Dry clean your linen until it is white as milk and crisp as bacon. The Yacht Rap oligarchs, Steady Bloggin‘ and Geng Grizzly have returned to bring you lavish soundtracks to eat cracked crab and sip champagne in Biscayne Bay. For those of us who have yet to swim in the Bermuda Triangle surrounded by […]

This is Part 2 of my interview with DaVinci and Al Jieh of San Francisco’s SWTBRDS label. In this segment we talk about the history of their label and how its heritage derives from the legendary Fillmore neighborhood where DaVinci grew up. — Alex Piyevsky Previously: Part I of Question in the Form of an […]

Below is my interview with DaVinci and Al Jieh of San Francisco’s quickly rising SWTBRDS label. My original idea was for the guys to take me on a guided tour of the Fillmore, DaVinci’s notorious home neighborhood, cited frequently in his songs as a source of both inspiration and frustration. Instead we ended up driving […]

Alex Piveyski was taking a nap in the backseat of the car pictured above. A few weeks ago, in a post about Haleek Maul, Jeff mentioned how “no one enters the league fully formed anymore.” He referred to young rappers at large and I’m inclined to agree; especially since my homebase at Steadybloggin’ has had […]

We have Alex Piveyski and Jah to thank for this. Download: ZIP: V/A – Duke Bloggin Meets the Congos in Midtown (Left-Click) I have a confession to make: this compilation is actually a failed album review. Icon Give Thank, a collaboration between venerable reggae legends The Congos and mad experimentalists Sun Araw and M. Geddes […]

I met Ka on a cold windy afternoon on 6th Ave in Manhattan, where he entrenched himself with a small quantity of CDs and vinyl under a storefront that was once Fat Beats NY. In another time this place was a Mecca for underground hip-hop, a venerable destination for both artists and listeners, an iconic […]

Alex Piveysky wears out external hard drives like turntable needles. 2011 was an intense year for rap music, both in quality and in pace. Noteworthy songs and albums poured in at a remarkable rate, often at the same time, enough to leave even the most attentive observer occasionally overwhelmed. Naturally, a few good things fell […]

Alex Piveysky steadily blogs here. The rest of the time, he answers to the bat symbol. Without hearing a single note, the album cover hooked me. It called out, like…uh, the bat signal. One of those moments when you know that you’ll love the album strictly off artwork. I was right too. Cue the platitudes […]