Àdá Irin and Song of Sage are albums paved by Navy Blue’s ties to spirituality. Ryan Gaur explores how, through glory on one album to despair on the next, Navy’s faith defines his worldview.
Epik High is Still Here
In a career-spanning retrospective, Elliot Sang charts the humble beginnings, huge achievements and glowing futures of essential Korean hip-hop trio Epik High.
Shadows of Tomorrow V: Zev Love X-ile & MF, The Supervillain
Every supervillain deserves a good origin story. After his fallout with Elektra Records, Daniel Dumile would disappear for a time to process his brother’s death and his slight at the hands of an industry he had given heart and soul. Years later he returned with a plan. If any villain has managed to mold the world in his image, it’s MF DOOM, the metal-faced adversary who broke out of NYC’s underground and achieved a kind of subterranean domination.
Shadows of Tomorrow IV: Ice-T, KMD & Hip-Hop Cops
Every supervillain deserves a good origin story. After the death of his brother, Daniel Dumile had a mission to complete KMD’s sophmore album, ‘Black Bastards,’ but following a wave of label-led censorship sparked by Ice-T’s “Cop Killer,” the album was shelved and Dumile dropped from Elektra Records. It was the last time Zev Love X would grace a mic.
Shadows of Tomorrow III: Long Live Kingilizwe
Every supervillain deserves a good origin story. Before he was DOOM he was Zev Love X. Hot off the KMD debut, ‘Mr. Hood,’ Zev and his brother Subroc were coming into their own. But, with their sophmore album in the cut, tragedy tragedy struck in 1993. This part three of our five part series.
Shadows of Tomorrow II: Positive Kauses and Constipated Monkeys
Every supervillain deserves a good origin story. Before he wore the mask, MF DOOM was Zev Love X. In part two of our series in memoriam to the metal-faced rhymer, the collectives that grew Zev’s artistry begin to break up and Zev and his brother Subroc go through changes.
Shadows of Tomorrow I: MF DOOM and the KMD Origin Story
Every supervillain deserves a good origin story and MF DOOM is no exception. In this five-part series in memoriam to the masked villain, we explore through first hand accounts the KMD days, the death of DJ Subroc and label controversy. This is what lead Daniel Dumile to don the mask.
Sounds That Kept Us Sane: The Albums That Got CentralSauce Through 2020
Rather than a list of our objectively “best” albums of 2020, CentralSauce would like to present you with something more personal. These are the albums that kept each one of our writers hanging on to their sanity throughout a particularly difficult year.
Man On the Moon III: The Chosen – What We Didn’t Realize We Wanted To Hear
Man On the Moon III from Kid Cudi was a tale of two halves for writers Ryan Gaur & Miki Hellerbach. Expectation, sonic taste and subconscious hope for a journey resulted in opposing sections of the project being what they didn’t realize they wanted to hear.
The KARD Context: How a Co-Ed Group is Pushing K-Pop’s Limits
For years, knowledgeable K-pop fans have considered KARD to be one of the industry’s most underrated groups. But why are they still so underrated? What makes their work stand out? And what lies ahead for the four-piece outfit?
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