Jimmy Ness bites the eel by the dozen Rather than opt for songs emotive of grey scale weather, blocked-guttering and shrinking daylight hours, I’ve compiled this fall mixtape as a snapshot of music I’m currently digging. The track-list reveals 2014 was the year I delved bellbottom-knee deep into funk’s luminescent depths. Prince, Zapp, Luther Vandross, Lakeside, […]

Art By Brad Beatson. Left and Right Swiping By Paul Thompson, Torii MacAdams, and Jeff Weiss

Torii MacAdams is like all races combined in one man like the ’98 summer jam A decade is a long time to plan for. Even Joseph Stalin, a dictator, only had the temerity to plan in five year increments. The initial plan led to the starvation of millions. The baby-faced DJ Mustard’s ostensible plot for […]

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 […]

Abe Beame heard that you look like MC Hammer on crack. Everyone’s talking about YG and DJ Mustard’s Compton throwback, My Krazy Life and its standout track, “Meet the Flockers”. In the song, YG gives us a brief overview on the fine points of home invasion. The song is glorious, but it’s hardly the first […]

Gifts include DJ Quik and Too Short records and a Boyz in the Hood tee. Y.G. breaks down why he needs six hotel suites and why Benihana is a superior Hibachi dining experience. In return, he gives Nardwuar signed posters, tickets to the concert, and a promise to turn-up. Doc Zeus’ review is still here. […]

Doc Zeus is from Bleveland. If your only contact with rap music was through the lunatic rantings of Bill O’Reilly (who reflexively equates “rapper” with “criminal”), you might not know that the influence of gangster rap has declined during the last decade. The transformative success of eclectic, “middle-class” artists such as Kanye West and Drake […]

Son Raw & Maxwell Cavaseno are all in the same gang It’s been roughly 6-7 years since YG burst on the rap scene. He’s survived two trends/sub-genres coming and going, been incarcerated, and lived a life that the average rap fan fantasizes about. Throughout those years, he’s remained an underground phenomenon, beloved in Los Angeles […]

Max Bell wants to drink sake. Ty Dolla $ign (Ty$) buys his women the same red bottoms and the same perfume. It’s the smart move: if anyone asks, you only have to remember one set of gifts. He also only considers taking a woman to the movies if the head is right. That’s just being […]

The best defense for liking a rap song is, it’s fun. Of course, fun is subjective. People have been trying to tell me that French Montana is fun, but I find his music as boring as watching grass groan. Neither Y.G. nor Joe Moses are about to dazzle anyone at any point with anything resembling […]