Oct
30

A Very Danny Brown Halloween

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiI_3qIiKo8 40 bottles, towering infernos, and white boys hanging stiffer than hair mousse. Brown bringing forth the most fiendish video of the year — with production quality finally on par with the raps. Maybe next year the Hybrid can be Rolling Stone’s “Hot Horror Core Revivalist.” Download: MP3: Danny Brown-”Cyclops”

Oct
30

Kanye West ft. Pete Rock, Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, Charlie Wilson, Curtis Mayfield, and The Great Pumpkin

Perhaps the first Good Friday track since “Monster” that I can co-sign wholeheartedly. Kanye and the original Curtis have been a winning combination since before Lupe was consistently a fiasco. The biggest whore since Horus kicks a few standard Yeezy verses which have become almost formulaic.  Clever puns breaking apart familiar words (planned parenthood) and… Continue reading »

Oct
29

Douglas Martin’s Dirty Shoes: Weekend, the Darker Side of San Francisco

Douglas Martin doesn’t think weekends are made for Michelob. There’s been a lot of talk– mostly here in my column– about San Francisco’s extraordinary psychedelic/garage scene. I could take the time to rattle off the scene’s marquee names for the umpteenth time, but you’ve probably already committed them all to memory. The truth is, even… Continue reading »

Oct
28

You Don’t Understand My Words, But You Must Choose

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRBLmogRL4c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt5ghXdq6Z0 Which one of these is the greatest new rap song of modern times? Personally, I vote for Weekend at Bernie’s. It’s the Pee Wee Herman for the post-lyricism era. Come…choose life or death. Via Trey Kerby and Phat Friend.

Oct
28

Tobacco’s Lamborghini Meltdown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYc273hUBJ8 Tobacco, not taking the Cam’ron, “blam at your man’s canvas and scramming with your boy’s lamb” route, for the clip from his new EP. Instead, he goes Tales from the Crypt on us — proper ghoulish imagery in honor of all Hallow’s this Sunday.  Yes, I live in an alternate universe where Tom Fec,… Continue reading »

Oct
28

Revelations Spoken Through Rap

Since the release of his Freddie Gibbs collaboration, Co$$ has been gaining traction within blog circles–which speaks to the wisdom of paying a hot rapper for a guest spot. You are guaranteed a listen, which is more than the gibberish publicist press releases that clog my Gmail. But I suspect that Cashus King never gave… Continue reading »

Oct
28

Sach O: Girl Unit – Wut

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc6ZqhJWRhE Sach O had a really good joke lined up involving your mom’s “girl unit” but decided against it. Reinvention is inevitable: musical styles get swallowed whole by the passage of time and are spit up half-digested in wholly unique ways. Think of James Brown’s drums revamped as the backing for a thousand Hip-Hop classics… Continue reading »

Oct
27

Hello, Dru Down

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0aMwOHwF1Y YouTube tells me that “Dru is fresh out the pen and about to explode.” That may be too much information. My ninja mastery of Google and love of rumor tells me that he was incarcerated for a probation violation. However, I am soliciting requests for someone to tell what the violation in question was. … Continue reading »

Oct
27

Sach O: Terror Danjah & Kode 9 take over Rinse

Sach O killed the Radio Star. He also has a Tumblr. Reading Jeff’s post on the wonderful (and nostalgiatastic!) Stretch and Bobbito reunion, I couldn’t help but think of my current radio listening in starkly opposite terms to the scarcity he describes. As a Rinse listener, I’m flooded with hour after hour of raw, uncut… Continue reading »

Oct
27

A People’s History of Hip-Hop: The Diplomats–Native Tongues

Abe Beame’s previous writing can be be found at A People’s History of Hip-Hop and the late great Oh Word. He knows more about Howard Zinn than Lupe Fiasco. We almost take it for granted now, but when historians look back on the past decade, it’s conceivable that rap’s most significant development was its abandonment… Continue reading »

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