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Shatter the Standards

@thestandards.bsky.social
69 followers 2 following 1.6K posts

We are dedicated to celebrating milestones, unearthing lesser-known musical gems, and promoting discussions around albums and new music that might not receive ample attention in mainstream conversations. www.shatterthestandards.com

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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 2h
Timbaland’s first full album changed what R&B could sound like. Ginuwine’s debut just happened to be on top of it.
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Milestones: Ginuwine... The Bachelor by Ginuwine
Timbaland’s first full album changed what R&B could sound like. Ginuwine’s debut just happened to be on top of it.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 10h
Thirty-five years after four Good Life regulars passed it hand-to-hand on cassette, the debut that taught Los Angeles rap to sing is the source code for every melodic flow that followed.
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Milestones: To Whom It May Concern by Freestyle Fellowship
Thirty-five years after four Good Life regulars passed it hand-to-hand on cassette, the debut that taught Los Angeles rap to sing is the source code for every melodic flow that followed.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 19h
Freddie Jackson took a Harlem church tenor onto Black radio’s late shift and sang grown devotion in full command through the worst of the 1980s, a steadiness the canon has paid less for than collapse.
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Freddie Jackson Promised to Stay
Freddie Jackson took a Harlem church tenor onto Black radio’s late shift and sang grown devotion in full command through the worst of the 1980s, a steadiness the canon has paid less for than collapse.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Listen to new releases from The Paradox, Sipprell, Jamal Roberts, The Koreatown Oddity, Wakai, Errol Holden, Orla Rae, Sons of Sevilla, Nacho Picasso & TELEVANGEL, RYL0, Lala, Master Peace, and more.
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Wednesday Roundups #169: 25 New Projects You Should Listen to Now
Listen to new releases from The Paradox, Sipprell, Jamal Roberts, The Koreatown Oddity, Wakai, Errol Holden, Orla Rae, Sons of Sevilla, Nacho Picasso & TELEVANGEL, RYL0, Lala, Master Peace, and more.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
On their second EP, GAWD sings about money, sex, hair, and kneeling men as things already owed, a disco-bright case for Black women’s pleasure arriving before anyone asks whether it was earned.
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Good Ass Women Deserve More
On their second EP, GAWD sings about money, sex, hair, and kneeling men as things already owed, a disco-bright case for Black women’s pleasure arriving before anyone asks whether it was earned.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Hurricane Katrina scattered Dawn Richard out of New Orleans in 2005. As King Creole, she takes the city back by bragging about owning it, with her grief and her father’s funk riding under every boast.
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Album Review: creole culture by Dawn Richard
Hurricane Katrina scattered Dawn Richard out of New Orleans in 2005. As King Creole, she takes the city back by bragging about owning it, with her grief and her father’s funk riding under every boast.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Nacho Picasso keeps the character on the clock and stuffs its punchlines with a middle-aged man’s regrets, and the jokes come out meaner and sadder at once.
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Album Review: Stuntman by Nacho Picasso & TELEVANGEL
Nacho Picasso keeps the character on the clock and stuffs its punchlines with a middle-aged man’s regrets, and the jokes come out meaner and sadder at once.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Mickey Diamond raps about cocaine and God over Big Ghost Ltd’s cinematic soul, filing his confessions in a defense lawyer’s language and turning the paperwork into funny, damning coke rap.
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Album Review: B.I.L.L.Y. by Mickey Diamond & Big Ghost Ltd
Mickey Diamond raps about cocaine and God over Big Ghost Ltd’s cinematic soul, filing his confessions in a defense lawyer’s language and turning the paperwork into funny, damning coke rap.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Reunited with the producer of her debut, Meshell Ndegeocello builds country weepers, ‘70s soul, synth-pop, and grunge into one long case for queer love as everyday love.
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Album Review: Synonym by Meshell Ndegeocello
Reunited with the producer of her debut, Meshell Ndegeocello builds country weepers, ‘70s soul, synth-pop, and grunge into one long case for queer love as everyday love.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
From Igbo Landing to a slave freighter rebuilt in deep space to a Watts block, Black stories of flight belong to the people who stayed, and every escape in them keeps sending word home. Read over at Blackpolitan.
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What Flight Means When Staying Has Been Made Unbearable
From Igbo Landing to a slave freighter rebuilt in deep space to a Watts block, Black stories of flight belong to the people who stayed, and every escape in them keeps sending word home.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
After a mixtape that got him called the voice of his generation, Ceebo tells everyone praising his politics that he wants to be paid and turns that into a vicious, funny, self-implicating rap record.
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Album Review: Bloccstar by Ceebo
After a mixtape that got him called the voice of his generation, Ceebo tells everyone praising his politics that he wants to be paid and turns that into a vicious, funny, self-implicating rap record.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Backed by the same three Cologne jazz players, Rebekka Salomea writes vows about keeping her center and sings her own lapses into them, turning the language of self-care back into soul music.
