The Fairly KickAss Podcast

Fairly KickAss

Three music fans work to bring you a ton of music-related content, with a new episode every Wednesday. We cover a wide range of topics, from monthly reviews to top 5 lists, from finding the best song in an artist's entire discography to deep dives throughout an artist's life and music. We hope you enjoy!

  1. 5d ago

    Fairly KickAss Podcast - Greatest Sh**s: Will Smith

    So as I was typing out the title of this here episode, instead of "Greatest Sh**s: Will Smith", my fingers accidentally typed "Greatest Sh**s: Will ASS" - including the caps. Actually, come to think of it, I'm not so sure that was accidental. Because... woof. This was one of the toughest episodes we've done, because this catalog is a cataSLOG. (that one was deliberate) Lemme set the scene for you: we look at every one of Will Smith's discography - both the DJ Jazzy Jeff years, and the solo years, which conveniently both total five studio albums a piece. We then pick the best song off of each album, in order to build a de-facto "greatest hits" album. But, arguably more than the previous iterations of this concept - Nickelback and Maroon 5 - the pickings were VERY slim. Thus, the "S" that gets tacked onto the beginning of "hits". You see it. you get it. There are some bangers, don't get us wrong - we talk about those tracks at length. And this is by no means meant to say anything of his illustrious acting career, which includes the lead role in one of the most popular sitcoms in TV history, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air; four Oscar noms, with one of those being a win for his role in King Richard; and Hitch, for reasons that remain unclear. What I'm saying is it's not all bad. And hopefully this episode does the topic the justice that it may or may not deserve, depending on how closely aligned you are with us on this discography. Which reminds me: how closely aligned are you with us? Let us know in all the usual ways: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fairlykickass.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/fairlykickass TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fairlykickass Threads: https://www.threads.net/@fairlykickass Website (for Ride-Along Playlists): https://fairlykickass.com/ Next week: SomeOnes! For real this time, because we apparently can't keep our own releases straight. We record a LOT of episodes ahead of time. Sue us. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Please don't sue us.] Three hosts, one year each. One #1 track from each year, on any chart. Chaos? I forgot, you’ll have to listen to find out. You’ll also have to Keep. Kicking. Ass.

  2. Aug 7

    Fairly KickAss Podcast - Monthly Reviews for July 2026

    OH GOD WE FORGOT TO DO THE MAY 5/12THS BITNow, logically, we could just, like, not do it. Ezpz. But, it’s like, a thing! And things are meant to be done!And, as fate would have it, this episode is for July reviews. The usual: top three albums for J, top three albums for Zack, and any number of newly-charting Billboard 100 singles for Dan. I can’t tell the Future, but I think there have been better months.BUT! July is the 7th month. And this is the 7th year that we’ve been doing this bit oh god it all aligns we’re stuck now here we go I guessTHE FAIRLY KICKASS UNOFFICIAL RANKING OF THE DUMB MAY REVIEWS BIT ENTRIES#7) May 2026. Nonexistent bit, and the actual write-up was also pretty subpar. Not one of the better months in the episode description game… we’re not proud of this one.#6) July 2026. This year has to take the cake, since it’s not even in the right month, right? I mean, it’s gonna be cool to see some of the dumb stuff this dumb bit has yielded over the years, but only because we needed to be bailed out.#5) May 2025. Technical difficulties led to losing the whole bit, and at this point I don’t even remember what it was supposed to be. It was in the correct month, at least, and it did get one reference to the 5/12ths mark of the episode runtime, so A+ for effort and D+ for execution I guess.#4) May 2024. We looked at 2021-2023 to revisit a bunch of entries, and then we spun them off… unchanged. It was basically like the filler clip show that your favorite TV program does from time to time, to stretch out the season juuuuuust a bit more. Or, for you Dragonball Z fans, it’s the majority of Dragonball Z. (Don’t @ me.) Fun walk down memory lane, sure, but I prefer that new-new. Also: does this mean that the bit just got progressively worse every year? Would it be a great bit if it didn’t age like raw meat? I suppose not. Let’s see if the trend continues.#3) May 2021. The first cut was the freshest of all of them of course, as the bit was pretty much fleshed out from the off. We listed various things, cut them into a 5/12th portion, and talked about them. A million dollars, a dozen bagels, a car, etc. But there was just a one-line description for each entry - which, while fun, left a bit to be desired. A great start nonetheless.#2) May 2023. We took the bit a step farther, found albums with 12 songs (not as hard as it sounds, a LOT of albums have 12 songs), and picked five of them. A pretty novel concept! This kinda-sorta became an episode type of its own, with our Greatest Sh**s episodes consisting of us taking one song per album in an artist’s discography. I do think there could be more in this vein though… more to come?#1) May 2022. If May 2021 was the gold standard, then May 2022 was the diamond standard. It’s what you want out of a bit: take the good idea, make it gooder. New entries on the list from what was used in 2021, and longer descriptions. Baseball games, companies, sandwiches. Good times were had by all. If this bit persists into 2027, and we all know it will, this will probably be the format moving forward.Honorary #1) A Platter of Tater Tots. It’s both awesome in a vacuum (because tater tots rule), and it’s a little easter egg. If you know about this little easter egg, or even if you don’t and just got to this point in the description, please give us a shout in all the usual ways below and let us know. I need to know if anyone actually reads this nonsense.Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fairlykickass.bsky.socialInstagram: https://instagram.com/fairlykickassTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fairlykickassThreads: https://www.threads.net/@fairlykickassWebsite (for Ride-Along Playlists): https://fairlykickass.com/Next week: SomeOnes! I spoiled it, and that’s fine. You had that owed to you from enduring the dumb bit. Three hosts, one year each. One #1 track from each year, on any chart.Chaos? I forgot, you’ll have to listen to find out. You’ll also have to Keep. Kicking. Ass.

  3. Jul 10

    Fairly KickAss Podcast - Vibes: Greatness vs. Popularity

    This is the part where we talk about what the episode is about. But what if we... can't? What if we have no earthly idea what to even say about it? Not because it's bad (which it isn't), or because it goes in a hundred different directions (which it... okay yeah it totally does that). But moreso that it's so meta in nature that to describe the thing would be to transcribe the whole episode. And who has time for that? What with all the 11 PM ravioli and Italian sausage that there is to consume? I'm not speaking from experience, YOU'RE speaking from exeprience. Anydangway, I'm gonna do my best here: we talk about songs that are popular, and songs that are great, and what sets each of those admittedly-vague concepts apart (and also what brings them together). How's THAT for a description? Bad? It's bad you say? Hmm. Well I can't really improve on it, so I guessssss you'll have to listen to the episode. Let us know what you thought about... whatever the hell it was... in all the usual ways: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fairlykickass.bsky.social Instagram: https://instagram.com/fairlykickass TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fairlykickass Threads: https://www.threads.net/@fairlykickass Website (for Ride-Along Playlists): https://fairlykickass.com/ Next week: we travel from West Philadelphia to Miami, with a quick stop-off in the Wild Wild West, as well as a soon-to-be extra-terrestrial-riddled New York City. (For real this time... we said that last week, but my wires were crossed, and they've since been uncrossed, so enjoy these free and clear wires for a change. Don't get used to it!) Join us for what ended up being a harrowing journey through a certain artist's discography. This week? Just one thing on the calendar: Keep. Kicking. Ass.

About

Three music fans work to bring you a ton of music-related content, with a new episode every Wednesday. We cover a wide range of topics, from monthly reviews to top 5 lists, from finding the best song in an artist's entire discography to deep dives throughout an artist's life and music. We hope you enjoy!