Mixtape hip-hop is starting to get old. Most of the people putting out mixtapes don’t realize that these de facto compilation albums used to be tools of the trade for DJs only. So it’s good to see real mix-masters like the folks at Feel Good Entertainment come out swinging on…
It’s no secret that within Broward County’s reggae clubs, dancehall rules the scene. Tunes by Mr. Vegas and Bounty Killer can be heard on a nightly basis, and there’s no shortage of topnotch selectors spinning the newest 45s straight from Jamaica. But what about the roots crowd? Older heads are…
Sometimes, if you look hard enough, you can find beauty in the cruelty of life. These days, Boca Raton-based DJ and director of Miami’s Scratch Academy Jamie Keogh, AKA DJ Immortal, is learning that lesson on a daily basis. It’s been only a few months since he got a phone…
The music industry is generally not too kind to butch black women. They’ve got two strikes against them from the start, and that third pitch headed toward home plate is a nasty curveball lathered in spit and Vaseline. Although plenty of artists may shy away from the challenge, Tampa hip-hop…
There’s something rather, uh, funky about neo-Eastern European music. Not funky in a Clyde Stubberfield-backing-up-James Brown kind of way, but then again, when you combine a Slavic blend of accordion, tuba, darabouka, and clarinet with the trombone, it’s hard not to smell the funk in the air no matter what…
Imagine a planet where two of your favorite artists from various genres are constantly smashed together on one track. Rick James and Busta Rhymes. Sean Paul and the Temptations. Arrested Development and Jay-Z, for Christ’s sake. It’s an odd world, but Brooklyn’s funky DJ collective the Rub pulls it off…
Sometimes, blues music sounds better coming out of a woman’s mouth. The sultry lyrics and hard-knock lifestyle just have a more poignant ring to them when a woman is belting them out — and it’s almost guaranteed that they’ve lived through everything they’re singing about. Anyone who feels the same…
Riviera Beach could learn a thing or two about hospitality. The city recently hosted BET’s Spring Bling ’07 — its own version of MTV’s televised spring break debauchery, only with a lot more color — and seemed terrified of the urban crowd that showed up. The three-day event featured hip-pop…
Detroit rappers/producers are entering an age of acclaim. Now that late Motown rapper/producer extraordinaire J Dilla is getting posthumous props all over the globe, the rap world seems hungry for anything with an authentic Detroit sound. It’s a fine time for former in-house Slum Village producer Black Milk to release…
Supergroups seem to be the new “in” thing these days. Everyone from Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction fame to Damon Albarn is putting them together, but none of those supergroups has anything on old-time indie outfit G3, comprised of Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert, and John Petrucci. Who? you ask. Don’t…
Well, folks, it’s finally over. I’m hoarse from screaming, exhausted from 96 hours of straight partying at South by Southwest, still desperately hungover yet rejuvenated beyond my own expectations about music as a whole. We all know the music industry isn’t exactly putting out quality material these days, and between…
The indie hip-hop movement bubbling up out of Miami is gaining ground on its mainstream opposition, not only because its beats and rhymes are tight but also because it’s learning to break all of the right rules. Take homegrown record label Hoverock, which has released the Kill Ugly Remix —…
Afrobeat is an often imitated music form, but few bands approach it with the respect and creativity that Brooklyn’s Antibalas has over the years. When the band was created nearly a decade ago, their music picked up where the genre’s architect, Fela Kuti and his son Femi respectively left off—taking…
You don’t often hear gospel music at an outdoor hippie gathering. Much more likely to cater to the stoner crowd are hip-hop artists with crossover appeal, like the Beastie Boys. But church music? That’s never been a big draw at jam band concerts. Maybe it’s the proselytizing or harmonized shout-outs…
During the mid-1980s, the toughest name in hip-hop belonged to Big Daddy Kane, the smooth, debonair rapper and Juice Crew affiliate who could steal your woman and your wallet at the same time. He’s one of the few rappers to appear in Playgirl, and for a while, he was seen…
My electronic-music hangover is starting already. The Winter Music Conference hasn’t even gotten here yet, and I’m already burned out after hours of listening to some of the oddest and most obscure tracks the FPL-driven genre has to offer. I’m not exactly an electrophile, but it’s 11 p.m. and fate…
MySpace really is taking over the world, ever since Rupert Murdoch got his grubby little hands on the friendly website. Aside from being the main cause of procrastination in offices around the world, MySpace is now throwing a megaconcert in Panama City for spring break, and Canadian rockers the Vincent…
Sometimes, house music is just too underground for its own good. Entire dance albums are composed, mixed down, and released in the middle of the night, but try getting in touch with these fly-by-night producers. It isn’t easy. 24 hour Miami House Music is a raucous album with a cheesy…
There’s an element of Delta blues that’s as mysterious today as it was in the 1920s. Sure, Robert Johnson isn’t around to make deals with the devil (at least, we don’t think so), but there’s still something spooky lurking in the music of the delta that’s akin to Santeria or…
So the Langerado Music Festival is here again. Hippies will flood the scene, campsites will be booked up, and the price of magic mushrooms should skyrocket all over town. But as last year’s festival proved, the event isn’t all about jam bands. The City of Sunrise will pulsate with the…
For certain hip-hoppers affiliated with J Dilla, making music without the legendary producer just isn’t the same since he passed away. He helped a slew of average MCs get a rep, but his beats were so crisp and mind-boggling, it was easy to forget how pedestrian some of his friends…
Legendary Brazilian singer Gilberto Gil has always stood out when it comes to musical production. After the Tropicalia phenomenon he helped create in the 1960s went global, Gil left it alone. As new-wave samba and bossa nova gained foreign acclaim in the early 1970s, Gil steered away from those genres…
