Record Roundup: 2024 Hip Hop, R&B, and Reggae In Focus

There's much variety to be found in recent releases in these interrelated genres

It’s been an unusual year for hip hop. While there have been several excellent releases - see below - the role of the tentpole album has been played instead by Kendrick Lamar’s fusillade of dis tracks aimed at Drake. Since I view the former Aubrey Graham as a flea on the hindquarters of this mighty genre, I hardly thought this was worth Lamar’s time, especially when you consider Pusha T eviscerated the Canadian back in 2018 with The Story Of Adidon. 

But the year is just a little more than half over and that defining album could be in our collective future. For one thing, Pusha T has reunited with his brother, now known as No Malice, and the duo are working on a new Clipse album. Be still my heart!

In the end, other listeners may hear some of the albums below as masterpieces. My diffidence is at least partly due to feeling less identification with these artists than I do with Prodigy, Pusha T, Freddie Gibbs, Lamar, or even Yaya Bey, whose perfect blend of hip hop, R&B, and reggae landed her sophomore album, 10 Fold, on my Best Of 2024 (So Far), the only release in any of these genres to hit the Top 25. 

Hit play here or below to listen along while you read.

HIP HOP

MIKE & Tony Seltzer - Pinball It seems that releasing two albums last year - including the epic Burning Desire - left MIKE with more in the tank. Hence this brief burst of effervescent rap, 11 songs in 21 minutes, with producer Seltzer bringing the fizz. While satisfying on its own terms, you can bet it left me wanting more. For example, take Lethal Weapon, one of my favorite hip hop songs of the year. Even with a ticky-tack drumbeat nattering away like a cyborg Howard Grimes, it’s smooth and splashy, MIKE working his game: “Why you teasing me with-, when I see perfection?/I ain't trying to lead you on, we could be symmetric.” And then it’s over in less than 90 seconds. Just hit repeat on the whole project, I swear it won’t get boring. 

Mach-Hommy - #RICHAXXHAITIAN While I included two of this Haitian American’s albums in Best Of 2021: Hip Hop, R&B, And Reggae, I seem to have missed at least six collaborative projects since then. My mistake, as based on the evidence of this richly expansive collection, Mach-Hommy’s talents have only continued to flower. His flow is sharp and monochromatic, perfectly deployed over lush tracks, which he either produced or co-produced. The effect is like a double exposure: precise black-and-white strokes overlaid atop brilliant colors. The many guests (including a fiery verse from Black Thought of The Roots) don’t dilute Mach-Hommy’s urgency, even if his message is less focused than on Pray For Haiti. Not all the guests are vocalists, either: Georgia Ann Muldrow decorates Sonje with her piano and Sam Gendel lends his sax to SUR LE PONT D’AVIGNON (Reparations #1), adding to its moody magnificence. With #RICHAXXHAITIAN, Mach-Hommy further establishes himself as one of the most compelling and individualistic voices on the scene.

Vince Staples - Dark Times Staples is not quite at the “haunting” peak of 2022’s Ramona Park Stole My Heart on this sixth album, but he’s still come a long way from when he was trying to make the “hip hop Dark Side Of The Moon” in 2015. There are a few uptempo tracks, but the mood is mostly downbeat, as the title telegraphs. Lines like “Label tryna give me feedback, told me "Bring the streets back"/Fans said they want 2015 Vince/Dropped Big Fish, cuh been weak since,” and “In the ghetto, I'm a martian/Crash-landed in them dirty ass apartments,” both from Etouffe, suggest this is a transitional effort. Illumination will be coming in the future, I’m sure.

Schoolboy Q - BLUE LIPS Call me ignorant, but I haven’t paid much attention to Quincy Matthew Hanley since he dominated the airwaves with THat Part back in 2016. But this strong effort - his first in five years - swung hard into my consciousness on the strength of oHio, a five-minute, three-part suite including a strong set of bars from Freddie Gibbs. Lyrically speaking, the album veers from enlightening and personal (“My mom stayed workin' late, she taught me how to be great/My superhero's a woman, you know she served for this country,” from Germany 86) to disappointingly retrograde (“I was the first one fuckin' that bitch/I was the first one hittin' that shit,” from First - which should have been the last song he thought to include on the album) suggesting that Schoolboy Q still has some lessons to learn. Watching him continue growing up should be interesting.

JPEGMAFIA - I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU Previously only dimly aware of the work of the man born Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks, a light dawned when his splattershot production graced albums from Danny Brown and Armand Hammer last year. This sonically spectacular fifth album, traversing hard rock bombast to delicate melancholy, solidifies the picture further. From the wailing guitars of i scream this in the mirror before i interact with anyone and Vulgar Display Of Power to perfectly assembled loop-based tracks like JPEGULTRA! (feat. Denzel Curry) and the sweeping folk-rock of Don’t Put Anything On The Bible, which features Buzzy Lee’s strongest vocal yet, little seems alien to JPEG. If only the lyrics, a nonstop mixture of smart, funny, and cringe-inducing, were as consistently progressive as the music.

