376 Search results for "album"

by Ayika Tshimanga Ariana Grande recently released a music video for her song, “7 Rings”, a repetitive pop-trap&B tune with all the necessary ingredients to bring out your innermost bad bitch. The bouncy trap beat, braggadocious lyrics, and an attempt to ooze the kind of confidence radiating from pop stars like Beyoncé on “Apeshit”, or Rihanna […]

By Arielle Gray Dana Schutz’s “Open Casket” is hard to decipher at first. Its textured and abstract strokes make it difficult to discern the image. But the more your eyes linger, the more easily the distorted face, rendered in geometric simplicity, and the brown coffin outlining the body become clear. After a second lengthy look, […]

by Brittany Kirkland  Back in the day, when someone labeled you a “sellout”, there was no mistaking it. You were being called out as a traitor, and it wasn’t something to be taken lightly. What’s interesting is that as unambiguous as the term is, “sellout” is loaded for Black folk. It’s become heavily weighed down […]

by Tiffany Hobbs  I hope Jesus doesn’t look like the white man on the wall. That flowy-locked iteration of the Messiah they wanted Black people to believe in would find his alabaster skin colored with surprise as Ms. Aretha Franklin entered the gates and demanded payment—her heavenly reward—upfront. Her blessings must be plentiful, as she […]

When Beyoncé’s Lemonade dropped in 2016, I became the target of ire from many of her fans. The album, its imagery, and subject matter did not move me in the way that it moved most of them, and my apathy towards it and critiques of the artist have always been easily dismissed as hateration. But […]

by Ayika Tshimanga  Before Robyn Rihanna Fenty released her commercially successful project that is popularly regarded as her best work to date, ANTI (2016), she produced an underrated gem that would lay the groundwork for ANTI to exist, Rated R. At the time of Rated R’s release, Rihanna was widely regarded–and arguably may still be […]

Rap beefs have long become a cultural staple of hip-hop, from Tupac vs. Biggie, Jay Z vs. Nas, to Remy Ma vs. Nicki Minaj. The latest rap beef to capture hip-hop fans actually erupted a decade ago, when both rappers Pusha-T and Drake taking occasional shots at each other due to several incidents with their competing […]

by Victoria Collins Though she was absent of critical acclaim in the very beginning, Janelle Monáe set in motion the narrative of a dystopian reality that would serve as the backdrop for a decade-long narrative of freedom, love, and acceptance with her 2003 self-released album, The Audition. In 2007, she followed her debut album with […]

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, singer/rapper Janelle Monae revealed that her sexuality is fluid, telling the magazine, “Being a Black queer woman in America-someone who has been in relationships with both men and women–I consider myself to be a free ass motherfucker.” Monae continued, “Later I read about pansexuality and was like ‘Oh […]

by Kirsten Howard “When people tell you who they are, believe them the first time.” -Maya Angelou Last week marked the return of rapper and producer turned alt-right Twitter provocateur, Kanye West. He came to Twitter with no warning after a long hiatus from the social media platform, and it seemed, at first, that his […]

Kendrick Lamar can now add Pulitzer winner to his impressive list of career accolades as he was awarded the prize in music for his Grammy-nominated album DAMN. The Pulitzer Prize was given to Lamar’s album for being a “virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the […]

*Editor’s Note: March is National Disabilities Month and our themes at Black Youth Project are Ableism & Physical and Mental Health. We are interested in publishing works that address these topics and the things surrounding them. Content Warning: rape, mental health* “… mad methodology resists rote positivism and defies the cult of objectivity; it listens for […]