Matthew Ritchie

Helio-Tropes

Matthew Ritchie is a music, culture and sports writer who is also a contributor at Pitchfork and has written stories for GQ, Chicago Reader, Rolling Stone, Passion of The Weiss, and others. In this episode we try our damndest to focus on one body of work and cannonball directly into Mach-Hommy's #RICHAXXHATIAN album which Matthew reviewed for Pitchfork. We talk about how an 8.0 is the "peoples champion" score even if it's not given the Best New Music championship belt. We break down why the title track is the most streamed song on the album and how streams aren't indicative of the qualitative factors that must be considered when it comes to Mach Hommie lore. Could this album have come out on the now defunct, storied Rawkus Records label? Definitely. are we talking Grammy album? possibly. Is the bar low in the 'real hip-hop alert' space? probably. We discuss. We also break down how Mach enlists the top dogs in this lane to deliver guest verses including features from Roc Marciano, Black Thought, Your Old Droog, The God Fahim and more. We tap into the urgency and revolutionary nature of the music fueled by pointed lyrics on the current social and political turmoil in Haiti. We conclude that it's totally fine to like what hasn't aged well like the 1989 cult classic Wrestling movie No Holds Barred. And before it's too late Matt gives us his top 5 songs of the moment, which turn out to be in the name of love (for the most part) with choice cuts from Ghostface, Crime Mob, Michael Urbaniak, and more.