This Week in Dulture…

Approx 5 minute read:

🛍️ The sands of time running out on shopping

🎤 Top 3 hiphop albums…meh

🕹️ The video game of the year

⚽️ Watching soccer just got fun

Dulture weekly mix

I used to go grocery shopping with AirPods in my ears so I didn’t have to listen to the store’s music nor worry about having to talk to anyone.

Get in and get out, that’s always been my motto.

This week’s mix may inspire you to go check out a grocery story with headphones on and shut out the world while you sniff cantaloupes trying to figure out if they’re fresh or not.

Maybe.

Who Had Heat in HipHop This Year

So I dunno, Rolling Stone has had questionable takes throughout the years.

Look no further than their top 500 albums or top 500 songs of all time - why the list changed when they didn’t adjust with new music but rather other older songs and albums, is beyond me.

They recently came out with their top 25 hiphop albums of 2025 and yeah, I don’t know what to make of this.

For all intensive purposes, we’ll just go through the top 3 but you can see the full list here.

At #3 - Earl Sweatshirt’s Live Laugh Love. 

This dude is one of my favourite rappers and has one of my favourite rap songs of all time - E. Coli … although this is an Alchemist track but who cares, it’s really Earl.

In fact Earl’s last album in 2023 with Alchemist, VOIR DIRE, might be his best one yet. Live Laugh Love had his typical melancholy flow but production was meh, and nothing really stood out for me.

Hardcore fans will puke all over me, I get it.

Hardcore fans loved TOURMALINE on the album so I guess go listen to that song if you want the vibe of the album. For a #3 album of 2025, I expected more, but then again wtf did we really get from hiphop this year anyway?

Rolling Stone’s #2 hiphop album was Music by Playboi Carti

I just…can’t get into this album. Am I too old for this album? LOL I could be, honestly. But Playboi Carti is like Travis Scott to me - crazy production and beats but like, no substance in a song.

I really wonder if this album would’ve gotten as much attention as it did if Kanye wasn’t lurking around Playboi Carti this year - or was it the other way around, who knows?

The top album was Let God Sort Em Out by the newly reunited Clipse.

Man, I used to love Clipse - early to mid 2000s, holyyyy, Clipse was so good.

And I guess I kinda still do. The Drake beef with Pusha T got me all weird in the past. There’s a lot of Pusha T that I once had on repeat but I believe in loyalty to where I’m from. Maybe I’m also corny af 🤷‍♂️ 

That said, this album was actually pretty good, I cannot sit here beside my Christmas tree and pretend to you that this album was trash - Pharrell produced this entire thing, I need not say more.

It was fun to listen to Malice and Push bounce off of each other in a very buttoned up album. They took this sh*t seriously and you can hear it.

Listen to Ace Trumpets - you’ll know exactly what I mean.

MY Video Game of the Year

I’d like to tell you that I have this vast amount of gaming experience across a multitude of various games this year but alas, I do not.

BUT - I think I recently purchased the game of the year.

Truthfully, up until last week, all I really have been playing is Super Smash Bros Universe.

No for real.

After beating our Final Fight arcade game with my 7 year old I got the itch to play more ‘beat em up’ style games so I purchased Marvel Cosmic Invasion and MAN, let me tell you about the GAME OF THE YEAR.

Firstly, you’ll pick this game up and be into it immediately. There’s nothing better than starting a game and feeling like you already know how to play.

Controls are what you expect from a beat em up game but the combo-ing system is so fun that you start to figure out what works best for your playing style as well as your character almost right away.

Speaking of characters, we (my kids and I) haven’t unlocked all of them yet but you get a boat load of classic Marvel characters and the fun part is you have to pick 2 characters to play. While you’re smashing sentinels in, you can switch between your 2 players or call them in for a couple automated quick attacks that you can pair up on with your teammate.

The fighting in the game is so much fun. There’s a combo system that keeps track of your current combo to see how many times in a row you hit someone without losing a life.

And then you have the ability to normal hit, special hit, special move hit, block/counter hit, double team hit, jump hit, fly hit, and running hit - what more can you ask for from a beat em up game.

If you’re a Marvel fan, you’ll love it simply because you get all the classic Marvel characters and motifs. But if you’re not and just want a fun game to smash stuff, I’d still recommend this, it’s just fun, in case I haven’t mentioned that yet 😆 

Footy Lovers Unite

If there’s one thing we can all agree on, although sports can be fun to watch, when they take a classic sport and flip it on its head, everyone’s gonna pay attention.

Enter Baller League.

When I used to play soccer competitively, indoor soccer was always so much more fun. Smaller field, smaller team, faster pace, and arguably more room for some creative goals.

This is what Baller League is:

• 6 vs 6 on an indoor pitch

• Mixing celebrities with pro players on the field, mainly UK celebrities acting as team managers

• 30 minute games

• “Gamechanger” rules in the final minutes - like 3v3 play, double-value long shots, or keepers restricted from using hands

• Constant scoring chances - the action just continues back and forth like a continuous basketball fast break
  

  

In a world where automation and AI are helping to give us more and more instant gratification, the Baller League sets up games so that you’ll never get the vibe that you’re watching a traditional 90 minute game.

The league originated in Germany and just started earlier this year in the UK. The US will see their version of the league next year - just in time for the World Cup I imagine.

If you’re a football (soccer) fan, you’re going to love watching Baller League.