The V Tape, Atlantics, and The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks
A featured article by Rachel Schonbaum and a podcast featuring an interview with rap group Armand Hammer.
Welcome to the fourteenth installation of The Q: your one-stop weekly newsletter of culture recommendations. Can’t find a platform where you can receive condensed, reliable, pop-culture content? Yeah, we can’t either.
Every Saturday morning in your inbox, you’ll find a featured article, an album, a film, a playlist, a book, a video, and something funny we found that week. Oh, and a Two Virgins podcast episode, where Sam and Teresa talk about a recommendation while drinking virgin drinks. We also invite a guest onto the show every week (that guest could be you!)
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Featured Article
2020 by Rachel Schonbaum
My grandfather died last summer. Unlike so many today who weren’t afforded the opportunity to be with their dying loved ones, I had a chance. Is there a non-cliche way to say I blew it? To say that I was so afraid, and that the easy momentum of busyness would carry me through the next few months. At the time, exuding false importance was much more appealing than watching him deteriorate. A man I held with so much regard that eventually we became strangers. I sat on the kitchen floor of his house one day petting my dog but really trying to listen in on a conversation he was having with my mom. “I don’t know anything about my granddaughter.” He knew I was sitting there.
Album
The V Tape by Vic Mensa
Vic Mensa is back rapping on The V Tape. It’s pretty much 26 straight minutes of bars and he has so much to get off his chest. Because of all the beefs, career switch-ups, and label changes, Vic has been through a lot and you can hear the emotion in his voice on every track.
Film
Atlantics directed by Mati Diop
French-Senegalese director Mati Diop’s Atlantics is equally haunting as it is mesmerizing. The film delicately portrays young love as something that is both phenomenal and fleeting. Atlantics takes place in Senegal and follows a 17-year old girl named Ada (Mame Bineta Sane), who is set to marry a rich man named Omar (Babacar Sylla). However, she is in love with Souleiman (Ibrahima Traore), a poor underpaid construction worker.
Book
The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks by Gwendolyn Brooks
Brooks writes with anger, sorrow, and hope. Capturing the Civil Rights era, there are mentions of Malcolm X and Black Power movements in Chicago. Of course, there are deeper connections Brooks makes, and the simplified moments become extravagant.
Playlist
Dalexis’ Old School Latin Bangers features Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, and Calle 13
Dalexis’ favorite track: Mi Corazoncito by Aventura
Description: “‘Old School Latin Bangers’ is a playlist dedicated to sparking those nostalgic memories within a Latin individual, anything from listening to mami’s and papi’s music in the car, to enjoying these jams at the carne asada, and everything in between. When quarantine hit, I started TikTok and eventually made videos featuring these songs in hopes of having the viewer’s mind go back to the good times.”
Follow Dalexis on Instagram and Tik Tok!
Podcast
Two Virgins Episode #14: Ginger Ale and an Interview with Armand Hammer
On this week's episode of Two Virgins, Sam, Teresa, and Malachi interview rap duo Armand Hammer over a cup of ginger ale. Armand Hammer is comprised of rappers billy woods and E L U C I D. Their recent album, Shrines, was met with widespread acclaim and is one of our favorite projects of the year. billy woods and E L U C I D discuss album covers, the process of making Shrines, and collaborating with different artists.
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