touched many different styles of music including hip-hop, rock, soul, blues, funk, electronic, trap, and a few others along with R&B. As Lemonade shifts from one song to the next the visual shifts so tastefully with Beyonce using poetry adapted from a variety of very powerful poems by Warsan Shire that included “The Unbearable Weight of Staying”, “For Women Who Are Difficult to Love”, “How to Wear Your Mother’s Lipstick”, “Dear Moon”, and “Nail Technician as Palm Reader”. The way that Beyonce keeps you drawn into visuals through the reciting of poetry throughout the visual album Lemonade was completely genius, captivating, and truly added even more audible value to it. Beyonce broke down the visual into eleven sections called “Intuition”, “Denial”, “Anger”, “Apathy”, “Emptiness”, “Accountability”, “Reformation”, “Forgiveness”, “Resurrection”, “Hope”, and “Redemption” and you really feel the distinct differences between each and every single one of these chapters.

Delirium is one of those albums that is just never going to be irrelevant, it just screams to play it no matter the passing of time when you see that sky blue and her wind embracing stance underneath all that fur. Additionally, considering how beautiful Ellie Goulding’s vocals are along with that, with or without the productional boost, they soar, and just sound so angelic with a touch of an R&B resonating feminine type of handsomeness that many people may identify as super distinctive but there’s something understating about that adjective when it comes to Ellie. Ellie Goulding can get you right in the heart affecting you right while you’re in the middle of dancing through the airy beats & pop songs and through the whirlwind of how the album burns through Ellie Goulding’s version of epic ‘Pop’. I guess her inexperience in this album would come from the fact that she is in new territory with Delirium genre wise as she’s abandoned her previous niche similar to Taylor Swift shifting from the Country style, “I know there’s nothing I can do to make you stay, the one thing I know that will always remain is the aftertaste.” In this line that precedes the opening track “Aftertaste” where Ellie Goulding is declaring her inability to control others loyalty through the development and unexpected turns she decides to take, while also signifying that the grounds in which she progresses and rises from will always remain as an ‘Aftertaste.’ This is something that I just love coming right out the gate of the album because it makes me feel powerful, unapologetic, and like I’m growing. I really believe she achieved it the songs all have an absolute absorbable message that sticks with me that I live through the lens of like a significant prescription in the pair of glasses of reality whether its life, love, and/ or even your artful craft. For instance, like the fifteenth track “Devotion” that is a self-explanatory title yet is so euphoric & resembles folk and techno club but evokes love and strength at the same time. The effort of the production that went into the creativity that Delirium unleashes for me has always been like an enchanted cup of healing herbal flowers like melodic waves that choreographically mix, swish and swirling right down.

I have to admit that H.E.R. is one emerging artist within the last decade to be as interesting as she is with the music, her sound, the mystery in her name. Additionally, H.E.R. rides the beats and the production its completely crazy especially since she popped up on the scene in 2016 with this new mystifying nuance. She told the LA Times, “The mystery is a metaphor for who I am, or who I was at the time of creating the project,” also adding “I am a voice for women who feel like they[‘re alone in these situations. This project came from emotion, and that’s what I want to be about.” I’m telling you this was just so perfect to me when I discovered it about H.E.R. because I feel like I love my artist when for the most part that have that figured out about themselves and what their aiming for with their power and voice. Her real name is Gabriella Wilson and she is now a Grammy Award winning singer for Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Album and clearly as she should be after being nominated for 5 Grammys. In Vol. 2, The B Sides which is also Executive Produced by Harris and Swagg R’Celious, a lot of her music its sounds as though H.E.R. has a peculiar formula and I’m just so in love with it and the effect that it puts in the atmosphere. Also this is an artist that is delivering so much comfortability into the microphone giving Vol. 2, The B Sides the ultimate smooth, uber locomotion within the album that just eases your mind and lets H.E.R. take the wheel. Love is what makes the world go around and H.E.R. does a great deal at turning it with this album and the Love themes she soothes so well into with her views and her expressions. Vol. 2, The B Sides follows up Volume 1 that she released in September of 2016 which saw H.E.R. appear in many Top 5 & Top 10 roundups across a wide array of publications including NPR, Rolling Stone, and even Forbes. Supposedly Volume 1 had been streamed on Spotify over 20 million times and 65 million on all other music streaming providers all around the world.

