Max Bell carried the cross so you could play Candy Crush 2012’s Control System was an inspired and unforeseen coup. Ab-Soul brought inquisition and introspection, paranoia and conspiracy theories by the oz. There were hits of DMT, witty wordplay, and pineal gland prodding.  It was the Carson native’s claim to the title of ‘Best Behind […]

Max Bell’s skyline is the clearest. Jay-Z’s second annual Budweiser Made In America Festival is this Labor Day weekend. Somehow Black Hippy aren’t at the top of the bill. Perhaps to rectify this (and many, many other things Jay-Z must atone for), Hov’s company Life+Times has released a short documentary (16 mins) chronicling TDE’s performances […]

Wise moves from title to execution. Who doesn’t like collard greens? Who doesn’t like Schoolboy Q and Kendrick? The former is fast becoming the rap game, Raoul Duke, from appearance to addled state. His flow here is slower and less tangled than Q normally deploys. But it’s no less effective. It sounds like a hunter […]

A rule of thumb: when you cringe at the cheesiness of a rap song at the 20 second mark, but are chanting along at the one minute mark, it is a certified hit. This figures to be the one for Quincy. The hook appeals to the molly mangled, the freaks will get up out their […]

Son Raw was ready to hate this album. Kendrick did it. Compare him to the greats to knock him down a peg if you must and complain about what the album isn’t if needed but he still did it: he put out a genuinely excellent, cohesive rap album on a major label in 2012. Because […]

Slava P wrote this while sipping Cabernet out of a Stanley Cup. As part of TDE appreciation week, Schoolboy Q released a new, Kenny Beats-produced track titled simply, “Party.” Now, if I showed up to a party and saw someone who resembled Schoolboy Q posted up against the wall, I would show myself out faster […]

Deen prefers his Kool-Aid unsweetened. Allow me to be slightly presumptuous and assume that you, the reader, have been reading my  posts here. Maybe you may have detected some level of ambivalence in regards to everyone’s new darlings – the Top Dawg Entertainment guys. I’ve read a bunch of complimentary shit about these guys in […]

Jimmy Ness for Prime Minister of Ur, 2012. Ab-Soul stunts with the ancient gods and turns his on Mesopotamian swag. Each TDE member is releasing a new song this week and he follows Jay Rock’s “YOLA” with raps about aliens, pyramids, and conspiracies. If you’re not part of the hip-hop star-gazer society or you don’t […]

“Look inside my parking garage/ and see a collage/ of every person I’ve despised/ since the moment I’ve turned 5.” That might be the best opener of any song all year. Bandanna P worthy. Soul’s line about Derek Fisher is also worth the price of a Staples Center ticket. Video’s cool, but Black Hippy are […]

Jonah Bromwich isn’t paranoid. They really are out to get you. Ab-Soul isn’t a paranoid. Paranoids are unsure, constantly waiting for the chance to react to their suspicions. By contrast, Ab-Soul stays recruiting, sure that if he can unite all the gangs in the world, they may stand a chance against the military. That’s the […]