Israel Daramola

Israel Daramola

Critic and Writer. Israel has written reviews, features, interviews, scripts, and ads for a number of outlets and companies.

Prior Work
Newsletter
  • About
  • Kilo Kish and When Music Is Therapy

    The best art is borne out of honesty. Whether that honesty manifests itself in an abstract expression or a concrete but indirect performance, art that is true to who the artist is is the more pure manifestation. It’s what drove me to become a writer: an aching need from a young age to find the […]

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    Israel Daramola

    March 20, 2016
    Uncategorized
    anxiety, depression, kilo kish, music, reflections in real time, self care
  • Dancing: An Explainer

    Let’s first discuss what dancing is: Wikipedia says that dance is a performance art form consisting of purposefully selected sequences of human movement. This movement has aesthetic and symbolic value, and is acknowledged as dance by performers and observers within a particular culture. Seems simple enough, dancing is expression using the human body, often times reflective […]

    Israel Daramola

    February 29, 2016
    Uncategorized
    dancehall, drake, music, rihanna
  • Losing Your Loved One To Drugs

    I didn’t appreciate A$AP Yams while he was alive. I wish I had. I wish I could pretend I stanned for his tumblr and that he became my internet guru like a number of kids who showed up to Yams day in NYC on MLK Monday (a full year after his death) or the ones […]

    Israel Daramola

    January 22, 2016
    opinion piece
    addiction, asap yams, depression, drug abuse, drugs, family, personal essay
  • Sounds Of Blackness: The Year In Rap

    At the End of The Sellout, Paul Beatty’s merciless satire of the intersection between black culture and America, there’s a moment when the main character stands up in a room full of other black people and poses the question: what exactly is “our” thing?” For much of 2015 we’ve seen a surplus of rappers grapple […]

    Israel Daramola

    December 13, 2015
    music, Uncategorized
    drake, earl sweatshirt, Future, hip-hop, kendrick lamar, music, rap, vince staples
  • But What Did It All Mean

    As a millennial, excuse me Willennial, I have been a fan of Shia Labeouf since he was on the Disney Channel series Even Stevens. Back then, Shia was all spastic, silly ball of energy in a show that was weird, crass and always funny. I wanted a friend like Louis and, because I was a […]

    Israel Daramola

    November 18, 2015
    opinion piece
    #allmymovies, celebrity, film, performance art, shia labeouf
  • In Defense Of Twitter’s New Like Button

    Twitter killed its fave feature and joined the ranks of instagram and facebook in utilizing “likes”. So now, what was once a star is now a little heart and because the internet is deathly afraid of change, people were not happy. I get it. Things that are new are scary. Starring tweets was comforting: like when […]

    Israel Daramola

    November 5, 2015
    Uncategorized
    fave, heart emoji, likes, social media, twitter
  • The Type of Fame That Ruins Lives

    Anthropologists talk about this idea of observers unduly influencing the subjects they observe. A child might behave differently if their parents are in the room with them. I might behave differently at Popeyes if there are judgmental white people around and any given person may act differently if they know they’re on TV. Deep down, […]

    Israel Daramola

    October 20, 2015
    Uncategorized
    2014, 2015, 24 hour news, entertainment, hbo, pamela smart, social media, trial of the century, twitter
  • Cover Boy: Ryan Adams’ “1989”

    Ryan Adams released his promised remake of Taylor Swift’s 1989 this week. It’s a quiet, incredibly thought-out reinterpretation that feels as full of reverence for the original as nostalgia of the time period that album title refers. It’s also kind of a dadzbop record; an album that will appeal to people who don’t want to […]

    Israel Daramola

    September 28, 2015
    Uncategorized
    1989, 2015, internet writing is ridiculous, music, ryan adams, taylor swift
  • Papal Weapon

    The pope is in Washington, D.C. at the time of writing this. The streets of DC are chaotic, packed and noisy. The metro is a warzone where nobody can reasonably hope to make it to the other side unscathed. There’s also a baseball game later today and just the general aggravation of working in the […]

    Israel Daramola

    September 23, 2015
    Movies
  • The Ultimate Song Power Rankings For What A Time To Be Alive

    Drake and Future have been teasing the idea of a joint mixtape for awhile but, like any promise of a joint tape, it was mostly disregarded as a fan service-y tease. Then it was announced that there was indeed a record that had been put together that was expected to be released soon. Despite this, […]

    Israel Daramola

    September 21, 2015
    Uncategorized
    2015, apple music, drake, fbg, Future, music, new, ovo, rap, WATTBA
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About the Blog

Portfolio and blog for Israel Daramola. Check out my work and writing. You can reach me at iodaramola@gmail.com

Popular Posts

  • Some Stray Thoughts on WatchmenOctober 21, 2019
  • Good Things About the NBA This YearOctober 16, 2018
  • This Is Fine podcast: episode 1July 10, 2017

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