Pardon the delay, but have you looked out the window lately? It’s been a rough couple months, but the last few weeks have been especially challenging. Recent events have pulled back the hood on an ugly truth in the U.S., a truth that has festered for far too long. I don’t have a soap box to stand on here, and frankly, I’m still trying how to put my feelings into words.

That being said, I urge you to listen to this Joey Bada$$ album “ALL-AMERIKKAN BADA$$” from 2017. Every track rings remarkably clear—3 years later. In actuality, hip hop has been one of the best documenters of racial inequality in the U.S. dating back to the beginning of the genre. Public Enemy, Ice Cube, Outkast, and countless others have been putting out reality bombs for decades, and all—for all the wrong reasons—are timeless. Listen to “Slump” by Outkast and see what’s changed. Not a whole lot.

Joey Bada$$ has an entire album of those tracks, and each one is worth a play right now. It’s up to us to make sure these tracks seem antiquated to the next generation, but for now it’s time to listen.