A definitive, very objective list of the best albums of the past year DISCLAIMER: I am aware that there is a strong contingent of Taylor Swift fans at Osgoode—the omission of Midnights from this list is solely because I have not listened to it yet (please forgive me). Renaissance – Beyonce I’ve hinted about my unabashed love for this album throughout previous Obiter articles, so regular...
A selection of songs that I’ve been listening to recently by Black artists “Bikini Bottom” – Ice Spice: Unless you’ve been hiding out in a hyperbaric chamber for the past couple of months, you know who Ice Spice is. The queen of New York drill has been the focal point, for better or worse, of a great deal of attention online, primarily for her uber-catchy, male-deriding hit “Munch...
A selection of songs that I’ve been listening to recently by Black artists “Satellites” – Rayvn Lenae: I’ve waited for years (!!!) for Rayvn Lenae to release a full-length project, and in May of this year, my prayers were answered. Following up on 2018’s magnetic Crush EP, Hypnos is an ethereal vibe, a dense, lovelorn project that will transport you to a higher level of existence. With...
A half-hearted attempt at conjuring the lore of The Last Dance, The Captain falls short of the standard set by its predecessor ESPN’s The Last Dance miniseries was a cultural touchpoint like no other. When all professional sports were on indefinite pause at the height of the pandemic, all that was left was the greatest basketball player of all time, reflecting on his vindictive triumphs. It...
A masterclass in absurdity, The Rehearsal is Nathan For You on BALCO steroids, spoilers ahead There’s no denying the ubiquity of reality television at this point in time. Every conceivable industry or sphere of work has an accompanying documentary crew and dedicated fanbase committed to turning regular people into celebrities. As someone who enjoys reality television fairly regularly despite its...
As the NFL continues to co-opt the symbols of the Black Lives Matter Movement, Black head coaches are pushed to the margins. Like most public-facing institutions in the summer of 2020, the National Football League faced a considerable amount of public scrutiny. In order to placate rising external demand for some sort of expression of Black solidarity on the part of the league, the NFL’s...
Why we ought to give the future HOFer his flowers while he is still here As the adage goes, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. For a brief moment in time, Raptors fans were given no choice but to stare into the unknown and envision a world without Kyle Lowry. The whirlwind of a nine-game losing streak, talks of a rebuild in the media, and rumours of a frugal real estate transaction...
Rediscovering Janet Jackson’s 1997 release in a post-Timberlake apology world As someone born in 1998, I was far too young to have any vivid memories of the 2004 Super Bowl (yes, Tom Brady and the Patriots won that one too), the halftime wardrobe malfunction, or the immediate panic that it sparked. However, the subsequent cultural framings of the event have lasted throughout my childhood, and...
Why the right decision is seldom well-received in the NFL In their penultimate game of the 2020 season, Philadelphia Eagles’ (now former) head coach Doug Pederson made a decision that nearly sparked a revolt amongst the Eagles’ roster, cost the New York Giants a playoff spot, and left the NFL community at large in a state of moral panic. The decision under trial was the choice to bench emerging...
A Non-Exhaustive List of 2020’s Best Projects from Black Artists Lianne La Havas – Lianne La Havas A heart-wrenching tour de force, the third studio album from UK singer-songwriter Lianne La Havas is easily her best. This self-titled project is a concept album about the culmination of a long-term relationship and documents Lianne’s efforts to grapple with feelings of loneliness, sadness...
Why Solange’s 2016 release carries weight today To paraphrase James Baldwin, to be Black and conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time, and if there was an apt time for such an expression to ring true, it would be today. 2020 has been a uniquely difficult time to be Black. From being inundated with reminders of our own mortality, to losing widely revered figures who had an integral role in...
Three Important Storylines from the NBA Bubble To help mitigate the risks associated with COVID-19, the NBA and the NBPA agreed to complete the 2019-2020 season in isolation at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Inside what is colloquially called the NBA Bubble, players were separated from their families for months, subjected to frequent tests and required to wear contact tracing rings and...