Prior to the arrival of SZA’s debut album CTRL, the artist was already a few underground albums deep with her album ‘S’ released in 2013 and her album ‘Z’ SZA released in 2014. This was enough from her to strike up hell of anticipation on her first studio collection in which you could only expect to be emotional and romantic considering her previous mixtape like releases. SZA sets the tone of a raw and in your face Valentine friendly album with the Neo-soul opening track “Supermodel” singing “Let me tell you a secret, I been secretly banging your homeboy. Why you in Vegas, all up on Valentine’s day? Why am I so easy to forget like that? It can’t be that easy for to get like that.” SZA says that this was the first acoustic track she’s ever attempted to create in which you can kind of hear in the production of the song as it sounds timid and as if it’s trying to be very careful or quiet. The moodiness that encompasses CTRL is absolutely unprecedented from such a coveted new singer/ artist, clearly there was a major connection that was made for CTRL to surface its way into the universe. This album from SZA shows that she can be very versatile in the heaviness & sincerity of it all, creating a plethora of feelings through the tracks on one project, though the album keeps a chilled and numbing vibe through this. At the same time some of the tracks do feel a bit unfinished or broken off too early. SZA doesn’t give one consistent ride when you think about the feelings she invokes on the album CTRL, the album just keeps it all in the same boat of love and relationships but doesn’t drench it all in depression and gloom but more in optimism, and self-developmental insights that would be healthy for those participatory in the romance strong lifestyle.

Ariana Grande is a singer to be reckoned with and that I came to terms a bit with her fifth studio LP, Thank You Next as the album was a 6-month abrupt follow-up to Sweetner. The first thing that's notable about Thank You Next is that it’s a lot more club friendlier than Ariana Grande’s previous album which is something I appreciated greatly about diving into Thank You Next. I was so enthusiastic about the artistic direction of Ariana Grande when it came to all the horrible travesties that she’d endured over an 18-month course, and this was definitely what her previous album delivered so well. Yet Ariana Grande stepped on the gas pedal moving into an even fresher chapter, even with the meaning in the title track “thank u, next,” it was pretty shocking to see her take such charge with action leading with her actual music. Not only that but there’s a lot more attitude that is recognizable coming from Ariana Grande more so than usual, at least in my opinion, something is fresh in this department of what she delivers on thank u, next.

Britney Spears whether people love it, like it, or hate it is an American Gem whose history spans all the way back to the mid 90’s, at least when it comes to music and releasing studio albums. One of my favorites, Blackout is Britney Spears fifth studio album and it’s very unfortunate and interesting to observe Britney Spears fifth musical baby Blackout lingering one year after it’s 10th Anniversary as Britney Spears is battling her mental health in the merciless fire of the mainstream media where she took to Instagram to write, “rumors, death threats to my family and my team, and just so many things crazy things being said. Everything that’s happening is just making it harder for me.” Similar to the infamous incident everyone knows Britney Spears went through in 2007 a night after she stayed in a drug rehabilitation facility she shaved her entire head bald with help from a Los Angeles salon in Tarzana. The haunting similarities of the lyrics to her life now is just like watching a character in a horror movie suffer on the same loop of their own nightmare or something as Britney sings “The center of attention (do you feel this?) Even when we’re up against the wall, you got me in a crazy position (yeah). If you’re on a mission (uh-huh), you got my permission (Oh)” in Blackout’s debut track “Gimme More.” Regardless of the drama that Britney is going through dealing with the legalities of the Conservatorship she’s been tied to it even has been reported that her dad is trying to file paperwork to have that shifted from California to Louisiana as Louisiana is her hometown where Britney Spears was raised. Her dad is wanting to “have the power to restrict and limit visitors by any means” along with “caretaker for the conservatee all around the clock of time, and the days of the week.” Britney Spears mother tried to interject for some power in the legality of this conservatorship which caught a lot of media inflammation.