Renato Pagnani invented street fraiche.  Electronic music is crowded. Buzzwords like footwork and wonky are tossed around in reference to specific sounds explored by a few artists. Starkey made his name defining “street bass” over the last few years—an American-led permutation of electronic music — taking the suffocating lower-end of dubstep and the syncopated snap of […]

Renato Pagnani writes his curses in Times New Roman. Watch the Throne is the product of two artists that have nothing left to do but buy more 16th-century Persian rugs and continue trying to acquire the very goblet that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper. Both Jay-Z and Kanye West are now part of […]

Renato Pagnani gets computers puting. At the end of 2009, The Guardian, one of England’s biggest newspapers, published their list of the decade’s best albums. Among those included on the (naturally) UK-heavy list were Radiohead’s dystopic masterpiece Kid A, Burial’s ghostly Untrue, and Funeral from recent Grammy darlings, Arcade Fire.  What topped the list? In […]

“The kind of career I’m having at this age defies logic,” says E-40 on Revenue Retrievin’ (Night Shift), but the Bay area legend’s continued relevance in a genre that places youth at a premium isn’t hard to explain. Surround yourself with talented youngsters like the Jacka and Laroo to keep you honest, rap over hyphy […]

Renato Pagnani likes it when people talk fast over 4/4 beats.  Over the last several years, frequent collaborators Curren$y and Wiz Khalifa have had reasonably similar career trajectories. Both excel at making sleepy stoner jams equally indebted to Lil Wayne and Devin the Dude. Both have seen massive success in 2010 after bubbling for several […]

Renato Pagnani is now Diving off Docks. One of the great things about Ninja Tune is that they give guys like Kid Koala a viable platform. Let’s face it, DJ albums are a hard sell.  Demand-wise, they fall somewhere below instrumental hip-hop and above klezmer rap. Which isn’t to say that Kid Koala isn’t a […]