Short Fiction

“Neighborhood Bakery” (Joyland)

“Retriever” (Plotter)

“THE BULLET” (FIYAH)

Reporting

A Long Georgia Night (Oxford American)

Why Are Salad Greens Always Labeled Triple-Washed? (Slate)

Department of Comstockery (The Baffler)

Critical Failure (Hazlitt)

GOP Lawmakers Intensify Efforts to Ban Critical Race Theory in Schools (Stateline)

The Former Cop YouTuber Who Films the Inner City (The Atlantic)

How Words With Friends Became a Game About the Language of Everyday Life (Vice)

What the Rise of XXXTentacion Says About Being a Fan Today (Pitchfork)

What Defines a Coffee’s Terroir? (Slate)

The Long, Strange History of Street Fighter and Rap (Vice)

Reviews

Dead in Long Beach, California review (Washington Post)

Cowboy Carter review (The Nation)

I Killed Your Dog review (Pitchfork)

Sick! review (Rolling Stone)

The Vince Staples Show review (The Nation)

It's Only Me review (NPR Music)

Spoken Word: A Cultural History review (Poetry Foundation)

The Matrix Resurrections review (The Nation)

Out There Screaming review (The Atlantic)

Tical review (Pitchfork)

Rap Capital review (Bookforum)

Maps review (Pitchfork)

The Underground Railroad review (The Nation)

Natural Brown Prom Queen review (NPR Music)

Race After Technology review (The Nation)

The Employees and The Factory review (The Atlantic)

Black Software review (The Reboot)

Exhalation review (The Nation)

Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers review (Pitchfork)

A Gift & a Curse review (NPR Music)

Groove Theory review (Pitchfork)

Eve review (Rolling Stone)

The Closer review (The Nation)

Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood review (Spin)

We Cast a Shadow review (The Nation)

Vince Staples review (Vice)

Erotic Probiotic 2 review (Pitchfork)

Wonder Woman review (The Baffler)

Kamikaze review (Rolling Stone)

Donda review (GQ)

High Flying Bird review (The Nation)

KOD review (Complex)

Revival review (The Baffler)

Us review (The Baffler)

Some Rap Songs review (The Nation)

Guns review (The Nation)

Physics of Blackness review (Seven Scribes)

Essays

Chain Migration Used to Be a Benign Term. Not Anymore (New York Times Magazine)

After the [Kendrick Lamar v. Drake] Beef (Popula)

good kid, m.A.A.d City Turns 10 (Stereogum)

Why Do the Right Thing and “Fight the Power” Are Eternal (Pitchfork)

How New Orleans soldiered through struggle and gave rap its bounce (NPR Music)

The Magical Thinking Behind Gun Culture (New York Times Magazine)

The Legend of MF DOOM (The Nation)

The Erasure of Paper Boi is Atlanta’s Sharpest Joke (Pitchfork)

Revisiting Poetic Justice, a Coming-of-Age Moment for Janet Jackson (Pitchfork)

Seen and Blurred (The Believer)

Wild Speculation Isn’t Worth Much. A ‘Theory,’ However… (New York Times Magazine)

After Truth? (The Baffler)

Pink Siifu’s Sonic Gumbo (New York Times Magazine)

The Immortal Influence of Greg Tate (The Nation)

The Hate U Give and the Limits of Depicting Police Brutality (BuzzFeed)

The End of the Television Cop (The Atlantic)

How 2018 Marked a New Era of Trolling in Hip-Hop (Pitchfork)

The Essential Octavia Butler (New York Times Book Review)

The Other Side of a Smile (Catapult)

Can Your ‘Ally’ Want Things You Don’t? (New York Times Magazine)

The Labor Theory of Exercise (Model View Culture)

The best books that, low-key, are about revenge (Shepherd)

What’s Next for Marvel’s Cinematic Universe (The Ringer)

Why Rappers Love Elon Musk (Complex)

In Defense of Marvel’s MacGuffins (The Ringer)

Insecure Finds Security in Rap (Uproxx)