REFLECTION & REASON

Authenticity resonates with me, and even though I haven't always been an avid listener of trap music (and I'm proudly stuck in the 1990s when it comes to hip hop) I have always liked Gucci Mane. Before I came to appreciate Gucci Mane the artist, I was actually just drawn to Radric Delantic Davis the man. Something about him. He was real. He was grimy...but he was real. Full disclosure: I was also quite drawn to his wife  Keyshia Ka'oir , and their story. Their connection intrigued me. As an entertainment news buff, admittedly, the main narrative I took in over the years was about Gucci and Keyshia, how she held him down, how Gucci lost all that weight, and of course how she maintained and "flipped" his millions while incarcerated. That was a part of the story that was fascinating. But there was so much more to Gucci than sitting courtside at NBA games in matching furs with his beautiful (and extremely entrepreneurial ) Jamaican boo. The story was deeper t...

Better late than never. So, there's 6 rappers I'm finally interested in listening to this year. I've taken in their music before: mainly the hits. Not to the mixtape level, or to the downloading-their-music level...just on an extremely surface in-the-club, or livestreaming-Atlanta-radio level. But it's finally time for me to really see what the "kids" out there are hyping up about. All of the year-end hip hop music reviews have left me feeling like an old auntie in the dance . I started to realize that I had no idea who the majority of the new rappers were by face, or by voice recognition. While I've "heard" of dudes like Yachty, and Migos, 21 Savage, and Party Next Door... I really and truly couldn't identify them if I saw them walk by me at Scarborough Town Centre. I definitely wouldn't know their voice different from say a Drake, Kanye, Common, Nas, Q-Tip, or other age-appropriate favourites from my era/city. But someh...