I’ve gotten some inquiries, since my return, as to why I don’t cover more recent music. Submissions are a different story, because I just don’t have time to do that anymore. But when it comes to recent drops, there’s another, less-personal, reason. Simply put, it’s damned depressing how many sites that host music have become musical dirt sheets. Dirt sheets, for the non-wrestling fans, are essentially gossip sites that break kayfabe (expose the business) and rely on rumors, gossip, controversy and clickbait instead of keeping things strictly related to the on-screen stuff. Think TMZ and other more-invasive sites that provide access to famous people that maybe we shouldn’t have, especially as consumers of their creative output.

Now, that’s not to say that we should bury our heads in the sand when it comes to the foolishness that goes on in music. We need to talk about the Sean Combs and those type of “people,” lest we repeat the same stuff over and over with different artists. We need to put the fire to artists who are indifferent about Donald Trump using their music, as indifference is sometimes worse than straight-up acceptance. I’m not saying avoid truths. I’m just tired of going to music sites and seeing the music take the furthest of backseats to gossip, beef, and things that don’t really have anything to do with music.

Maybe I’m old, but if I’m on a music site, I personally prefer to read about music. Big surprise, right? Honestly, who cares what rapper is dating what influencer? Is that influencer affecting the rapper’s ability to make music? Are they causing the rapper to reevaluate their output? If not, who the rapper chooses to sleep with (or allegedly sleep with) matters not to me. It shouldn’t matter to you, the reader, either. However, I’m not here to chastise the people who consume the media.

It doesn’t help that some of these hip-hop sites and accounts aren’t actually ran by Black people. You can get into the “they’re trying to keep us ignorant” argument and, while you’d have a point, that’s not the whole story. It’s less about “ignorance” and more about engagement. Rap media is less about the music now and more about how many clicks you can amass on a post. That’s why you’ve got these sites posting about things that have nothing to do with music and posting, for the lack of a better word, crap. Add in people’s natural curiosity and you’ve got sites that started out as music sites becoming what they’ve become.

I like money, too. Don’t get me wrong. If someone wants to pay me to write, or make music, or whatever? Shoot, I say “let them.” But when I started SOTB, it wasn’t about the money, it was about the music. And the one time I tried to make it about the money, I ended up almost destroying what I created. To avoid that again, I stay away from most “recent” music and instead focus on my wealth of knowledge of older releases. In the words of Big KRIT, it’s better that way. I don’t have to bombard people with other unrelated-to-music music-adjacent stuff and you all don’t have to read it.

Simply put, if you’re looking for the new-new ish, you’ll probably not find it here. Sorry. I’d rather provide an alternative and not talk about, say, the new Drake or whomever.