Taylor Swift, courtesy: Beth Garrabrant. Way, way back in 2018, long before the sickness came, I had the crazy idea to list my five (or so) songs of every year from 1967 to the then-present day of 2018. Amazingly, I actually did it. It was a lot of years…

Our list of the 20 best hip-hop albums of 2019 includes Megan Thee Stallion, Big Sean, Backxwash, Dizzee Rascal, Busta Rhymes, Aminé, Bambu, Nas, Public Enemy, R.A. the Rugged Man, Benny the Butcher, Eminem, Logic, Homeboy Sandman, Royce da 5’9″, Aesop Rock, clipping., Black Thought, Run the Jewels and…

The best albums of 2020 include (clockwise from top left): Fiona Apple, Doves, Run The Jewels, Thurston Moore, Fantastic Negrito, Jónsi, Code Orange, Hayley Williams and Tame Impala. And so, we’ve arrived at the end of this countdown of the best 75 albums of 2020. If you haven’t yet,…

Spotify Wrapped 2020, courtesy: Spotify. It’s Spotify Wrapped time again! Every year around this time Spotify users reap one of the few the benefits of the technodystopian digital panopticon we find ourselves living in when Spotify tells us what genres, artists, and songs we listened to most over the…

Run The Jewels perform at the Oracle Arena in Oakland on March 13, 2018. Alessio Neri/STAFF. We’re in week… nine of RIFF Rewind’s Black History Month? I think this is the ninth. Wait here for a second and I’ll check. Yes, it appears we’re entering Month Three of Black…

Duo Killer Mike and El-P have maintained a spotlight in hip-hop since they formed Run The Jewels in 2013. Both started as underground icons who shot to superstardom with their self titled debut. Seven years later and three albums strong, they have continued to set the standard for hardcore, political…

Under that moniker DJ Shadow, Joshua Paul Davis in 1996 gave sample-based music one of its first hit albums with Endtroducing. He transcended the established norms of ‘90s hip-hop by incorporating elements of ambient music, electronica and “sampledelia.” Davis found more common ground with U.K. trip-hop than West Coast G-funk—which might…

Photos: Alessio Neri OAKLAND — When Lorde returned to the Bay Area Tuesday, at Oracle Arena; it was possibly not her biggest local crowd draw. That may have come when she played the sunset slot at last year’s Outside Lands. Nor was it her first time playing the basketball…

Photos: Jason Demetillo SAN JOSE — A rambunctious army of Run the Jewels fans gathered at City National Civic for the first of two Bay Area shows Thursday night ready to let out their anger and other built-up volatile emotions, and El-P and Killer Mike did not disappoint as they unleashed pandemonium shortly…