Keith Nelson Jr is a writer by fate and a journalist by passion. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, he's written for REVOLT TV, Billboard, Vibe Magazine, Level Mag, BET and Okayplayer connecting the dots to form the bigger picture.
Here's a quick timeline of rapper Jack Harlow's 2020: "Whats Poppin" is released in January; the song is certified platinum in May; the remix with Lil Wayne, Tory Lanez and DaBaby helps the record skyrocket to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in June; his debut album That's What They All Say debuted in the Top 10 on the Billboard Top 200 in December. However, that's only the surface. Between…
Jeezy’s had enough. His latest album The Recession 2, the sequel to 2008's The Recession, wasn’t born from a marketing plan built off nostalgia for a franchise fans would recognize. It was conceived in Jeezy’s eyes, incubated in his soul and birthed through his mic after he watched Black people protest against police brutality in the summer. Ultimately, he felt an intrinsic obligation to help as he…
A great song is more an arrangement of human relationships than sounds. For the creators on the control room side of the glass, knowing your way around Pro Tools and an SSL mixing board is only part of what goes into making a hit – it comes down to people. On Sept. 24, the Recording Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing…
“If anything comes out of this quarantine, we’re going to have an album. We’re going to have a hit. Something is going to come out of it,” Evan LaRay Brunson, Cardi B’s longtime engineer, told GRAMMY.com. Four years ago, Cardi B was a long way from being taken seriously by the music world, and her engineer Evan LaRay Brunson helped…
Prescience is a luxury; acceptance is a necessity; progress is the goal. Stunned disbelief was the immediate aftershock of the Feb. 19 news of Brooklyn shooting star Pop Smoke’s untimely passing. Next, the sting of him turning into a memory may have weighed down people’s tear ducts into bursting. Then, the realizations: His woo growl will never escape the digital…
It's June 11, 2020, and Baby Rose is present. Not just in her apartment; not just on the phone with me; not just in her own skin. She’s present in the times that have bound the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. The public plundering of Black lives; the tears of crying souls taking shape as flames of burned businesses; the…
