Borrowing For The Game: Classic Samples Making Classic Tracks

Venturing into the endless tunnel that is music sampling only makes you a better music aficionado. I learned that on my recent journey into the unknown, sparked by a friend giving me one song: Betty Wright’s phenomenal “Clean Up Woman”, to begin this whole thing. Ironically, the only song I couldn’t get on the playlist was the song that sampled “Clean Up Woman”, Chance the Rapper’s “Favorite Song” featuring Childish Gambino. Chance can have all his principles about music ownership...

Mix Master Bestor’s Modern Soulness Vol. IX

Yes, there are nine of these things, but this is the first one I have posted. These mixes, all falling under the umbrella theme of “Modern Soulness” have been some of my favorite to make lately because the world of Soul/R&B is constantly becoming more complex and intriguing. New talents like Jorja Smith, Kali Uchis, and Daniel Caesar continue to emerge and integrate themselves into the community that is modern R&B. The greatest proof of this “community” is that all...

Sonikseek: The Magnolia and Something Called Scandinavian Soul

Once upon a time it took months to get anywhere. We use to meet people from different countries and cultures only by travel, to see them physically by either coming to them or foreigners coming to you, and this usually only transpired through the necessity of trade. Travel was harrowing and long voyages were not cut and dry experiences, but rather extended tours of survival. Dirty port cities and crossroads towns were a heady mix of suspicion, curiosity, and opportunism....

From The Blinds Presents – “Three Blind Men: The Blind Bracket Challenge”

The premise is simple: a bracket of some of the greatest Rock albums of all-time. The inspiration is also pretty simple- it all started at the end of this year’s March Madness; the epic three-week clash between the best in NCAA basketball. March Madness engenders a certain amount of grandiose ambition in the simple folks like me who are drawn to the idea of a single-matchup where the picks are difficult, the results often unexpected, and the competition as fierce...

Top 20 + Brief Reflections on 2017

One way of describing 2017 is it was a remarkable year in the barest sense – meaning that despite all of the darkness, bigotry, abuse, and scandal, it was nonetheless still a year worth many remarks. Hey, that’s better than saying it was an unremarkable year not worth mentioning. Popular culture was galvanized by the sweeping hand of the #MeToo movement and Black Lives Matter to such a large degree that it engulfed the public consciousness. The power of the...

Sonikseek: Toronto Gives Us the Future of Pop with MorMor

2017 was a year that confirmed what many of us already knew: Rock music is losing ground in the world of pop music relevancy. We saw it happening in 2016 as the Knowles sisters dominated the “best album” polls and artists like The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, and Chance the Rapper grew in popularity. Some expected a rebound in 2017, and yet the most compelling music of this past year once again came from the Soul/R&B/Rap veins of popular music. Kendrick...

Guest Playlist: 2017 Discovery

  Greetings all, it’s a new year and time for the first ever guest playlist! That’s right, I Johnny Lobo, am here to present a curated playlist created to showcase the songs I discovered throughout 2017. Bear in mind, not all the songs on the playlist were created in 2017. In fact, some are from much earlier. However, my idea was to pull together “the favorites” – the ones my lucky ears just happened to hear for the first time last year. ...