Max Bell throws barbs over laser discs of “Barb Wire.” To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, I dislike the Drake. Hate is a strong word, and there are more loathsome individuals on this rotating blue orb than an ex-Degrassi cast member turned rapper. More than anything, it’s that I don’t buy what Drake’s selling. He’s not sincere, […]

Max Bell favors Michael Concepcion for the TDE Connect. Hellfyre Club is one of the strongest and most necessary branches of the hip hop tree. The natural and logical outgrowth of Project Blowed, much of their roster has weathered the calms and storms of the ever fluctuating indie rap landscape for years, refusing to break […]

Three generations of art-rap coming together to get cold. If you’ve been following LA rap for the last decade, you don’t need me to play connect the dots. The Blowed influence filters in through the abstraction and questioning of false claims. Even if you exclusively want rap harder than basalt, you can’t deny the honesty […]

If you’ve been paying attention to the last half-dozen episodes of Shots Fired, the only podcast to offer advice on how to adopt a puffin, you might notice that we’ve steered away from the one episode, one topic approach. There are only so many ways you can break down the history of independent rap and […]

Max Bell Versace Versace Versace. Your favorite art rapper doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Despite what you might think, not even Mike Eagle exclusively listens to They Might Be Giants all day. They’re probably up on the most popular rap songs on the Internet and/or radio. At the moment, whether your like it or not, […]

Review courtesy of the Uber Max Bell. Milwaukee’s Milo has a “big brain”– like Jimmy Neutron if he talked about Nietzsche’s Übermensch instead of science. Think of Milo as a more introspective and well read Ab-Soul for fans of Vonnegut and Phillip K. Dick. Allusions aside, he’s an intelligent, unabashedly horny ’90s baby with an inexhaustible store of knowledge (high/low […]

Busdriver is too often overlooked when people reference the LA underground rap and beat scenes of the last decade. He and Daedelus set things off around 2002, the former interpreting the helicopter chop style of Freestyle Fellowship and CVE with his own warped mind full of “undigested idioms.” While his frequent collaborator Deadelus liberated beats […]

Because on Black Friday, there’s nothing less appropriate than a podcast devoted to white rappers. The Earwolf description is below because I can’t remember a word that I said: “Detroit DJ/producer House Shoes and LA rapper Busdriver join Nocando & Jeff Weiss this week to discuss white rappers. The guys talk about the origins of […]

This is the best new rapping you’ll hear all week other than someone whose name rhymes with Schmendrick Fumar (That’s his Spanish sobriquet). Busdriver, Nocando, Open Mike Eagle. Grizzly Men. From Busdriver’s Arguments with Dreams EP See Also: The Road to Hellfyre is Littered with Self-Medication

Open Mike Eagle’s “Self Medication Chant” is a rosary for the downtrodden and dizzy, the sarcastic and the sneering. Those who find themselves disenchanted for vague reasons but find that their votives go unanswered. To those stressed and overworked and angry. It is dedicated to his friends losing his minds. It is a Howl and […]