DJ Quik

Music Picks: No Doubt, Nikki Hill, Alice Cooper

Music Picks: Tame Impala, Deftones, DJ Quik

Murs and Fashawn On Their Kinship and Their New Album

California-bred rappers Murs and Fashawn have much in common. They're both former graffiti writers, skateboarders and independent-minded rappers who have affinities for collaborating with one specific producer per album. But they're also more than a decade apart in age -- Murs is 34, Fashawn 23. *M ... More >>

Is The Dove Shack's "Summertime in the LBC" the Perfect Summer Song?

[Editor's note: Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. Be sure to also check out the archives.] See also: KDAY, the Gangsta Rap Oldies Station, Breaks New Ground by Playing Music From the Bad Old Days This is the city and the season for the summer jam. Yo ... More >>

The Brand New Tupac Wax Statue Is Fucking Uncanny

See also: *Here Are Pictures of Dr. Dre's New $13 Million House *Bruce Hornsby on Tupac: "The original 'Changes' was a lot dirtier, had a lot of the n-word." Like most folks on their 41st birthday, Tupac celebrated with his old friends. Except that Tupac is now a wax statue. On Saturday night at ... More >>

Rock the Bells 2012 Lineup Announced

See also: Our review of Rock the Bells 2011 Last night Guerilla Union announced this year's Rock the Bells 2012 dates, headliners and lineup. Beginning in 2010, the hip-hop festival's headliners -- famous acts whose first few albums often outshine their later work -- have performed their classic ... More >>

Toni Monroe Is a Big Beautiful Rapper

See also: Top Ten Sexiest Fat Chicks in Music Toni Monroe is beautiful. She has a powerful stage presence, and doesn't need a hype man. But yet, she's something of a hard sell. For one thing, she's white. For another, as her press release says, she is rap's "biggest" new artist -- a reference to he ... More >>

Odd Future, Dipset, Ab-Soul - Paid Dues 2012 - 4/7/2012

Paid Dues 2012 NOS Events Center, San Bernardino 4/7/2012 Posted by the Paid Dues media check-in, the announcement, "ATTENTION: Photo Pit Closed for Odd Future Performance," seemed an ominous sign. Though it likely was just to ward off further lawsuits, it felt a little pretentious -- and Murs' ind ... More >>

Bizarre Ride: Jeff Weiss's Five Los Angeles Music Archetypes

[Editor's note: Longtime Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's new column, "Bizarre Ride," begins today. You can find it on West Coast Sound every Wednesday.] The L.A. cliché is a war of shadow and light: fallen stars gone to seed, saccharine pop and gangsta rap. But this is 2012 and Dr. Dre is a headphone g ... More >>

LinA In LA Party Picks: Sexy Elves and a 40 of Olde English Malt Liquor

Don't shop til' you drop, bop til' you drop! European electronic dance dynamos, a hip-hop master (DJ Quik) and wax-wielding women (in hottie holiday garb!) round out the dance offerings for the first week of December. Fri., Dec. 2 Departure's got another global groover to get you grinding, Tiefsch ... More >>

Drinkify: We Get Drunk To See If It Actually Works

We at West Coast Sound love little more than good tunes and good booze. So, when Drinkify dropped earlier this month -- an Internet app that suggests cocktails to sip while listening to your artist of choice -- we were intrigued. So much so that we bought a whole shopping bag of elixirs and got to d ... More >>

Dâm-Funk and DJ Quik - El Rey - 11-03-11

Julian Schoen​By Julian Schoen See also: *Crate-Digging with Dam-Funk ... at Best Buy *Dâm-Funk: Keytar Hero Dâm-Funk and DJ Quik El Rey 11-03-11 "SGV, 626, Pasadena!" Dâm-Funk, a 'Dena native, howled to an electrified El Rey crowd. His ruby red keytar was as bright as a Rose Bowl ros ... More >>

Crate-Digging with Dam-Funk...at Best Buy

Rebecca Haithcoat​Dam-Funk always comes prepared. As L.A.'s ambassador to the funk gods, he's always equipped with the booty-rotation essentials he's acquired from years of digging in the crates. (You can bet his show tonight at the El Rey Theatre will be no exception.) The man reigns so sup ... More >>

Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: The Complete List

​Editor's note: In conjunction with our music issue we rolled out the top 20 L.A. rap albums of all time this week, as picked by Ian Cohen, Rebecca Haithcoat, Jeff Weiss and Ben Westhoff. But the list was broken up into four posts, which can get a bit unwieldy, so we've compiled the full list ... More >>

Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: 10-6

​See also Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums of All Time: 20-16 Editor's note: For our music issue, out on Thursday, Ian Cohen, Rebecca Haithcoat, Jeff Weiss and Ben Westhoff run down the top 20 L.A. rap albums of all time. We're unveiling the list all this week on West Coast Sound. 10. Freesty ... More >>

Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: 15-11

​ See also Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums of All Time: 20-16 Editor's note: For our music issue, out on Thursday, Ian Cohen, Rebecca Haithcoat, Jeff Weiss and Ben Westhoff run down the top 20 L.A. rap albums of all time. We're unveiling the list all this week on West Coast Sound. The party ... More >>

Music Picks: Janet Jackson, John Escreet Quartet, DJ Quik, Charles Bradley

Also, Charlie Haden Quartet West, John Williams, Philip Glass and others

DJ Quik - Do-Over Party at Cabana Club - 8/7/11

Ben Westhoff​DJ Quik and Gaslamp Killer Cabana Club 8/7/11 Better Than...A day in the life of a player not named Quik. Long lines and folks trying to get the valet to park their Bentleys circled outside of the Cabana Club in Hollywood yesterday. It was Sunday afternoon and time for the weekl ... More >>

1st Generation at Club Nokia, 7/23/11

Ian Cohen​1st Generation Club Nokia July 23, 2011 Better than: Compton High School's annual talent show, but possibly not. It's been said that you can instantly judge the economic health of a neighborhood based on the prevalence of barriers: fences, security systems, especially speed bumps. ... More >>

Nocando Kicks Off RePlay LA Tomorrow at the Hard Rock; Talks Quik and Swagnosticism

​James "Nocando" McCall titled one of his first solo releases, "Nocando is a Virus." And like any virus, he's innately aware of the importance of mutation. By 25, the Leimert Park-raised rapper had toured the country with Project Blowed avatar, Aceyalone, won Scribble Jam, dropped a pair of al ... More >>

DJ Quik: Trials and Tribulations of a West Coast Legend

​James "Nocando" McCall titled one of his first solo releases, "Nocando is a Virus." And like any virus, he's innately aware of the importance of mutation. By 25, the Leimert Park-raised rapper had toured the country with Project Blowed avatar, Aceyalone, won Scribble Jam, dropped a pair of al ... More >>

Music Picks: Coachella, Girls in Trouble, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Paul Simon

Also, Mary Anne Hobbs, Yoni Wolf, Emmylou Harris and others

Page Two: Best Week Ever (for Hip-Hop, R&B and Beats)

Never mind Coachella, this is the week L.A. gets funked up!

BREAKING: MTV Discovers L.A. Still Has a Hip-Hop Scene!

In the beginning ... ​As announced in a trailer released this morning, MTV will air a weeklong look at L.A.'s hip-hop scene in a segment "we're calling 'The New West: An In-depth Look at L.A. Hip Hop.'" Though we're much obliged to them for referencing N.W.A.'s LA Weekly cover, we think the ... More >>

Top 10 Songs That Namecheck Los Angeles Strip Clubs

What happens at the strip club...​ February is the month we worship upon the altar of amour -- and what better way to let Cupid's arrow fly than investing your hardly-earned dollar bills into the g-string of a bare-bottom UCLA co-ed? If you need some risque recommendations once you or your si ... More >>

Interview: Bomb Zombies On Autotune, Smashing Pumpkins, Moms

​ Bomb Zombies "FWUH (Fuckwhatchaheard)" by Hellfyre Club Bomb Zombies is a collaboration between Low End Theory's DJ Nobody and Nocando, offering smart lyrics executed overbass-heavy 808-and-autotune backing tracks. Their Sincerely Yours EP with a provocative cover was released two w ... More >>

Watch: Dâm-Funk, Steve "Just a Touch" Arrington and Teen Inc. Record Together, DJ Quik Claims to Have Made a Billion Dollars

