| The Most Overlooked Albums of 2014 | January 5, 2015 |
Max Bell selects his picks for last year's best and unsung.
| The Top 50 Rap Songs of 2014 (All) | December 18, 2014 |
The Passion of the Weiss staff present the first volume of the compilation album "Best Rap of 2014: 25 Shots to the Dome"
Art By Brad Beatson. Left and Right Swiping By Paul Thompson, Torii MacAdams, and Jeff Weiss
| Dripping like Eazy E’s Activator: An Interview with 100s | June 23, 2014 |
Jimmy Ness lets his Soul Glo 100s (pronounced “hunnids”) was born in the wrong era. The 20 year old has been fascinated by the ‘70s since being exposed to American Pimp, Iceberg Slim’s autobiography and nuclear levels of hair spray. His parents moved him to the Ivory Coast due to failing grades and his last […]
I’ve spent a significant part of the last few years taking the death of gangster rap for granted. The narrative that I’ve run with tracks the rise in popularity of artists like (duh) Kanye West, the explicitly fake Rick Ross, and Drake, and the concurrent fall of Young Jeezy, the disappearance of 50 Cent, the […]
| The Funkadelic Pimp Rap of 100s | March 11, 2014 |
Will Hagle is looking for his activator. Reducing Bay Area rapper 100s to a shadow of his pimp rap ancestors would be reductive. The truth is that 100s is comprised of shards of several other artists from various musical backgrounds. He talks a Short-esque pimp game, sure, but he also hails from the same city as the Based God. […]
| Andre Nickatina & Bay Area Rap – Candy Paint & Cocaine Forever | September 26, 2013 |
Max Bell was thizzin when he wrote this. Bay Area rap comes and goes in the national rap consciousness. In the early ‘90s Digital Underground made impregnating someone in a Burger King bathroom socially acceptable. Luniz’s “I Got 5 on It” remains in contention for the best smoking song of all time. Hyphy had its […]
| 100s, Throwing Money Like It Was 1999 | June 6, 2013 |
100s just signed to Fools Gold, so the ostensible plan is to install him as the next hipster-approved hip-hop icon a la Danny Brown. And there are few better candidates. Ice Cold Perm remains the best rap debut of last year. I didn’t catch the Boosie influence until I read an interview where the Berkeley […]
| The Top 50 Albums of 2012 | December 24, 2012 |
On a Previous Episode of the Passion of the Weiss: The Top 50 Albums of: 2011; 2010; 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 50. House Shoes – Let it Go [Tres] No best album list is complete without something from Detroit. Nowhere else is as no frills and unvarnished. It operates as a palate cleanser to remind […]
| The Top 50 Albums of 2012 (#50-26) | December 20, 2012 |
On a Previous Episode of the Passion of the Weiss: The Top 50 Albums of: 2011; 2010; 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 50. House Shoes – Let it Go [Tres] No best album list is complete without something from Detroit. Nowhere else is as no frills and unvarnished. It operates as a palate cleanser […]
