Only a handful of rap groups can be bandied about as G.O.A.T: Wu-Tang, Outkast, EPMD, Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy, Run-DMC, UGK, The Geto Boys, and De La Soul. If you need an introduction to Posdnuos, Dave/Trugoy the Dove, and Maseo, you obviously haven’t listened to their seminal first four albums. Since the release of […]

Rivaling Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Franco, Tabu Ley Rochereau, and a handful of others, Mulatu Astatke ranks among the most influential African musicians of all-time. The father of Ethio-Jazz, the Berklee-trained Mulatu, was the first of his countryman to fuse American jazz and funk, with native folk and Coptic Chuch melodies. The leading light […]

  No introduction necessary. Q: So what brings you out to LA? A: Just business brought me out here. I have an office set up out here and we’re just out here networking and keeping our minds at peace and just working on the album, staying in the studio. I’m doing a lot of things—dealing […]

You can normally find Dan Love’s writings at the formidable, From ‘Da Bricks. A native of London, Love knows more about hip-hop than nearly anyone in Britain, as well as maintaining one of the island’s coolest nomenclatures. Take that Dizzee Rascal, if that is your real name. In an age when rappers can come and […]

Q: What was it like for you growing up in Los Angeles during the 80s? A: It was the LA of the Reagan administration. Drugs were really heavy in the streets at that time…more crack addicts…crack babies. It was a good time simultaneously because there was more creativity within the music and it showed. You […]

Q: What were your lives like growing up in New Orleans? Rah Al Milio: We grew up in the real New Orleans. Every day was hell, that bitch is a jungle, it’s a third world country inside of America. It’s hard. We were just trying to survive. I’m totally from the hood and I never […]

Contrary to popular belief, Blu did not take his name from the Eiffel 65 song popular in the late 90s. Q: So where exactly in LA did you grow up? A: I was born at St. Andrews and 54th, at my grandparent’s crib, that’s where I was living last year and it’s the first place […]

In conjunction with my article in the last issue of LA Weekly, here’s the full text of my interview with Pacific Division. Over the next few days, check for Q&A’s from Bishop Lamont, Knux and Blu.   Q: First off, I suppose the most obvious question is about your back-story. So at the risk of being […]

Last Friday, my feature on The Arabian Prince, a seminal and slept-on figure in hip-hop history, ran in the LA Times. If you’d like to read it, it can be found here. I think it does an adequate job of summarizing who Arabian is and why he’s important enough for Peanut Butter Wolf and Stones […]

  A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece for LA Weekly discussing the difficulties J Dilla’s estate has had in enforcing copyright law and paying off the six-figure IRS debt left behind. In the aftermath of the story’s publication, I had the chance to speak with his mother, Ms. Maureen Yancey about Dilla’s legacy […]