We’re at that point where we might have to unanimously acknowledge that Kendrick Lamar is the best rapper alive. Feel free to a dissenting opinion. But when I talk to people who obsess over rap with the intensity of John or Steve Nash, the conversation returns to Black Hippy. Between Schoolboy and Kendrick, the label […]

The countdown to Kendrick Lamar’s debut Low End Theory appearance starts now. If paying for these two to make music together can’t make me want to purchase a Windows Phone, nothing will. Nothing will. Maybe this will make rap fans realize that Nosaj and Flying Lotus et. al are making more innovative hip-hop rooted production […]

Abe Beame hails from Section 84. Summer ended suddenly on a Wednesday night in Tribecca when Kendrick Lamar, a self-appointed Dylan for 80s babies, took the stage at SOBs, one of the last venues Manhattan has left to a dedicated Hip Hop stage. And hip hop, in its strange 2011 iteration was in the building. […]

About a month ago, I interviewed Danny Brown for Spin. We started talking about Section 80 and he said, “that if you’re a rapper and if you heard “A.D.H.D.” and didn’t lose sleep, you’re doing something wrong.” It’s a wonderful thing when the rap world can anoint the next star based on talent instead of […]

I first mentioned Overdoz last September, right before Odd Future’s ascension likely subjected them to a lifetime of off-base comparisons. They’re another one of the seemingly limitless skinny-jeaned squads clogging the 2 Dope Boyz mailbox, but rather than fight back, they work within the system collaborating with Casey Veggies, Dom Kennedy, and mixing R&B and […]

The Rawse continues to cultivate fantasies about his black mafia family. Kendrick Lamar and his hippes attempt to reenact the Black Mafia Life. It’s a draw. More rappers should drop two minute-long videos with nothing but funerals, 40s, and no hooks. Remember West Coast rappers: you are not writing songs for the pop charts until […]