The Musik Lounge

As I contemplate what I’d like this column to be I can’t help but laugh at the fact that I’m sitting at work listening to Gucci Mane & Waka Flocka’s 2011 project Ferrari Boyz . This is amusing to me because I do meditation work at a rehab facility. Alas my ears wander. I’m not listening to this out of an incessant love for the project, rather out of the self serving desire to clean up my Apple Music library. The limits placed on one’s personal streaming library are rather absurd to me and as someone who tends to add, add, add and listen later I regularly max it out. So at some point I have to listen, listen, listen to even out and delete, delete, delete to open new sonic doors. This one will be a strong delete. Fall has come to the Pacific Northwest and as if on cue, the first day of fall was filled with gray, rain and chills. I’m not complaining, I’m one of those born and raised PNW natives who find enjoyment in our often criticized weather. I’m only talking about the weather to e...

Starlito was fresh off the DJ Burn One collaboration Renaissance Gangster when he released Mental Warfare . Where the former was a country rap tune classic meant for riding and smoking in the haze of a late southern summer, the later was ‘Lito delivering a masterpiece of modern conceptual rap - taking the listener through the mind of a hustler and the psychological toll a life in the trap can take. The album is separated by individual moments of captured intimacy with ‘Lito. Speaking genuinely and from the heart he sheds light on the moves he has made in the past and how he is navigating life at the time. It paint’s a positive picture of mental clarity, but not without plenty of missteps and questionable choices rooted in loyalty and a devotion to a strict inner code not to be tampered with regardless the test. “Hope For Love” opens the album as strong letter to whoever might be listening. Throughout his career Starlito has delivered biographical tales with ease. This is no diffe...