VMP Magazine

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring the deluxe edition of Freelance from Brooklyn-born rapper Ben Reilly. 

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today, we’re featuring Annahstasia’s debut EP, Revival. 

To make Butterfly, Mariah Carey had to dismiss what fans previously expected from her. It meant shedding traditional pop ballads for urban adult contemporary and a harder hip-hop edge. Trading her dark-hued ringlets for a glamorous blonde blowout. Wearing thigh-baring gowns instead of conventional high-waisted jeans. Filing for divorce from music executive Tommy Mottola. By 1997, Mariah had broken all the rules to revamp her career on her sixth album, flying her into genre-defying heights.

For 18-year-old Usher Raymond IV to meet a career-defining moment, he had to prove critics wrong. Released 25 years ago today, Usher’s sophomore album, My Way, delivered his first multi-Platinum album and crowned him as R&B royalty in the making. Flipping the 1969 Frank Sinatra classic “My Way” with a Gen-X edge, Usher’s 10-track 1997 album gave him a launchpad into stardom, setting the tone for the rest of his career.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Beyoncé’s long-awaited seventh record, RENAISSANCE.

Every week, we tell you about an album we think you need to spend time with. This week’s album is Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, the latest album from Kendrick Lamar and his last with Top Dawg Entertainment.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today, we’re featuring Kilo Kish’s debut album, Reflections in Real Time. 

So, there’s this episode of The Boondocks. It isn’t for the faint of heart, as the episode was slapped onto television’s banned list, no longer accessible for airing since it’s 2010 premiere. Titled “The Story of Jimmy Rebel,” if you were present for the airing of The Boondocks’ depressingly surreal third season, you know exactly why “Jimmy Rebel” was banned.

“Shaolin shadowboxing and the Wu-Tang sword style.”

The iconic line is ubiquitous with 1983 revenge kung-fu film Shaolin and Wu-Tang and the opener of Wu-Tang Clan’s 1993 genre-shifting rap album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). While late-’80s East Coast rap was brimming with Afrocentrism through the Native Tongues collective and the quintessential B-boy flair of Run-DMC, Wu-Tang Clan rose from the ether as a minatory, philosophical force hailing from Staten Island. Although 36 Chambers was just a decade apart from Shaolin and Wu-Tang, the cross-cultural impact of Wu-Tang Clan resounded through martial arts film samplings and homage to the Five Percenter teachings that ran rampant on New York hip-hop and mainstream airwaves alike.

Not every female body is meant for exposure, and anti-teenybopper Billie Eilish is waving the black flag for women who refuse to let their body image define their art. Seen uniformly wearing oversized clothing, in a recent interview with Vogue Australia, Eilish dodged temptation of fitting into hypersexualized standards by using her individual style as a “security blanket,” but her source of protection was torn when an image of her went viral on Twitter. In the image, Eilish is seen wearing a hoodie with a bra-exposing white tank top beneath, and perverted opportunists jumped at the chance to degrade the 17-year-old singer. “Billie Eilish is THICC [sic]” read the most notable (now-deleted) tweet, but responders were quick to shut down the remark, noting the singer’s age and purpose of wearing figure-hiding attire.