Brad Beatson turns down only for freedom.  In the summer, I’m looking to push play on a playlist and let it ride. It’s too beautiful out. And I know it’s inevitable that some drunken fingertips will hijack the music at some point to play what they want to. So this is my grand attempt at […]

Brad Beatson breaks the bank via Penny Arcade Next to “Prescription,” I found “Hoover Street” to be the most unsettling track on Oxymoron. The video reminds me of always wanting to be older when I was young, looking up to whomever and wishing I could trade places just for a day. We see Q’s inspiration for […]

Max Bell is in the back sipping on yak.  For the past two years L.A. based producer/DJ/singer/multi-instrumentalist (and not the other way around) Toy Light has operated at the intersection of indie rock and beat scene electronic, somewhere between Thom Yorke and Flying Lotus. If you haven’t seen his name around these parts, then you might’ve […]

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 […]

Doc Zeus knows the woopty-woop. Creative burnout is the most common pitfall facing young rappers transitioning from blog fame to the unyielding lights of major label stardom. The combination of dwindling-to-non-existent resources for artist development, a democratization of DYI self-recording processes and the Internet’s revolutionary free distribution model spawned a glut of thirsty, talented, unsigned […]

In which Schoolboy Q plays a piano in an abandoned house while a little girl (presumably his daughter) does pirouettes in a ballerina outfit. There are kangols and prosts, cops in vans and golden balloons. There are facial tattoos and 40s and a whole lot of high socks. Raiders shirts and Monte Carlo’s and big […]

I am writing this because I am averse to the mechanics of the web and it’s the best song to come out this week and because I wanted to throw fruitless slander at imaginary boogeymen. And I feel that if you run a website, you should write about the songs you like whenever you get […]

Max Bell once owned a bucket hat. It’s Friday. You may or may not have shit to do. But if you’re already reading this, then you should take a few and watch Schoolboy’s video for “Man of the Year.” “Man of the Year” is a party in the trees as much as it is on […]

Deen has never worn a backwards snapback. Last time I got around to typing stuff for y’all, I kinda lamented the absence of TDE voices over DJ Mustard/IamSu/League of Starz beats. I figured a fella like Schoolboy Q could use the boost that comes from rapping over a DJ Mustard beat over the last few […]

Q: very fast to flash the iron yet with the meticulous fashion forward sense that ensures his flannel and shoelaces match. This is a song balled “Banger” that incorporates some NBA Jam “Boom Shaka Lacka’s.” It’s more of a mixtape track than the polished material he’s been releasing in the lead up to Oxymoron. However, […]