Email Author Jeff Weiss

2008 Stories by Jeff Weiss

• Kanye West's Melancholy Hasn't Fully Dimmed His Megalomania

  published November 27, 2008

  The album 808s & Heartbreak is the sound of pop culture’s most brash and arrogant figure being brought to his... More >>

• Drive, Baby, Drive: Obama Voter's Car Gets a "Drill, Baby, Drill" Paint Job

  published October 16, 2008

  There are a few things more embarrassing than driving through Los Feliz with “Drill, Baby, Drill” painted in... More >>

• Has the L.A. Hip-Hop Plague Finally Passed?

  published September 25, 2008

  A History of L.A. Rap in 750 WordsIgnore the conventional narrative. The simplistic and linear hip-hop hagiographies... More >>

• Like Fresh Cream: Al Green Teams With the Roots

  published September 18, 2008

  It’s usually safe to call bullshit when a critic uses the phrase “late-career masterpiece,”... More >>

• Hip-Hop's Greatest Al Green Samples

  published September 18, 2008

  “Simply Beautiful” (from I’m Still in Love With You),... More >>

• L.A. Music Publisher's Suit Against Lil Wayne Threatens to Rewrite Rules on Mixtapes

  published September 4, 2008

  For a music born and bred in the streets, hip-hop is no stranger to the courtroom. Built on a bedrock of funk, jazz and soul... More >>

• The Many Moods of Rock the Bells

  published August 7, 2008

  Everything moves in cycles. We knew this in the abstract, but we’d forgotten. Who could blame us? Shit got practically... More >>

• Who's Biting J Dilla's Beats?

  published June 19, 2008

  No art form lionizes its fallen quite like hip-hop. Forget Biggie and 2Pac. Their reputations were sealed the moment the... More >>

• The Doors? Black Flag? The Chili Peppers? Nope. L.A.'s Best Band Was Love.

  published May 8, 2008

  Let’s talk greatest Los Angeles bands for a second. Depending how you’re wired, there are roughly a dozen... More >>

• Why My Morning Jacket Is the Best Live Band in the World

  published April 17, 2008

  If song really is one of the few conduits of human contact with a higher power, the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco is a... More >>

• GZA's Liquid Swords of Truth

  published March 27, 2008

  A wise man once said that those who “really, really like Wu-Tang think Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... More >>

• Felli Fel: Feel the Power

  published March 6, 2008

  It's immediately obvious the first time you meet Felli Fel why 1.6 million people listen to him nightly on Power 106. The... More >>

• Boyz II Men: A Philadelphia Story

  published January 31, 2008

  When Boyz II Men dropped  Motownphilly in the spring of '91, it not only signified the end of the New Jack... More >>

• Discovering the Candidates Through Their Playlists

  published January 31, 2008

  Bill Clinton's reappropriation of Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" might be the first song that comes to... More >>

• No One Wants to Smoke a Blunt with Lupe Fiasco

  published January 10, 2008

  “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific... More >>