Miles into honing his craft and paying his dues, Josh Levi’s full-length debut Hydraulic  is a star-making vehicle for the Houstonian. When he opens the album over cybernated synths, testifying, “This ain’t my first rodeo,” the metaphor extends beyond romance. You can almost glimpse the roads he’s traveled to arrive at this moment in his flexible tenor. By the time cultural tastemaker and everyone’s favorite awkward Black girl, Issa Rae, signed Levi to Raedio (with distributi

In a 1995 review of Daydream , Vibe magazine wrote , “[Mariah Carey's] songs aren’t ones you’d make love to, give birth to, or more important, barbecue to. Hers are songs you’d take a shower to.”  First, I’d like to ask, what are “Emotions”, “Dreamlover”, and “Fantasy”, if not summery cookout jams? And secondly, Here For It All ( and her catalogue throughout the years) are full of anthems and hits you’d fall in love to, breakup to, praise God to, and more importantly, outlast

Toronto has given us the embattled but undeniable hitmaker Drake, the controversial Daniel Caesar, and perhaps its most underrated gem,...