Rodney Carmichael's Top 10 Albums of 2025
"Til you do right by me, everything you even think about gon' fail." —Miss Celie, The Color Purple
When news broke that rap got marked absent from the top 40 slots of Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart for the first time in 35 years, I knew there was a God. That was my first thought. My very next thought was that vexing hex Kendrick Lamar put on the industry just one year ago and how every word he spoke was coming to pass. "Watch the Party Die" almost felt like a misfire when dude dropped it just as the NFL announced him headliner of Superbowl LIX's halftime show.
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