RIFF’s best albums of 2024 include Kendrick Lamar, Billie Eilish, Magdalena Bay, Allie X, Kim Gordon, ScHoolboy Q, Kali Uchis, Adrianne Lenker, Knocked Loose and Clairo. If you haven’t read it yet, you should start at the beginning of our countdown. Caught up? Part two includes some big names…

Loki, courtesy Disney+ and Marvel. This probably won’t come as a shock to anyone who’s ever been within earshot of me or read anything I’ve ever written, but I’m a huge nerd. And, since I’m a huge nerd, it probably won’t come as a shock to anyone that I’m…

If you woke up in the Bay Area at some point last week you were probably greeted with dark red and orange skies as a result of the ongoing fires that are devastating the West Coast right now. People flocked to social media to share pictures of the hellscape,…

  Kanye West performs at the SAP Center in San Jose on Nov. 17, 2016. Photo: Paige K. Parsons Goodbye, 2017. It was great knowing you! Not really. Actually, 2017 sucked … except for the music; the music was great! Hello, 2018. It’s time to look forward to what is to come…

Cage the Elephant performs at Golden Gate Park at Outside Lands on Aug. 12, 2017. Photos: Alessio Neri It was not until I showed up at Golden Gate Park on Aug. 11 at 10 a.m. and walked the length of the Outside Lands Music Festival grounds that I fully grasped…

Wordplay, vulnerably, honest lyrics and aggressive bass lines lace Ab-Soul’s Do What Thou Wilt, creating a record that offers activism and personal reflection. As a member of the Los Angeles supergroup Black Hippy; which features other Top Dawg Entertainment artists like Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar and Schoolboy Q. Ab-Soul has carved…