Drew Hinshaw

Features

Out of Africa: Barack Obama in Pan-African Music

By Drew Hinshaw

While Barack Obama's candidacy has sparked new political interest within the United States, perhaps the best indication of his foreign policy advantage may be found in the music praising Obama coming from other countries around the world. [9 May 2008]

Soulja Boy: In Loco Parentis

By Drew Hinshaw

As the genre collects some long-term history, hip-hop is starting to suffer from an age-confusion issue, embodied nowhere better than in the self-made teen sensation Soulja Boy. [2 April 2008]

Deadly Packaging: The Cover Art of No Limit Records

By Drew Hinshaw

If any one visual movement did justice to the absurd, untenable profitability of that dot-com windfall, it was the striking art of No Limit Records, the apex and nadir of commercial hip-hop thuggery. [14 November 2007]

Reviews

Various Artists: 10 Years of Bling

By Drew Hinshaw

Somewhere in the world of Platonic Ideals, there's a fantastic Cash Money retrospective -- this just isn't it. [3 July 2008]

Lil’ Wayne: Tha Carter III

By Drew Hinshaw

Taken as conceptually provocative, anti-rational art, this is a monumental album full of powerful, self-defeating statements that obliterate rap's internal logic without offering too much more than indifferent bong logic in return. [20 June 2008]

Kingston Trio: Once Upon a Time

By Drew Hinshaw

Sun-bleached Californians who didn't have an Appalachian thought banging around their cube-shaped heads, they made good on the Hollywood Appropriation Myth, and rode Other People's Music up the escalator, towards the bank. [19 May 2008]

Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Klezmer Revival

By Drew Hinshaw

Fun, fast, seemingly flippant. What could it mean? [13 May 2008]

The Dream: Love/Hate

By Drew Hinshaw

Somewhere in the runaway life cycle of capitalism, empathy becomes the great need of the hour, and with that in mind, The-Dream has something few hitmakers can claim: a wide-angle lens. [8 April 2008]

Snoop Dogg: Ego Trippin’

By Drew Hinshaw

Ego Trippin' has more than a few moments where Snoop glides into the future, spicing and dicing a voice that heretofore was best served plain. [31 March 2008]

Times New Viking: Rip It Off

By Drew Hinshaw

A glowing example of how joyous and inclusive a theoretically repellent noise rock sound can be. [15 February 2008]

Kanye West: Alter Ego

By Drew Hinshaw

An opportunity for Kanye West the Self-Conscious Studio Artist to vent freely on Kanye West the Tabloid Creature.

Jack Peñate: Matinée

By Drew Hinshaw

An allegedly fun-spirited British singer-songwriter whose notion of eclecticism reduces every style his strumming-hand touches to value-neutral kitsch. [11 February 2008]

Ofori Amponsah: Odwo

By Drew Hinshaw

Amponsah's tenth record since 1999, is the duo's most consistent, economical and exciting to date. To Western ears, it's motion music, the soundtrack to an open-air road trip, full of promise and novelty. [1 February 2008]