Aug
29

Blood In, Blood Out: Why I Don’t Hate the Game

You haven’t lived unless you’ve stood beside a gold-smothered seraglio of nude C-list models alternately texting and fake fawning over a Compton rapper famed for his gangbang past. Presumably, Game’s one-hour harem is similarly famous for their gangbang present.  Even more mystifying was the Weekly cover girls’s ability to name-drop more than Jayceon Taylor, letting… Continue reading »

Aug
01

You Never Really Know Someone Until You’re Both Buried: Serengeti’s “Family & Friends”

If you’re waiting for links to my extracurricular work on Passion of the Weiss, you’ll be largely left languishing. The majority of self-promo is left to Twitter. Follow me so I can regale you with Drake barbs and Quinoa references. Or if you’re wisely social media averse, I do write something daily for the LA… Continue reading »

Jun
02

David Blake is the Name

Photo via Forest Casey There’s a lot left out of my DJ Quik profile. No Suga Free. No AMG. No Hi-C. NOTHING ON QUIK’S GROOVES. Too little on the music and only a cursory mention of anything between Quik is the Name and the Book of David. 2000 words isn’t enough to write David Blake’s… Continue reading »

Jul
21

Kutmah Throws Stones

Dead rappers get better promotion and so do deported DJ’s. But Kutmah is no Stacks Bundles, having long been one of the most criminally unsung members of the greater Low End Theory world. He already dropped a scorching Low End podcast prior to his detainment, so his return to action comes for Stones Throw and… Continue reading »

Jul
16

Kutmah and Other Short Cuts

Sooner or later, I’ll set up a Tumblr account to link to everything I write elsewhere. I will also post old videos from Da Youngsta’s to create a bizarre cognitive dissonance. THEY CANNOT BE DA YOUNGSTA’S IF THEY ARE OLD. While a superficial impression may seem like I promote all of my extracurricular writing activities,… Continue reading »

Jun
24

The Search for Stoney Jackson

Granted, it’s not nearly as good as a new Madvillain record, but my long-promised Madlib feature hit newsstands today — complete with anecdotes about smoking blunts of Lucas Valley Haze, falling out of chairs, and about a half-dozen blown interview appointments. Hopefully,  I’ll post the full Q&A transcript at some point in the next week,… Continue reading »

Jan
28

Locked and Loaded: Nocando

If you’ve ever stumbled into the Low End Theory, you know Nocando. Every Wednesday, the night’s lone rhyming resident incinerates beats that would leave lesser rappers like nudists searching for a spot to store their wallets: exposed and futilely searching for a pocket. The Project Blowed veteran raps over beats that should be un-rappable, freestyling… Continue reading »

Jan
15

Dam-Funk Video Interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1j-hu5iJ9s As promised in the previous post, the Dam-Funk video interview for those of you who dislike words and all the sundry baggage that accompanies them. No shots of wine coolers or clovers, but you’ll just have to take me at my word. Instead, we have footage of Dam rocking with Master Blazter at Cinespace.… Continue reading »

Jan
15

Dam-Funk: Keetar Hero

I have done much hemming and a little bit of hawing about Damon Reddick in the last 365, so I’ll spare the True Leimert Park stories. Besides, a video of the interview should be dropping soon. In the latest LA Weekly, I take a trip to Dam-Funk’s home studio and receive a tutorial on the… Continue reading »

Dec
03

The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs

Only Internet rap critics complain about whether or not a rapper whom 99.9% of the world has never heard of is overrated. If there was a secret PR formula that Freddie Gibbs and his team possessed, he wouldn’t be living in the seediest part of Van Nuys, with overturned shopping carts littering the sidewalk and… Continue reading »

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