A pall has been hanging over hip-hop this year: the ongoing criminalization of being a rapper looms large. The genre has faced over-policing and sensationalism before, dating back to the NYPD’s rap intelligence unit in 1999, but the scope of the crusade has expanded: lyrics continue to be treated like transcripts by the law, rappers are painted as crime lords …
The 22 Best Albums of 2022 So Far
The JME team picks the records that have made our year
We’ve written about a lot of music this year. More songs and records than we can count. We’ve listened to even more. Just a touch past the halfway point of 2022, the JME team decided to take stock of what we’ve heard so far. The resulting list — The 22 Best Albums of 2022 (So Far) — just scratches the …