Apr
07

Smokin’ ‘Dro–MLB Preview 2009

Fun Fact: Sandro Colacicco and I played on the same college baseball team. The experience was a cross between “The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training” and “Major League.” The morale of the story is never steal Sandro or Jobu’s rum. It’s very bad. It’s very bad.    Baseball has always been therapeutic for me:… Continue reading »

Apr
06

Stax: The Soul of Hip-Hop Compilation

When you own one of the most heavily sampled catalogues in hip-hop history, it’s something of a no-brainer to streamline it into one easy-to-access anthology. Accordingly, Concord Music Group, who re-launched Stax in 2007, are attempting to cash-in with this very well-curated starter’s guide. If for some reason, you don’t know about Stax, Netflix Wattstax… Continue reading »

Apr
06

The Ragged Psychedelia of Crystal Antlers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vTY8KEKlmI Ignore the numerics that tend to overshadow all things Pitchfork, and Ian Cohen’s review of Tentacles,  accurately illustrates why three out of four L.A. bloggers prefer Crystal Antlers. “Antlers are a heavy and especially loud psych-punk band, but they lack the outsider cachet of metal or noise; their psychedelia is more shaggy than dreamy… Continue reading »

Apr
05

Lonely Island ft. Seth Rogan-”Like a Boss”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NisCkxU544c The latest tomfoolery from Lonely Island.  If Rick Ross wanted to salvage any last shreds of dignity, he’d have been wise to have done a cameo–of course, that would require a modicum of self-awareness. In some ways, this is more damning than anything 50 did, particularly, the “promoting synergy like a Bawss,” line–an idea… Continue reading »

Apr
03

WC and the Maad Circle-”The One”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fDw15WJ9zY Shooting hoops, while listening to The Fix on a Friday spring afternoon=one of life’s greatest pleasures. Accordingly, the WC-featured, “I Ain’t the One,” made me want to revisit, “The One,” from the Maad Circle’s Coolio-less, Curb Servin.  It’s a great song, made greater by Crazy Toones’ accomplishment: the only DJ  to ever successfully impersonate… Continue reading »

Apr
03

LA Times–The Posthumous Triumph of “UGK 4 Life”

As you may have read, UGK 4 Life, has drawn largely rave reviews. This is to be expected for a sentimental favorite like the Underground Kingz, but the praise is warranted. Neck-and-neck with the Doom for my favorite rap release of the year, UGK’s last album manages to be the rare swan song essential for… Continue reading »

Apr
02

MF Doom-”Gazzillion Ear” (Thom Yorke Remix)

Image via Metal Faced Initially, the combination of the Radiohead frontman and the metal-faced villain, seems incongruous. Upon closer examination, it’s perfectly natural: two insular, brooding weirdos, whose music reflects a constant, centrifugal  tension with the world around them. Consequently, Yorke’s “Gazzilion Ear” remix manages to make Doom sound even more warped and eccentric than… Continue reading »

Apr
02

Monomono are Ill

Despite a reputation as one of Nigeria’s most successful and best Afro-Beat boom bands, information about Monomono remains scarce on the Internet. Even the normally dependable, All Music Guide, lacks a bio on the three-piece outfit. I’ll presume it’s due to Google searches yielding results on “the kissing disease,” not Monomono’s definition in Yoruba: Dawn… Continue reading »

Apr
01

It’s Del, With the IQ of Einstein

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n52_xavMyfQ I’m perpetually a sucker for videos that channel the bargain-basement grit of the vintage Yo! MTV Raps days. The clip for “Get It Right Now!” the lead single from Del’s free give-a-way, Funk Man (The Stimulus Package), amounts to little more than him smoking blunts in a squalid apartment, and black and white shots… Continue reading »

Apr
01

Kode9′s Dubstep Haze

To offer a strained analogy, consider Kode9 the Peanut Butter Wolf, to Burial’s Madlib. The mastermind behind Dub Step dons, Hyper Dub, the Scottish-born producer named Steve Goodman receives less acclaim than his Mercury Prize-nominated meal ticket, but remains one of the most vital players in the drum and bass and dub-descended, sub-genre centered in… Continue reading »

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