Lil’ Wayne Tha Carter III (Cash Money/Young Money/Universal) Possibly the most anticipated hip-hop release since Jay Z’s The Black Album, Tha Carter III is Lil Wayne’s 6th studio album and the final in the Tha Carter Trilogy. There’s been much hype surrounding this release seeing that many of the tracks…
It’s been a while since I’ve gotten one of these Lost and Found requests, but I’ve actually managed to reunite a few musicians (thanks Internet!) so I hope this one works out as well. Steve Satterwhite is looking for a fellow musician who goes by either Nes, Raraavis, or Nestor…
Photo Courtesy of VBS.TV/VICE Films When it comes to documentaries, it takes a lot to make me say, “holy shit.” You put enough news headlines in front of someone’s face and, unfortunately, real life stories become less and less shocking. But Vice Film’s “Heavy Metal in Baghdad” had me holy-shitting…
…And so is the band’s whole tour, apparently. Here’s the official scoop: “YES CONCERT SCHEDULED FOR AUGUST 1 AT HARD ROCK LIVE HAS BEEN CANCELED HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – The Yes concert scheduled for August 1 at Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino has been canceled…
Few rappers give better interviews than Black Moon/Boot Camp Clik alum Buckshot. Naturally, the pioneering underground MC sometimes refers to himself in the third person, makes bogus political predictions (“We are going to have a female president [this year]. That’s just something that my energy tells me.”) and takes full…
Naturally, Foxy Brown is the object of Ali G’s affections. With her foul mouth and short skirt, she epitomizes the fake gangsterism he parodies. At least she has the track record to support it — she recently finished a stint at Rikers Island, having violated probation stemming from attacking a…
He’s got a few more gray hairs in his goatee now, but James McMurtry is still the dry-as-a-West-Texas-creekbed voice of the proletariat on his latest album, Just Us Kids. And in this new Texas country effort, he’s ratcheted up the discontent of Childish Things to no-holds-barred vitriol, with his plainspoken…
Few reggae albums can muster up strong anticipation from the dancehall and hip-hop communities simultaneously, but Elephant Man’s latest release, Let’s Get Physical, is just that type of disc. Lots of hype was made about Ele’s jump to Bad Boy Records. Not only was that a bold move for both…
Robert Diament just can’t convince me that he’s a dangerous misanthrope, plotting world domination, bondage trysts, and petty betrayal with equal measures of grim glee and haughty apathy. Try as he might, sneering such loathsome lines as “I’ve got time to kill/so how about a quick fuck?,” he ultimately seems…
Rappers out of Palm Beach County don’t get a lot of love in South Florida. Everyone’s eyes are on Miami’s scene, as if it’s the only one worth writing about. Well, actually, that’s kind of true from a national perspective, but local rapper/producer Efon is working to change that. He’s…
Oh, Memorial Day weekend, three wonderful work-free days to spend drinking, lounging, grilling, and marinating in unadulterated American pride. After all, the average hard-workin’ Joe Schmoe doesn’t get many free Sunday nights to spend hanging with old friends, leaving a pile of empty Pabst Blue Ribbon bottles in his wake…
The best DJs are those who have, of course, an extensive knowledge of music — but often what’s more important than depth, necessarily, is an accompanying breadth. Members of the iPod generation rarely want to hear hours of even their favorite musical style any more — but they do want…
So there’s a rumor floating around as of today that Karu & Y is temporarily shut down. It’s totally unsubstantiated, and we’ll keep you posted as more news develops, but it also makes sense.I’ve heard from three people today alone that business there has been dead which must make keeping…
(Image via miami.metblogs.com) Every year, for the print edition, Esquire magazine rounds up a few of its favorite bars in the country. How do they define what makes a bar great? “If it’s a dive, it’s Christ-this-place-is-a-dive dive. If it’s an Irish pub, it’s not an “Irish” pub. If it’s…
You know, somebody really should come out with a Beyond the Grave mixtape series. Morbid, yes. But given the number of stellar rappers/producers who have passed away over the years (still tripping off of Camu Tao’s death this past Sunday), it would probably be a smash success. When Brooklyn’s DJ…
It’s probably not a typical assumption that pirates and hip-hop have anything in common. Rap music started in the Bronx back in the mid- to late 1970s, and by most accounts, pirates — those pesky thieves of the high seas — pretty much faded into obscurity almost a century ago…
“Everyone else who gets the one-hit-wonder tag had real hits,” chuckles Nada Surf frontman and principle songwriter Matthew Caws. Of course, he’s referring to the New York-based group’s 1996 video for the appropriately titled song “Popular” off the band’s debut album, High/Low. With its slow-creeping guitar line, loud/soft alterna-rock crunch,…
I have five uncles, and none of them is filthy stinking rich. That said, all five are considerably wealthier than a certain wayward, estranged niece (me). I live several hundred miles from any of them, though, and don’t receive many invitations to visit. But in my mind, reclining in a…
It would be easy to look at the recent deluge of compilation CDs (the three Nigeria Special volumes, Nigeria 70, and the Lagos All Routes and Lagos Chop Up sets) and conclude that (a) all African music comes from Nigeria, and (b) Africans stopped making music sometime in the late…
Nearly a month into his three-and-a-half-year bid on weapons possession, Prodigy, half of the veteran Queens rap duo Mobb Deep, must endure the release of his new album, H.N.I.C. PT. 2, from behind bars. Leading up to his incarceration, Prodigy embarked on a marathon of self-promotion that included a social…
When you’ve got a guy with a guitar, chances are he’s got to be either incredibly entertaining or a self-indulgent bore. Happily, Colin Meloy leans more toward the former on this aptly dubbed effort recorded at various dates during his 2006 solo tour. Meloy, one of the lynchpins for the…
Narrow Stairs sounds just like Plans, right down to the obvious production, weepy lyrics, and inoffensive guitar, continuing Death Cab’s tradition of aping Morrissey lyrics without Moz’s counterintuitive turns of phrase or dark jokes. Songs like “Long Division” seem the product of some sort of indie-rock, nerd-crafted lyric generator: “And…
