Rap’s Grateful Dead? Hova? Young? The number one MC of all time? None of the above. A more appropriate title for Jay-Z is Most Overrated Rapper. Ever. With the release of American Gangster, his second post-retirement album, it’s time to clear the air. Jay-Z has fallen off. Perhaps, he was…
Joni Mitchell once sang, “You don’t know what you got till it’s gone.” Aside from the bit about paving over paradise to make way for a parking lot being sooooooo South Florida, the lyric could also sum up the could-have-been, should-have-been local love affair with Sam Beam, a onetime Miami…
Are you here for the Weir? If so, the third option for Deadheads (those not in the Philzone or Jerryside) presents itself this weekend in Boca Raton. RatDog — originally a side project of former Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir and Rob Wasserman — continues to take fans on a…
1977 was pivotal: Disco was becoming a major cultural force (impacting even the Rolling Stones with Some Girls) and there were strange rumblings in the U.S., the U.K., and Jamaica all based around new music. Brit punk rock and roots reggae were inextricably intertwined. Disenfranchised youths were attracted to the…
Since the release of Bestial last year, hardcore rock band Black Cobra has been one vicious critter. The guys have toured all over the United States and Europe and left most of their audiences with their mouths agape and scared shitless. They hail from South Florida (the Bay Area is…
The bands Drop Dead, Gorgeous; Alesana; The Number Twelve Looks Like You; and Idiot Pilot are touring as a package titled “Fathers Guard Your Daughters.” As most of the metal-core musicians here are just past the age of consent themselves, the implication is clear: They want you to think they’re…
Music fans of every stripe, from klezmer to rock, should be satisfied in South Florida the night before Thanksgiving, but reggae fans may get the most love as some of the hottest sound systems in dancehall gather for just one night. Renowned DJ crew Stone Love, going strong for 34-plus…
“Say it to my face, look me in the eyes and say what you have to say,” Toryn Green sings on Fuel’s latest album, Angels and Devils. This has to rank right up there with Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney’s staged spat on “The Girl Is Mine” for all-time least…
Musicians are known for toeing the line amid two different worlds — drifting between good and evil — or various mind states to become successful. We’ve all got multiple personalities, so that’s not groundbreaking news, but the split between Muslim rapper Musab and Las Vegas-based pimp Minnesota Slicks is hard…
It’s hard to know when — or if — the Australian one-man dance act known as Muscles is being serious. Live, ensconced behind a small tower of keyboards and contraptions, he might yell to a mixed-bag hipster crowd, “This is my trance song! Do you all like trance?!” Before anyone…
Soulja Boy’s entry in the minstrel rap sweepstakes is called Souljaboytellem.com, and it has been virally marketed in a savvy way. Still, it’s about as stripped-down as a record can be. This is what rap would sound like if it had been invented in the 19th Century — simple snaps,…
It looks like the Bang Music Festival may already have seen its last days. When the festival announced it was postponing this year’s concert without much of an explanation, it wasn’t surprising. There was practically no hype surrounding the event, ticket sales were low, and the concert lineup was confusing…
Cloud 9 Lounge7126 Stirling Rd.DavieYou can learn a lot about women at Cloud 9 Lounge, a local’s bar in Davie where on many nights the majority of the patrons are lesbians. Cloud 9, with its many faces, can act like a dive bar one night, then put on its dancing…
So Alicia Keys currently has the number one single in the country with the song “No One” which is as catchy and soulful as anything the 27-year-old singer has ever put out. While that tune is burning up the charts, here’s a fresh remix featuring Keys and Jamaican singer Junior…
Laurent Garnier is one of the world’s most celebrated house and techno DJs, but also one of the most elusive. French by birth, it was in late-Eighties Manchester, England that Garnier first heard Chicago house. Instantly hooked, he soon became a DJ at the legendary Hacienda club, owned by Factory…
I walked into the Miami Elks Lodge 948 (10301 SW 72nd St., Miami) ballroom last Saturday night, amidst a sea of silver hair, and the scent of ultra-sweet perfume. The song “Blue Velvet” blared as the 55-and-over crowd danced ever so slowly on the dance floor. “She wore bluuuuuuee…vellllvetttt….” I…
It’s hard to believe it’s been 19 years since the Queen of the Forehead, AKA Sade released her stellar Stronger Than Pride album. It’s still the anti-break record of the century in my opinion as it has a way of talking to you regardless of where you’re at romantically. The…
Here’s another local music mystery… A reader writes: “Hi, I’m trying to figure out the name of a local progressive band from the late 90s, (1997-2000). I know they were signed to a major label, and were influenced by bands that sounded like the Cure, and that the entire band…
Get Ready Less than an hour ago, the organizers of Langerado Music Festival just announced their line-up for 2008, and let me be the first to say, it’s killer. Don’t expect a good festival like last year…expect a great one. I don’t want to write it all out, but check…
In a weird twist, if you want to see why the Sun-Sentinel needs to police it’s on-line section more often, check out some fairly ridiculous comments to the story about the death of Kanye’s mom on their website. Some folks apparently think her death is hilarious. — Jonathan Cunningham…
Booka Shade: DJ Kicks (!K7) Henrik Schwartz: Live (!K7) Ricardo Villalobos: Fabric 36 (Fabric) It used to be so easy for DJs. Refine a set over a couple of years, license the necessary tracks, mix them all together and voilà! Genres were born, scenes were codified and superstar DJs were…
Reports coming out of Los Angeles and Chicago are sadly stating that rapper Kanye West’s mother, Dr. Donda West, died over the weekend “as a result of complications from a cosmetic surgical procedure.” The family released a one sentence statement this morning, which read: “The family respectfully asks for privacy…
