Mano Sundaresan

5 days ago | pitchfork.com | Mano Sundaresan

Kendrick Lamar and SZA have some of the biggest songs in the world. Kendrick played the Super Bowl after icing out the other biggest rapper in the world. SZA is the co-star of a hit movie, to go with her musical success. Their joint Grand National Tour, which began on April 20, feels like the next logical step toward world domination. But stadium tours are different—like touring on God mode—and, after years of arena shows, it’s the first time they’ve each played the country’s biggest venues.

5 days ago | yahoo.com | Mano Sundaresan

Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s Chemistry Shines on the Grand National Tour: Live ReviewFri, May 9, 2025 at 9:23 PM UTCKendrick Lamar and SZA have some of the biggest songs in the world. Kendrick played the Super Bowl after icing out the other biggest rapper in the world. SZA is the co-star of a hit movie, to go with her musical success. Their joint Grand National Tour, which began on April 20, feels like the next logical step toward world domination.

3 weeks ago | pitchfork.com | Mano Sundaresan

In the 2010s, Los Angeles churned out a kind of sultry alt-R&B influenced just as much by the sunny hooks of 2000s urban radio as the grooves of the city’s psychedelic beat scene—think early Anderson .Paak, the Internet, or Thundercat. “MTV’s Pimp My Ride,” by L.A.-by-way-of-Sacramento newcomer zayALLCAPS, sounds a little like something from this era of head-nod jams, with a beat manipulated by the scene’s defining piece of gear, the SP-404. It’s also a certified anthem.

3 weeks ago | pitchfork.com | Mano Sundaresan

You can draw a line from Pi’erre Bourne’s spacey, pixelated beats on Playboi Carti’s self-titled mixtape to countless production choices of the last half-decade. To name two: flansie and Skimayne’s synth storm on Yeat’s “Gët Busy” and OK’s bruising bassline on OsamaSon’s “Fool.” For a couple years in the late 2010s, Pi’erre was one of the most innovative producers in hip-hop, concocting pure ear candy by layering sugary electronic melodies and silly soundbites over locomotive 808s.

1 month ago | pitchfork.com | Mano Sundaresan

Nearly two years ago, at a listening party for Offset’s solo album SET IT OFF, the rapper previewed a song with Playboi Carti christened by the fan community as “Rock Out.” It’s pretty great. Carti goes in over a bouncy, conservative-for-him beat full of the bluesy melodrama you’d typically hear on Rylo Rodriguez tapes, gleefully rapping “rock out rock out rock out rock out” as a gun-reloading sound is spammed.