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Album Review: axxxis by SALOMEA
Backed by the same three Cologne jazz players, Rebekka Salomea writes vows about keeping her center and sings her own lapses into them, turning the language of self-care back into soul music.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
As a hyperpop concept album, RYL0 sets the scripting rituals of manifestation culture to music and follows them to the sleepless counting on the other side, writing the wanting and the dread with wit.
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Album Review: 5T4RP0W3R by RYL0
As a hyperpop concept album, RYL0 sets the scripting rituals of manifestation culture to music and follows them to the sleepless counting on the other side, writing the wanting and the dread with wit.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Plus Victoria Monét’s filthy Brandy flip, Nao’s living-room hymn for D'Angelo, and Lucky Daye getting blocked on a trap phone. Read over at Soulpolitan.
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Stevie Wonder Was Sitting on This One for 50 Years
Plus Victoria Monét’s filthy Brandy flip, Nao’s living-room hymn for D'Angelo, and Lucky Daye getting blocked on a trap phone.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
A year after declaring his garden in full bloom, Kofi Stone goes back to the stem that came up last and names what held it back, from a judging church pew to a missed bus on date night.
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Album Review: The Last Flower to Bloom by Kofi Stone
A year after declaring his garden in full bloom, Kofi Stone goes back to the stem that came up last and names what held it back, from a judging church pew to a missed bus on date night.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
On a self-produced record built from grocery runs and bath time, the L.A. rapper and comedian makes his everyday life the proof of his worth, with jokes that carry every hard truth into the room.
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Album Review: Purdy by The Koreatown Oddity
On a self-produced record built from grocery runs and bath time, the L.A. rapper and comedian makes his everyday life the proof of his worth, with jokes that carry every hard truth into the room.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
On his first album after winning American Idol, Jamal Roberts turns his marriage, his daughters, and the home state he left behind into R&B only a church-raised father of three could have written.
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Album Review: The Journey by Jamal Roberts
On his first album after winning American Idol, Jamal Roberts turns his marriage, his daughters, and the home state he left behind into R&B only a church-raised father of three could have written.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
On a self-produced set of bedroom soul, Los Angeles singer DARLENE DARLING writes the city as a woman slow to call her back, and she owns up, with real wit, to being the one who keeps dialing.
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Album Review: California Is a State of Mind by DARLENE DARLING
On a self-produced set of bedroom soul, Los Angeles singer DARLENE DARLING writes the city as a woman slow to call her back, and she owns up, with real wit, to being the one who keeps dialing.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
With a soul album about getting free of people who hurt her, the South London singer and multi-instrumentalist goes after the voice they left running in her head and catches it blaming her first.
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Album Review: Message to the Sky by Sipprell
With a soul album about getting free of people who hurt her, the South London singer and multi-instrumentalist goes after the voice they left running in her head and catches it blaming her first.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The Murder Inc. assembly line was running at 361,000 copies a week, sixteen months before the FBI showed up. Ja Rule couldn’t hear the clock as Ashanti arrived, and JAŸ-Z had just lost the charts.
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Milestones: Pain Is Love by Ja Rule
The Murder Inc. assembly line was running at 361,000 copies a week, sixteen months before the FBI showed up. Ja Rule couldn’t hear the clock as Ashanti arrived, and JAŸ-Z had just lost the charts.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
As new albums and singles get constantly flooded into our radar, look no further than skimming through the release week of October 2nd. We know it can be a task, so let’s help you cut through.
shatterthestandards.com
New Music Drops: October 2, 2026
As new albums and singles get constantly flooded into our radar, look no further than skimming through the release week of October 2nd. We know it can be a task, so let’s help you cut through.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
With the help of Pharrell, Quavo raps inside a Paris fashion house’s orbit, hauling Atlanta’s strip clubs into the room and folding his grief into a few lines of a luxury-funded flex record.
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Album Review: Qrömelife by Quavo
With the help of Pharrell, Quavo raps inside a Paris fashion house’s orbit, hauling Atlanta’s strip clubs into the room and folding his grief into a few lines of a luxury-funded flex record.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
On her follow-up to a Grammy-winning breakthrough, the songwriter-turned-star takes love songs from Motown and late-‘90s R&B radio and turns their manners into frank, funny requests of her own.
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Album Review: Frequency of Love by Victoria Monét
On her follow-up to a Grammy-winning breakthrough, the songwriter-turned-star takes love songs from Motown and late-‘90s R&B radio and turns their manners into frank, funny requests of her own.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
A decade after his death and three years after the vault reopened, the sessions for Prince’s full-band grab for New Jack Radio are a record about money, contracts, and a war.
