Matt Shea invented hobo-hop.  DIY may now be the digital recipe for rap success, but Buck 65 was doing things himself a long time before mp3s and iTunes. Perhaps it was growing up in Mount Uniacke, Canada, a place that makes Yelawolf’s Gadsden look like New York City, or perhaps it’s just his supposedly shy […]

My long-delayed interview with The Hybrid has beat both Act II and Detox to market. Solace in minor victories. The abridged version is running concurrently at Pop & Hiss, along with a mini-feature on the best advertisement for Adderall since college finals.  When you broke down The Hybrid on your Tumblr page, you traced its […]

An abridged version of this interview originally appeared at Pop & Hiss. El-P performs tonight at Low End Theory; it explains everything. The only way this can be topped is if Natalie Portman decides to become a barista at my corner coffee shop. You probably could’ve made a lot more money by performing at the […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwgfvo9qOTA Matt Shea typically eats popcorn and lobs rotten fruits at the screen in the back row of 20/20 Filmsight,  If you read this site regularly, you’re probably a) familiar with Faye Reagan, before or after the fact, and b) a little hardcore about your music. Recent years haven’t been kind to the psyche of […]

Aaron Matthews was last seen in Latvia, selling black market bootlegs of Phil Spector B-Sides and scheming to become mayor of Riga.  If you know the roots of alternative rock, it’s easy to see that the current revival of 50s/60s rock n roll and girl group sounds is nothing new. Beat Happening were warping leather […]

While the rest of the world salivates over the human clitoris (© Hex Murda), I would prefer to divert the attention to a rapper worthier of the approbation. The abridged version of this interview — along with a mini-feature — appeared at Pop & Hiss. Comparing Drake and Yelawolf is unfair but not necessarily invalid […]

I’d say late pass on Homeboy Sandman, but so it goes when you share an almost identical name as an ex-member of the Re-Up Gang. Not to ignore the use of “Homeboy,” which even white sitcom writers stopped using circa ’96. This interview originally appeared as a part of a longer feature for Pop & […]

The Valley gets a bad rap. Westside snobs caustically snipe all day but the basin between the Santa Monica and San Gabriel Mountains has brought us such fine things as Poquito Mas, Paul Thomas Anderson, Daniel Russo, and now SFV Acid. The DJ/producer born Zane Reynolds crafts a psychedelia alien to those expecting swirling guitars […]

  Parts of this interview were originally published at Pop and Hiss.  Much of “There Is Love in You,” was live-tested at London’s famed Plastic People nightclub, where you recently held a DJ residency. Last week, the news broke that it’s in danger of being closed down due to concerns about drug use and excessive […]

Rapper/producer yU is probably best known as one third of D.C. rap supergroup Diamond District with X.O. and Oddisee, but he’s been toiling for years in Washington’s underground scene. He also stakes membership in the Remainz Crew and the 1978ers, a production team formed with fellow beatmaker Slimkat78. Last year saw the free release of […]