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September 18, 2013 Andy Cush

We’re not usually in the business of posting mp3s, but when the artists involved are James Blake and Chance the Rapper and the results are as excellent as “Life Round Here (Remix)” well make an exception. The original “Life Round Here,” from Blake’s latest album Overgrown, was a standout track that, with its minimal, constantly looping structure, […]

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August 15, 2013 Andy Cush

Last week, Chance the Rapper’s Acid Rap hit number 63 on Billboard’s Hip-Hop/R&B albums chart. Now, Acid Rap is very, very good, and Chance deserves every bit of the success and recognition he’s seen since its release. But something about this particular honor is fishy: Acid Rap is a free download; it shouldn’t be charting at all. Someone appears to be […]

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July 31, 2013 Andy Cush

Here’s the clip for “Everybody’s Something,” in my book the best cut from Chance the Rapper’s excellent Acid Rap mixtape (and the subject of a Sample Wars not long ago). The Austin Vesely-directed video buts Chance in some Carl Sagan-style cosmos, overlaid with some nice hi-fi lo-fi footage that impressionistically outlines the song’s lyrics about doubt, affirmation, […]

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May 2, 2013 Andy Cush

Each week in Sample Wars, we’ll pit two songs which sample the same source material head-to-head against each other, to determine which one rocked the sample better. This week’s Sample Wars presents a novel case. Like usual, both Chance the Rapper’s “Everybody’s Something” (released this week on his new mixtape Acid Rap) and Slum Village’s “Fall […]

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