Doris - Ultimate Love Songs Collection The first compilation from the musical project of iPhone surrealist Frank Dorrey, this tapestry of 50 songs in 49 minutes (do the math) is musical ADHD taken to an art form. Totally nuts, but his ability to create something like Joyous Whimsical, which is deeply involving for its 39 seconds, should have people questioning whether their songs really need to be as long as they are. With these soundbites as songs, genre becomes just another texture, shades of hip hop, r&b, soul, and pop cross your mind as you listen, but nothing gets pinned down. Lacking the emotional hit of Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee or RJF’s Strange Going, it nonetheless puts a little more of their geist in the zeit and that’s a good thing.

R&B

Kali Uchis - ORQUÍDEAS For some, a Spanish-language album might be a turn-off if you don’t speak the language. That bothers me not at all, especially when someone has the melodic gift of this American singer with deep Colombian roots. Moreover, singing in Spanish allows Uchis to survey a variety of Latin styles, from the gutbucket reggaeton of Muñekita to the accordion-driven celebration of Dame Beso//Muévete, which closes the album. There’s also plenty of airy electronic R&B that might have Björk rethinking some of her recent life choices. No translation required - ORQUÍDEAS is speaking in universal tongues. A new deluxe edition extends the fantasy with three new songs and a remix.

Kelela - RAVE:N, The Remixes When I saw this reigning diva of contemporary R&B in concert last year, she stopped a song in mid-flight to tell her DJ that she wanted the remix version. After listening to this tantalizing collection of reworks, I can see why. While I liked the original Raven, the dazzling variety of approaches here adds a hefty dose of the energy and adventure I was missing from earlier releases like 2017’s Take Me Apart. Some of the remixers are familiar, including Yaeji, Loraine James, and Liv.e, but there are many new names to me here. I’m looking forward to following those threads as I soar on the next-level grooves of RAVE:N. 

SiR - HEAVY After his first two albums (November in 2018 and Chasing Summer in 2019), Sir Darryl Ferris had a growing momentum in the world of contemporary R&B. When the pandemic put a stop to external activities, he had to confront the damage the “SiR lifestyle” was doing to the home front. The experience, including a trip to rehab, sounds heavy indeed and explains the gap between releases and some of the subject matter on this third album. With production that veers from his signature gauzy, spare sound to sharp, beat-driven tracks, SiR includes us on his journey from unsatisfying self-absorption (Ignorant) to self-reflection (I’m Not Perfect) and onward to wisdom in Ricky’s Song, an expression of Black love written for his nephew. But no worries about this all being TOO heavy - there is much outright pleasure to be had in both the musical settings and the seemingly limitless flexibility of SiR’s voice, which has some of its rawest and most tender moments here. HEAVY is a brave reentry into public life for SiR and I wish him all success - but only as much as is healthy for him and his family.

Reggae

Glen Washington - Feeling Irie The vibes train that started rolling with last year’s Jah Children shows no sign of slowing down with this latest full-length from the veteran singer. Combining sand and honey, the unique sound of his voice lends itself equally to jeremiads like They Will Soon Have To Pay, which opens the album, or sweetly nostalgic party tunes like the title track. While the production here is not quite as sharp as what Zion I Kings brought to Jah Children, it’s still excellent. And if you want more from that combo, Washington also lends his voice to their latest collection, sounding perfectly at home over their Full Bloom Riddim. The man’s productivity doesn’t stop there, either: God Of Our Father and Destiny are two more scorching singles from this year. 

Paolo Baldini DubFiles - In The Shell The globalization of Jamaican music continues with this collection from the Italian producer. Sounds and voices from his African travels inspired the atmospheric grooves in this collection, which also features some of the cream of the crop of current reggae vocalists. Nice and Easy, with Kabaka Pyramid soaring easily over the rhythm, is an instant classic, and You Are Not Alone showcases Queen Omega in dominating form - and those are just two highlights among many on In The Shell.

Bonus read

Smithsonian Magazine interviewed me about the Paul’s Boutique album cover.

From the archives:
A Song For Friday: Zion I Kings & Pressure Busspipe
A Song For Friday: Raveena (Feat. JPEGMAFIA)
Record Roundup: Echoes Of Displacement
Queens Noir: Prodigy’s Legacy In 25 Songs
A Vacation In Hip Hop Nation
A Few Brief Words About Some Recent Hip Hop