The Week in Music Writing

All the best music writing, all in one place.

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Image via Complex Original
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There is as much good music writing now as there has ever been. There are gross inequalities in the system still, in who gets heard and who is silent. But more than ever, people are able to let their experiences and expressions be heard.

Thinkpieces, essays, reviews and features: the internet has overwhelmed us with writing. There's so much of it out there, and it's all so easy to lose perspective. The more our Facebook feeds tell us what's worth reading, the less likely we are to stumble across something outside of our worldview.

In an attempt to get a handle on all of the music writing out there, we've decided to put everyone up on the music writing we've enjoyed reading during the course of the week. If you've read something that we've missed, feel free to put it in the comments.

Written by David Drake (@somanyshrimp) and Henry Green (@jvathlete)

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Straight Outta Stankonia by Creative Loafing
Hip-hop is an art form that often celebrates the local details and particularities of where it's created. These places can gain mythic stature through the music. The crew of Creative Loafing Atlanta put together a guided tour of OutKast's Atlanta, highlighting the sights and spaces that framed some of the best music in hip-hop history. —David Drake

Fuck You, I'm From Texas by Kyle Kramer for Noisey
Occasional Complex contributor Kyle Kramer spent his spring break at SXSW interviewing Texas rappers in an effort to discover the obstacles preventing national attention in a lengthy piece for Noisey. Should Doughbeezy and Propain be national stars, and what's keeping them from reaching that point? —David Drake

How I Learned To Love the Outkast Reunion by Naomi Zeichner for Buzzfeed
In this article, Naomi Zeichner writes about growing up loving OutKast, and her conflicting emotions about seeing them play to audiences who don't know them in the same way. She describes the feelings all OutKast fans must have about this tour: the anxiety of seeing Big Boi and Dre performing for people who might not get it mixed with the pure happiness of seeing them working together. Bonus points to Zeichner for shouting out the slept-on Outkast classic "In Due Time," which as a result of this article will probably soundtrack my weekend. —Henry Green

I Am... Revisited: Searching for Nas' Lost Classic by Craig Jenkins on his Tumblr
Anyone following hip-hop in the late 1990s, around the dawn of Napster, will recall the clusterfuck that was the release of Nas' I Am... sessions. Leaked and bootlegged heavily, the final release is widely considered a compromised version, and while some songs would end up dropping later on with The Lost Tapes, others would never get official release. Complex contributor Craig Jenkins does a nice job putting together an alternate universe version of the original...although let's be honest, "You Won't See Me Tonight" deserves more love. —David Drake

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