Knwledge: KOKO EP

One of four tapes dropped in the last week by prolific producer Knxwledge (aka Glen Boothe), KOKO EP proves to be the most straightforward, but that doesn’t make it any less exceptional. Technically, it’s a follow-up to Boothe’s 1988 album (released in March), yet KOKO also creates space for tracks that might not have fit on that record. Hard-hitting and tight, as if it was …

Listen Up

Poignant protest songs, poetic reflections, '70s psychedelia, and more new music

Noname: Song 33 With references to George Floyd and Toyin Salau, “Song 33” by rapper, poet, producer and activist Noname is presumably a response to J Cole’s recent, widely lambasted release, on which he criticizes and tone-polices her. Over the mellow Madlib-produced beat, Noname (aka Fatimah Warner) meditates, “Wow, look at him go / He really ’bout to write about me while the world is in …

Anderson .Paak: Lockdown

Beginning with sirens and chanting, Anderson .Paak’s “Lockdown” is unmistakably a protest song—despite his inimitable, gentle lilt. “Cause they throw away Black lives like paper towels / Plus unemployment rate what? 40 million now / Killed a man in broad day, might never see a trial / We just wanna break chains like slaves in the south / Started in the north end but we …