“I wrote that song in about an hour on some good kush,” Miami-born hip-hop superstar Rick Ross says as we sit in the entertainment room of his new mansion in Davie on a recent Saturday night. He’s talking about his 2006 breakaway hit “Hustlin’,” which catapulted Ross into the hip-hop…
Dewey Cox? Yes, we remember him. But not without hesitation. There may be renewed interest in Cox in the wake of the new film Walk Hard, and he may be strutting about the Roxy all reenergized, playing the hits, trying to act like the ’80s never happened. But he doesn’t…
In his spare time, when he’s not dodging jail sentences or fighting with his supermodel girlfriends, habitual drug abuser Pete Doherty makes music. But he really hasn’t recorded anything worth listening to since the Libertines completed their second album three years ago — right around the time Doherty’s life fell…
Remember when you’d buy a really good seven-inch record and you played the shit out of it for a couple of months before you began to wonder if your crappy needle was gonna do a number on the wax? I don’t (cuz I have a good needle), but I do…
Say what you will about his hair-metal pedigree. Talk dismissively about his being firmly ensconced in the reality-TV wasteland (Supergroup, Celebrity Rap Superstar, I Married Sebastian Bach, etc.). The truth is, ex-Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach has a great fucking voice, a powerful, distinctive wail that’s typically the best aspect…
Apart from being an original/longtime Grateful Dead drummer, Mickey Hart was exploring multicultural cross-pollinations long before the term world music got so popular. Tabla drum master Zakir Hussain, a frequent collaborator with Hart, has a lengthy résumé in jazz, Indian raga, and world fusion. With fellow percussionists Sikiru Adepoju and…
Various Artists Well Deep: 10 Years of Big Dada (Big Dada) Longevity in hip-hop is increasingly rare, so milestones should be memorialized. Enter Well Deep, two CDs (31 tracks total) marking the first decade of U.K.-based indie label Big Dada. An offshoot of the quick-cut quarry known as Ninja Tune…
Four years ago today RJ Lockwood, a Miami DJ, was found dead in his Overtown apartment at the age of 27. The Miami DJ was described as not “malicious enough to have enemies” by one of his old friends. Police initially dismissed the case as just another drug overdose by…
Sharon Jones doesn’t sugarcoat her words. “I’ve been to six funerals [recently]. I’ve sang at four,” she says. The 51-year-old soul singer has seen tough times lately, from her brother’s death and her mother’s stroke to the loss of many close friends, but she’s as resilient a survivor as you’re…
The holidays are a time of family and of schmaltzy Christmas commercials that somehow make you cry. If you’re a music journalist, they’re also the time for making lists — lots and lots of lists. Over the past few years, the availability of year-end critics’ lists has grown faster than…
Well 2007 is over, done and almost forgotten. So stop looking back on the year that’s past and take a look at what you have to look forward to from the music world in just the first couple months of 2008. Here’s a look at some of the first albums…
Ah, the New Year. Time of transformation, time of bubbly-spawned magic, time of awkward passes and resolutions you mean at the time. While you’re preparing for the long sled ride down Hangover Hill, here’s some topical listening material. — Jeff Shaw 5. Death Cab for Cutie, “The New Year” “So…
With his long dreadlocks, croaking voice, and penchant for zaniness, Lil Wayne is an unpredictable MC. He’s also a prolific one, releasing albums and mixtapes by the handful. In 2007, he recorded guest verses with everyone from Shakira and Beyoncé to Chris Brown and Little Brother. But his newest collaboration…
It’s easy to assume that reggae music is a product of Jamaica alone. The island has produced all of the genre’s biggest names for the past 40 years, and it’s still ground zero when it comes to discovering what’s hot. Reggae music was undoubtedly born in Jamaica, but if you…
If you’re as sick as we are of hearing trite, toe-the-line renditions of holiday classics on throwaway compilations put out solely to feed the commercialization of Christmas, then Psychostick’s Flesh Eating Rollerskate Holiday Joyride may be just the coal you need in your stocking. The comical metal band throws “tidings…
If “world jazz” were a legitimate genre (which it should be), then South Florida-based musician Macarldie Nibbs’ newest release, Moving On, would be the perfect album to bear its name. Too often, more popular forms of global jazz, such as Latin jazz, African jazz, and Brazilian jazz, get dumped into…
There’s something deeply compelling about the voice and spiritual lilt of Brazilian samba singer Maria Rita. Upon first listening to her newest album, Samba Meu, you’re instantly transported beyond your car speakers or headphones to the nightclubs of Sao Paulo, where samba reigns supreme. Unlike Rita’s (pronounced HEE-tah) first two…
Beanie Sigel’s rough-and-ready new CD, The Solution, stands in contrast to the latest from his mentor, Jay-Z. American Gangster saw Jay reminiscing about the days before he settled into his plush corporate lifestyle, but Sigel is still living hard. Having been acquitted of attempted murder and done a prison stint…
There’s a photo on the inside of Lagos by Bus that shows 13 of the group’s members backstage before an opening gig for Femi Kuti in Lagos. It is, needless to say, a prestigious show for the Afrobeat-oriented collective. More interesting, though, is how the white faces in the photo…
MSNBC is reporting that Jay-Z is resigning as president of Def Jam records at the end of this year. He took over post three years ago when former boss Lyor Cohen left the position to become the chief executive at Warner Music Group. Yesterday’s move isn’t surprising (his artists have…
Okay, I admit to reading this on Perez Hilton first, but the Miami Herald’s also got the whole scoop. In a nutshell, Mr. 305 got caught driving drunk early this morning. The story kinda deserves LOLz, though, for how ultimately Miami it is. First, he didn’t get busted on South…
Judging by record and ringtone sales, hip-hop is the most popular genre of music in the country. There’s a host of cocksure yet affable rappers out there for whom people can’t help but cheer these days. But who needs to go over a list of the most beloved rappers in…