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Milestones: Diamonds and Pearls by Prince & The New Power Generation
A decade after his death and three years after the vault reopened, the sessions for Prince’s full-band grab for New Jack Radio are a record about money, contracts, and a war.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Talking in the shipping clerk’s jargon and the grower’s palate, Rockitneedspace and SURF GANG make the working life of California weed into rap that brags about getting the package there.
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Album Review: Next Day Air. by Rockitneedspace & SURF GANG
Talking in the shipping clerk’s jargon and the grower’s palate, Rockitneedspace and SURF GANG make the working life of California weed into rap that brags about getting the package there.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Returning to the South Side block where her father’s family lived, Lalah stakes her claim on Chicago through the bus rides, roller rinks, and long walks home of a Black childhood.
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Album Review: Made In Chicago by Lalah Hathaway
Returning to the South Side block where her father’s family lived, Lalah stakes her claim on Chicago through the bus rides, roller rinks, and long walks home of a Black childhood.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
From spiritual jazz and Afro-funk to rap radicals and grown-folks soul, the month turned grief, hope, and reinvention into some of 2026’s richest records.
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September 2026 Roundups: The Best Albums of the Month
From spiritual jazz and Afro-funk to rap radicals and grown-folks soul, the month turned grief, hope, and reinvention into some of 2026’s richest records.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Solange’s third album puts her mother’s voice before Sampha’s and Master P’s, after everyone else’s. Only a Knowles who had stopped trying to get picked could have made it.
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Milestones: A Seat at the Table by Solange
Solange’s third album puts her mother’s voice before Sampha’s and Master P’s, after everyone else’s. Only a Knowles who had stopped trying to get picked could have made it.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Listen to new releases from Dani Offline, Kiefer, Nippa, Jimetta Rose, Audrey Powne, LATASHÁ, Tamera, sunandmoon, ANTHNY, Astyn Turr, cinquemani, megiapa, Ekep Nkwelle, Ré Lxuise, ZADA, and more.
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Wednesday Roundups #168: 25 New Projects You Should Listen to Now
Listen to new releases from Dani Offline, Kiefer, Nippa, Jimetta Rose, Audrey Powne, LATASHÁ, Tamera, sunandmoon, ANTHNY, Astyn Turr, cinquemani, megiapa, Ekep Nkwelle, Ré Lxuise, ZADA, and more.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Back in the Tina Snow persona she built from Pimp C’s colder alias, Megan loads a verse-heavy freestyle with punchlines that go off twice, once as a joke and once as a demotion for every rival. Read over at Words Past da Margin.
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Deciphering Megan Thee Stallion’s “Tina Tuesday Freestyle”
Back in the Tina Snow persona she built from Pimp C’s colder alias, Megan loads a verse-heavy freestyle with punchlines that go off twice, once as a joke and once as a demotion for every rival.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The girl built to fix a sad man used to live in indie films. KYIEMA moves her onto a phone screen, hands her the repair job, and sings her breaking with a pop star’s nerve and a confessor’s candor.
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Album Review: MANICPIXIEDREAMGIRL by KYIEMA
The girl built to fix a sad man used to live in indie films. KYIEMA moves her onto a phone screen, hands her the repair job, and sings her breaking with a pop star’s nerve and a confessor’s candor.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
VITA opens OPIA with a vow to shield her children from what her parents passed down and then turns the same candor on what she does to the people she sleeps with.
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Album Review: OPIA by VITA
VITA opens OPIA with a vow to shield her children from what her parents passed down and then turns the same candor on what she does to the people she sleeps with.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
With two members of Jungle producing, Leon Bridges finally makes dance music, and the joy is real in the songs about one person on one night and hollow in the songs about happiness itself.
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Album Review: Happiness Anytime by Leon Bridges
With two members of Jungle producing, Leon Bridges finally makes dance music, and the joy is real in the songs about one person on one night and hollow in the songs about happiness itself.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The biggest soul band of the ‘70s named their boldest album after Charles Stepney.
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Milestones: Spirit by Earth, Wind & Fire
The biggest soul band of the ‘70s named their boldest album after Charles Stepney.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The hopes invested in Songs in the Key of Life were matched by the success of a monumental album that finally appeared at the end of the summer of 1976 and is one of the best albums ever recorded. Read over at Blackpolitan.
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Happiness in the Key of Life
The hopes invested in Songs in the Key of Life were matched by the success of a monumental album that finally appeared at the end of the summer of 1976 and is one of the best albums ever recorded.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The funniest rapper alive made an album where nothing is funny. Danny Brown wasn’t performing anymore.
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Milestones: Atrocity Exhibition by Danny Brown
The funniest rapper alive made an album where nothing is funny. Danny Brown wasn’t performing anymore.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Plus, Maeta wants her cake and to eat it too; Mai Anna stays on her colorway, and an EarthGang rapper writes a love song to a brain chemical. Read over at Soulpolitan.
