| Cognac & Codeine: The Outfit, TX Sit in Their Four-Cornered Room | December 2, 2013 |
Max Bell will take potent potables for $200. The Outfit, TX is one of the best rap groups in Texas. Their 2012 debut, Starships & Rockets: Cooly Fooly Space Age Funk remains one of the most satisfying and fully realized rap albums from last year. It’s nostalgic, contemporary, and futuristic. It’s a regionally reverent re-invention […]
| Busdriver on His Worst Behavior | November 26, 2013 |
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, […]
| The Wayniac Moves in Silence | November 21, 2013 |
Max Bell put beer in the school water fountains. Jonwayne has one of the best live sets around right now, rap or otherwise. I’ve seen him at least four times this year, and he’s managed to leave me captivated, spellbound, etc. each time — I cannot say the same of other rappers I’ve seen multiple times […]
| Classixx: Dominoes and Remixes | November 19, 2013 |
Max Bell is one third Babylonian. Classixx’s Hanging Gardens is my pick for dance album of the year. It’s pop, disco, and nearly anything else you want it to be. There’s a mystical, almost magical quality to the record. At times it sounds as if there’s a massive disco ball descending on the place where beach […]
| Ka Knows It’s About | November 15, 2013 |
Max Bell knows who killed Harry Crumb. The opening track from Ka’s The Night’s Gambit, “You Know It’s About” sets the tone for the entire record, grounds it in gritty limestone and grout. Ominous guitar chords and thundering, driving drums paint the Brownsville underbelly in the bleakest of blacks, whites, and grays. The sound is steady […]
| Trading Ghost Stories: Quelle Chris at the Finish Line | November 14, 2013 |
Max Bell Shynes on. Detroit-bred Quelle Chris has been making music for a long time. He has Bandcamp tracks – rap, rock, and otherwise – from nearly a decade ago. He worked with Roc Marciano and Danny Brown (see Shotgun & Sleek Rifle) before you knew they were going to be two of your favorite […]
| Passion of the Weiss Fall Mixes #7 — Max Bell | November 13, 2013 |
Fall in L.A. isn’t markedly different than any other season of the year. There are fewer seventy-five and sunny let’s-go-to-the-beach days. And there are people (read: mental defectives) who wear heavy winter coats when the temp drops below sixty-five. Still, fall in L.A. isn’t really fall, just like the woman serving your latte isn’t really […]
| Roc Marciano: The Pimpire Strikes Back | November 8, 2013 |
Max Bell murdered Jar-Bar Binks. There isn’t one Star Wars reference on Roc Marciano’s The Pimpire Strikes Back. It’s not a blatant disregard for source material so much as it is honest and telling revisionism. In other words, a young Marciano probably wasn’t rushing off to see George Lucas’ The Empire Strikes Back. Instead, he […]
| Bombs Over Breakfast Scones: Hellyfre Club’s “Dorner vs. Tookie” | November 6, 2013 |
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 […]
| A Bones Halloween | October 31, 2013 |
Max Bell was not Mad Max for the holiday. There’s seemingly new teens with two decade-old styles popping up on blogs each week. Quite often, they approach golden age hip-hop like perverted archaeology. Dusty ‘90s gems are an object of fascination. It’s usually rap made with the best of intentions, but it’s also the downplaying […]
