After serving almost a decade in prison, Alpoko Don came home to Greenville, South Carolina in May of 2012 and started banging on his porch with a pen and rapping to it.  He uploaded the videos to Youtube under the name Dondada and they quickly racked up millions of views. If you love drumming your […]

Son Raw on the interview tip for 2014 Nearly a dozen new Grime labels have popped up over the past 2 years, but only one capped off 2013 with a full-length compilation. Coyote Records is the brainchild of Mixmag Editor and Grime-advocate Tomas Fraser and is one of instrumental Grime’s most vital new outlets. Across […]

Interview by Brad Beatson; Top photo by Drew Gurian; Body photo by GlitterGuts YC The Cynic leaves nothing to chance. He pauses before answering questions and maintains eye contact throughout conversation. He sends hundreds of emails on a weekly basis, making sure people hear from him directly and not through hearsay. He does this because his fans know he […]

Cory Jreamz makes art-rap at its most jagged. Syllables are bayonets, references are re-arranged like toy furniture in the hands of a bored child.  He is the Black Marlon Brando, the Black Ernest Hemingway, 2Pac, David Lynch, but clearly none of those people. He’s taking his heroes and dismembering them so you only see the […]

Around these parts, Ripley Johnson doesn’t need an introduction. The psychedelic classic-rock of Wooden Shjips persistently blow our minds. Jeff has gone on record to say Johnson is his favorite guitarist. If his hypnotic guitar lines and follicle growth is reminiscent of that of a cult leader, it’s safe to say we’ve been drinking the […]

“So excellent they’re almost tiresome.” Those are the words an editor of mine used to describe Calexico, the Tucson Tex-Mex collective semi-permanently gathered around singer-guitarist Joey Burns and drummer John Convertino. He had a point. When a new Calexico album comes out you almost look to avoid it, simply because you know the music will […]

Small Pro has been making music for over a decade, far exceeding the 10,000 hour rule for mastering a craft. Over that time he’s been able to create his own undeniable sound, chopping away at anything that inspires.  The Philadelphia producer has released several instrumental tapes jawns that he puts up on his Bandcamp page […]

Nature’s calming voice can be heard on some of DJ Clue’s earliest mixtapes, bringing forth timeless street parables rather than cheap punchlines. He made his bones on New York City’s brutally competitive mid-90s mixtape circuit among the likes of Jadakiss and Canibus. His masterful freestyles would eventually earn him admission into The Firm after Cormega, […]

Comedian Rob Delaney’s humor strikes the rare and delicate balance of being both sophomoric and intelligent. His tweets are often entrenched in toilet humor and gag-inducing nicknames for the male and female anatomy, yet they’re too expertly worded to read like the spew of a teenager’s raging hormones. He’s like the goofy uncle who asks […]

When I picked him up for our interview, Jonwayne was wearing a soccer shirt, athletic shorts, and flip-flops. And he was wearing that same getup when he performed an excellent set to a mix of stoned teenagers and OG Jonwayniacs that same night at Echo Park Rising. That’s not entirely true, I guess: he’d judiciously […]