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R&B for Bittersweet Sinners
Plus, Maeta wants her cake and to eat it too; Mai Anna stays on her colorway, and an EarthGang rapper writes a love song to a brain chemical.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
The Memphis crunk revivalist straps a homemade origin myth to his buck anthems, and the myth turns a party into a land claim.
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Album Review: AMERICA IS OURS by Duke Deuce
The Memphis crunk revivalist straps a homemade origin myth to his buck anthems, and the myth turns a party into a land claim.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Sandra St. Victor goes back into the soul songbook she came up in, her own included, and takes it for herself on a late-career record full of turned-around spirituals and grown-woman love songs.
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Album Review: Eleven by Sandra St. Victor
Sandra St. Victor goes back into the soul songbook she came up in, her own included, and takes it for herself on a late-career record full of turned-around spirituals and grown-woman love songs.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Hired for years as the good news for queer, Black, and immigrant listeners, Joy Oladokun writes hope as a weight she carries and puts the strain on the record where everyone can hear it.
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Album Review: Hope Is a Heavy Thing by Joy Oladokun
Hired for years as the good news for queer, Black, and immigrant listeners, Joy Oladokun writes hope as a weight she carries and puts the strain on the record where everyone can hear it.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
A worship leader since twelve, Nkwelle sings hymns and barroom blues from the same church-trained throat, and on her debut, she turns the church’s manners on a staring world with total conviction.
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Album Review: Caged Bird by Ekep Nkwelle
A worship leader since twelve, Nkwelle sings hymns and barroom blues from the same church-trained throat, and on her debut, she turns the church’s manners on a staring world with total conviction.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
On MettaSun, the Los Angeles choir leader answers war headlines with a spiritual-jazz escape story that keeps the bombs in the room with the singing.
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Album Review: MettaSun by Jimetta Rose
On MettaSun, the Los Angeles choir leader answers war headlines with a spiritual-jazz escape story that keeps the bombs in the room with the singing.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Our first-ever Shatter the Standards interview. The producer discusses New York, InsydeOut, creative discipline, and an upcoming EP built around his own writing and voice.
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Flwr Chyld Is Expanding the Definition of His Own Work
Our first-ever Shatter the Standards interview. The producer discusses New York, InsydeOut, creative discipline, and an upcoming EP built around his own writing and voice.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Given his first leader date, Kiefer puts rappers, singers, and a saxophonist in the horn chairs and leads the band from underneath, as the great hard-bop pianists did.
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Album Review: Memory Bomb by Kiefer
Given his first leader date, Kiefer puts rappers, singers, and a saxophonist in the horn chairs and leads the band from underneath, as the great hard-bop pianists did.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Back with a Detroit soul-sample producer for their second full-length, the Brooklyn rapper Skyzoo works back through what his comfort cost the people around him and writes their names into the verses.
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Album Review: Luxury Tax by Apollo Brown & Skyzoo
Back with a Detroit soul-sample producer for their second full-length, the Brooklyn rapper Skyzoo works back through what his comfort cost the people around him and writes their names into the verses.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Back from a retirement he announced after hearing loss, Tank leans heavily on his comeback album, still recycling his 2017 formula and pouring his best singing into interpolations of older soul hits.
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Album Review: EXPERIENCE by Tank
Back from a retirement he announced after hearing loss, Tank leans heavily on his comeback album, still recycling his 2017 formula and pouring his best singing into interpolations of older soul hits.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
As new albums and singles get constantly flooded into our radar, look no further than skimming through the release week of September 25th. We know it can be a task, so let’s help you cut through.
shatterthestandards.com
New Music Drops: September 25, 2026
As new albums and singles get constantly flooded into our radar, look no further than skimming through the release week of September 25th. We know it can be a task, so let’s help you cut through.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Jae Stephens learned pop in the replies of a Beyoncé fan blog, and her debut turns that voice on her own exes, gleefully and pettily and very funnily.
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Album Review: AUDACITY by Jae Stephens
Jae Stephens learned pop in the replies of a Beyoncé fan blog, and her debut turns that voice on her own exes, gleefully and pettily and very funnily.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Handed the crowd she waited a decade to reach, Tinashe throws it at a club night and lets the fear and fatigue of hosting run straight through the dance songs.
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Album Review: Popstar by Tinashe
Handed the crowd she waited a decade to reach, Tinashe throws it at a club night and lets the fear and fatigue of hosting run straight through the dance songs.
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Shatter the Standards @thestandards.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The third Roots album is bitter, disguised as a middle child between a jazz-rap debut and a crossover classic.
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Milestones: Illadelph Halflife by The Roots
The third Roots album is bitter, disguised as a middle child between a jazz-rap debut and a crossover classic.
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