The Listening July 2025, Week 2
Here’s the list of albums I listened to between July 6 - July 12.
🏆 = Album of the Week
Lil Sims - Lotus
Sims talks a lot about the loss and moving on from her longtime collaborator. In doing so, she finds the strength to do her own thing in her own terms. The result is a beautiful album not only about betrayal, but also growth, love, sorrow, and family.
Slick Rick - Victory
Slick Rick is 60. 60! And he still sounds the same as he ever has. That’s not a bad thing. I grew up on hip-hop that encouraged everyone to have a unique sound. MCs had to sound distinguishable from one another, as opposed to the copy-and-paste approach with most of the music out today.
Enter Slick Rick’s first album in 26 years. He not only sounds like the classic Ruler, but he comes with the same storytelling as well. Few have been able to articulate storytelling into rhymes the way Rick does, and he’s still doing as well as he ever has.
Joe Kay - If Not Now, Then When? - EP
Joe Kay is the DJ behind Soulection, an institution that introduces the world to some of the best R&B, soul, hip-hop, Afrobeats, and beyond. This project does its service in bringing the vibe of Soulection. Dope stuff.
Isaiah Falls - LVRS PARADISE (SIDE A)
Isaiah Falls is on his pimp shit with this one. Maybe folks remember Christión, the R&B group under Roc-A-Fella Records in the late 90s. I’m getting vibes of those cats on this. This album just feels like late-night creepin'.
🏆 Clipse - Let God Sort ‘Em Out
This is the first Clipse album since 2009’s Till the Casket Drops, which saw Pusha T and Malice separate to pursue solo careers. Push saw success under Kanye West (until Kanye ultimately pushed him away like Ye does to everyone), while Malice found God, changed his name to No Malice, and released some pretty good Christian rap.
Now, the duo is back with Pharrell on production. Clipse say the album was recorded over the course of two years as they wanted to finely craft everything with the project, and the effort pays off. From the sinister nature of the two lead singles “Ace Trumpets” & “So Be It”, to the intimate portrait of “The Birds Don’t Sing”, every detail was intricately crafted, from beats to bars. Easy pick for album of the week for me.
Durand Jones & The Indications - Flowers
Live instrumentation gets me every time. There are certain artists where I hear them and I’m like “yup, I’ll see them live!” because I know the music will feel just as good live as it does coming from the studio.
This is that sit on your porch and have a drink music. Good stuff.
That’s what I listened to this past week. If you have any suggestions for albums I should check out, feel free to shoot them my way in the ways you know how.