Music12/29/20Dec 29SaveMusic12/29/20MusicThe 10 Best Hip-Hop Tracks of 2020Dustin J. Seibert6The need to stay the hell apart from humans this year resulted in a sweeping halt on the production of movies,…
Music1/2/20Jan 2 20201Music1/2/20MusicWhy These 10 Hip-Hop Tracks From 2019 Have Us Hype for 2020Dustin J. Seibert10There’s quite a bit of hip-hop cooking in the kitchen for 2020, in terms of scheduled and rumored releases.…
Culture11/7/19Nov 7 2019SaveCulture11/7/19CultureIs Ray J. the Most Significant Black Entertainer of a Generation? No. But There Is a Case to Be MadeDustin J. Seibert24
Music8/28/19Aug 28 20193Music8/28/19MusicThe 15 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All TimeDustin J. Seibert99Hip-hop celebrated its 46th birthday on August 11. The anniversary of the genre’s unofficial yet widely accepted…
Music4/22/19Apr 22 20194Music4/22/19Music'Exhibit C' Is Almost 10 Years Old. Jay Electronica Has Completely Squandered His CareerDustin J. Seibert33Illmatic, my all-time favorite debut album and one of my top-five favorite hip-hop albums of all time, celebrated…
Mar 22 201913/22/19I Used to Reject Therapy. Now I Embrace It WholeheartedlyDustin J. Seibert34My relationship with therapy is, to say the least, old and complicated.
America. In Black.1/17/19Jan 17 20195America. In Black.1/17/19America. In Black.The Unbearable Blackness of BeingDustin J. Seibert9Shortly after I entered the world via Detroit’s now-shuttered Grace Hospital one summer day in 1981, I set upon what…
Year In Review12/26/18Dec 26 20181Year In Review12/26/18Year In ReviewThe 10 Best Hip-Hop Tracks of 2018Dustin J. Seibert17Just about every hip-hop critic and cognoscenti has had the same response about the amount of new music released in…
Mar 14 2018243/14/18We Need a New Category for Today’s Rap Music Because This Shit Ain’t Hip-HopDustin J. Seibert184Eleven years ago this month, I made the decision to get my first tattoo below my elbow—a piece covering my entire…
Jan 11 2018231/11/18The Wire, the Best Show in History, Ended 10 Years Ago and Changed TV ForeverDustin J. Seibert100HBO’s The Wire signed off a decade ago this coming March. Eclipsed in popularity by mainstream shows Sex and the City…
Jan 8 201861/8/18Mudbound and Other Films That Get Black Folks Pissed Off at White PeopleDustin J. Seibert8Over the holiday break, I finally got around to watching Netflix’s Mudbound, last year’s period drama by director…
Dec 20 2017712/20/17The Otis Effect: 7 Things That Were Never the Same After the Star LeftDustin J. Seibert35When Joe Budden didn’t report for his duties as co-host of Complex’s Everyday Struggle webcast this week, folks…
Nov 17 2017411/17/17All of Kanye West’s GOOD Fridays Tracks, RankedDustin J. Seibert20Seven years ago this month, we were all giddy with the hype and secrecy behind Kanye West’s upcoming fifth studio…
Nov 9 2017511/9/17Tame Impala’s Currents Is the Soundtrack to My Post-Divorce LifeDustin J. Seibert30This week at VSB, we’re running a series called Albums That Changed My Life in which different writers let you in on…
I Tried It11/7/17Nov 7 20173I Tried It11/7/17I Tried ItI Tried It: Notes From a Silent PartyDustin J. Seibert7Confession: I was absolutely thinking about pulling out of my first silent party an hour before I was to leave for…
Nov 1 2017211/1/17When Should Rappers Hang Up the Microphone?Dustin J. Seibert57When I was perusing the list of new-release albums from this past Oct. 13, it dawned on me after some time that…
Oct 19 2017610/19/17Is Infidelity Inevitable?Dustin J. Seibert165In 2009 a family friend I hadn’t seen since I was a kid came into Chicago for a work conference and took me out for…
Oct 5 2017810/5/17Rapsody and 8 Other Rap Cats You Should Be Listening ToDustin J. Seibert42North Carolina rapper Rapsody dropped her second full-length album, Laila’s Wisdom, on Sept. 22. It’s her first…
Sep 11 2017109/11/17Online Dating Apps, Rated for Your Black AssDustin J. Seibert124When I broke up with my college sweetheart in 2005, I was living and working as a newspaper reporter in God’s…
Aug 31 201758/31/178 Hip-Hop 1-Hit Wonders You Flat-Out Forgot AboutDustin J. Seibert154I’m calling it right now: “Bodak Yellow” will make Cardi B a one-hit wonder (Editor’s Note: I disagree with this…