Your remedy to the “I don’t have anything good to listen to” problem… below.
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Conversation Pieces - A monologue about the raw romance of Leather Blvd.
This edition of the Conversation Pieces series is the most ambitious and personal thing I've ever done. It almost felt a bit too close to home to put out publicly, but honestly... creating this was truly a prime example of that 'writing = therapy' trope.
Through the lens of a recent event in my personal life, I explore the bountiful emotional richness of this album, and how music is so intrinsically intertwined with real emotions, memories, experiences that we have.
Conversation Pieces - The dark genesis of my love for music
This edition of the Conversation Pieces series is a little different, and music-adjacent at best to be honest.
In what was mostly a therapeutic exercise, I explored how my love for music was borne out of a dark place, and what that made me realize about myself.
It may sound like a depressing listen, but I promise that it ends on a happy note.
Conversation Pieces - How Affable with Pointed Teeth taught me patience
Affable with Pointed Teeth, by YUNGMORPHEUS and eyedress, is an album I liked quite a bit, and loved in moments for years now. But then out of nowhere, as I prepped for my recent interview with YUNGMORPHEUS himself, the album completely hit a new level for me.
There is a profound beauty that comes from instances like this... and serves as a reminder that patience is everything in life.
Conversation Pieces - Navy Blue’s Alignment - One of rap’s definitive relationship songs
Found on Navy Blue’s excellent personal classic of a record from 2020, Song of Sage: Post Panic!, "Alignment" is not only a shining star of a track on an album full of them, but the best relationship song I’ve ever heard in my time listening to rap music.
Conversation Pieces - Our Loss - A commentary on Drake and relatability in art
Relatability in art is often erroneously mistaken for this idea of “x artist explicitly talking about things that are directly relevant to my life, talking only about things I dealt with personally".
Obviously this is a form of relatability, but I’d argue that relatability is a concept more broad and less rigid than that. Relatability to me is simply the idea of identifying with what an artist stands for.
This edition of Conversation Pieces examines the boy, Drizzy Drake and his latest collaborative album with 21 Savage, Her Loss, through the lens of relatability to see what has gone wrong for the 6 God in recent years.
Conversation Pieces - The importance of representation in hip-hop
Whether it was back in 2005 when I was first starting to develop a distinct affection for the art form, or even now, a whole 17 years later.
When I look at the artists that soundscape so much of my life that I admire, who I lean on to process trauma, to escape my day to day, to instill some fun and confidence into my life... these artists rarely, if ever, look like me.
And that is why I want to take you on a quick journey through the looking glass of an Indian lover of hip-hop, and discuss the importance of representation through the art form we all love, hip-hop.
Throughout, I will also highlight a few pivotal albums and artists along the way.
Conversation Pieces - A hip-hop head’s perspective on Rosalìa and MOTOMAMI
The first edition of the Conversation Pieces series, which aims to shine a light on some inspired gems of creativity in hip-hop that I’ve encountered, provides a hip-hop head's perspective on Rosalìa and MOTOMAMI.