Paul Thompson

Los Angeles

Senior Editor at Los Angeles Review of Books

Contributing Writer at Pitchfork

all the critics love u in new york // senior editor at the los angeles review of books

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Articles

Warfare Review: Bad Memories

1 week ago | pitchfork.com | Paul Thompson

Few real-world events have served as more durable prisms for American art than the Vietnam War.
Warfare Review: Bad Memories

1 week ago | yahoo.com | Paul Thompson

Illustration by Chris Panicker, photos courtesy of A24Few real-world events have served as more durable prisms for American art than the Vietnam War.
Barter 6 Is 2015's Most Paranoid, Virtuosic And Best Rap Record

1 week ago | passionweiss.com | Paul Thompson

Paul Thompson is running through the 323 with Yak GottiYoung Thug’s world is elastic. On his brooding Barter 6, the cartoon excess snaps back to unnerving realism, Birdman’s coupe back to the final song’s jail cell.
The Best and Worst of Coachella 2025

1 week ago | pitchfork.com | Paul Thompson

It was Sunday evening and BigXthaPlug’s mic was too low. As soon as the Dallas rapper ambled onstage, shirtless and glowering like a henchman in a children’s movie, it was clear that the mixing board was not exactly prepared for him. A deadened vocal track posed a particular problem in this case, as his crowd spilled out in three directions from an already overstuffed Gobi tent.
The Best and Worst of Coachella 2025

1 week ago | yahoo.com | Paul Thompson

It was Sunday evening and BigXthaPlug’s mic was too low. As soon as the Dallas rapper ambled onstage, shirtless and glowering like a henchman in a children’s movie, it was clear that the mixing board was not exactly prepared for him. A deadened vocal track posed a particular problem in this case, as his crowd spilled out in three directions from an already overstuffed Gobi tent.
Madvillain / Madlib / MF DOOM: Madvillainy Demos

2 months ago | pitchfork.com | Paul Thompson

In early 2002, in a rented house in Northeast Los Angeles—one whose 1950s bomb shelter with 18-inch concrete walls had been refitted as a studio space—Madlib and MF DOOM began working, quickly and with little forethought or even communication, on what would become Madvillainy.
Bossman Dlow: Dlow Curry

Jan 17, 2025 | pitchfork.com | Paul Thompson

On Bossman Dlow’s breakout hit, he couldn’t help but lie. “I’m driving the Bentley Bentayga like I don’t love my life,” he boasted on “Get in With Me,” which would eventually be included on last spring’s freewheeling Mr Beat the Road. An evocative image, but a preposterous one coming from someone who frequently sounds like the happiest rapper on the Earth.
MF DOOM: MM..FOOD (20th Anniversary Edition)

Nov 20, 2024 | pitchfork.com | Paul Thompson

Every couple of years I return to my favorite video on YouTube: a seven-minute clip of the rapper then known as Mos Def holding court in a studio, eliciting gasps and laughter from an unseen audience by reciting MF DOOM lyrics. This is all a capella; sometimes he adopts DOOM’s meter to emphasize its fine-watch precision, but more often, Mos breaks the spell and draws out the ends of lines as if he’s in utter disbelief: “Read the signs: ‘No Feeding the Baboons’???” he says, incredulously.
Young Slo-Be: Slo-Be Bryant 4

Nov 12, 2024 | pitchfork.com | Paul Thompson

The Young Slo-Be song that I’ve returned to most over the past three summers is “Don’t Kome 2 My Funeral,” the final track on 2022’s Southeast. In many ways, it’s typical of the Stockton rapper’s style: conspiratorial and insinuating, but dotted with bursts of exuberance. During his brief career, Slo-Be had already come to represent a new strain of California rap—a mutation of what Drakeo the Ruler et al.
Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” Could Become First Diss Song to Win Grammy for Song of the Year

Nov 8, 2024 | okayplayer.com | Paul Thompson |Walden Green |Jazz Monroe |Peter Berry

Did any song make as big an impact as Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” in 2024? From its being incorporated into various political campaign messages to its being spread all over TikTok, the Drake diss was everywhere. So then, it should be no surprise it’s been nominated for one of the most prestigious Grammy Awards out there.