Steve Arrington in his Slave days, fantastic jheri curl in full effect.​Things are getting weird at Stones Throw, but we suppose that's what happens any time things get too damn funky That, or someone got into MED's medical marijuana stash. Former Slave frontman Steve Arrington ("Just a Touch ... More >>

This Weekend: Sharon Jones & Dap Kings, Dead Man's Bones, Warped Tour, Black Francis, Danzig

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings​Can it get any more real that Sharon Jones? Well, it can't get any more heartwarming. The leading lady of the Dap-Kings is, after all, a rising star at 54, having shucked the uniforms of her previous careers (corrections officer at Rikers Island, and armor truck g ... More >>

Live in L.A. This Weekend: Angels & Airwaves, Miike Snow, Enrique Bunbury, Flight of the Conchords, Nas & Damian 'Jr. Gong' Marley

Via Fuel.tvAngels & Airwaves​Say what you will about Angels & Airwaves' radio rock (outer-space emo is the phrase that comes to mind), but Tom DeLonge has a plan. Working around the cash register jingle of inevitable Blink-182 reunions, he's made three increasingly ambitious albums with his n ... More >>

East Coast Clobbers West Coast in 2009 Pazz & Jop Music Poll

Well, if you're keeping track at home, the so-called "west coast sound" got clobbered this year in the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll of the year's best music. And when we say "clobbered," we actually mean "beaten to a bloody pulp." Consider this: In the list of the top 100 albums o ... More >>

The Bromance Continues: Snoop Dogg, Mayer Hawthorne, Diplo & Soulja Boy Tell 'Em

Snoop with the homie D-Beckham Bend It​It's been just over a decade since Snoop Dogg started "fuckin' with white boyz in ninety-nine," as the outro of "White Boyz" (from the soundtrack to the movie Whiteboys), once so tastefully declared. Well, in 2010, it seems he might finally add a couple f ... More >>

The Continuing Education of Freddie Gibbs: A Follow-Up To This Week's Cover Story

​ Thursday's cover story on Gary, Indiana-raised rapper Freddie Gibbs, engendered a substantial response within the hip-hop blogosphere, with prominent sites Rap Radar, Nah Right, Fake Shore Drive, and The Smoking Section, all taking note. Even Wale twittered a congratulations message. Cons ... More >>

Snoop Dogg, Mayer Hawthorne, Diplo, DJ Quik Soulja Boy Supergroup Album Due Out in 2011?!

Stones Throw soul man Mayer Hawthorne has been spending a lot of time in Paris of late. Tonight, he performs at La Bellevelloise, and about a week ago, he let slip via Twitter that he was "recording some vocals for Snoop Dogg at a studio in Paris," adding, "the surreal life continues." Those paying ... More >>

Mullen on Music

Stones Throw soul man Mayer Hawthorne has been spending a lot of time in Paris of late. Tonight, he performs at La Bellevelloise, and about a week ago, he let slip via Twitter that he was "recording some vocals for Snoop Dogg at a studio in Paris," adding, "the surreal life continues." Those paying ... More >>

Brendan Mullen the Writer: Highlights of his Work for the Weekly

In addition to opening punk club the Masque, LA DIY music giant Brendan Mullen, who died at age 60 yesterday after suffering a stroke on Saturday, was a longtime LA Weekly music writer whose prescient insight and in-the-trenches curiosity captured the experience of being a music head in LA in the 8 ... More >>

Nightranger: Thriller Nights Before, During and After Halloween

Steel Wheels, Darling Stilettos and the Boo-Over

Rock Picks: DJ Quik, Alejandro Escovedo, Ratatat

Also, the Bad Plus, Amos Lee, Built to Spill, and more

Snoop Goes Country! Snoop Dogg Live at Fox Studios, March 6

photos by Timothy Norris Snoop Dogg gigged with an 18-piece backing band in a Fox Studio sound room last night for the Nissan Live series shown on Yahoo! Music, and now that I’ve pimped the corporate affiliates that made this evening of taping possible, let’s just say right off the bat: I have ... More >>

Rock Picks: John Fogerty, Band of Horses, Eek-a-Mouse, Gram Rabbit

For the week of November 23 - 29

Rock Picks

For the week of March 1 - 8

Music Picks

For the week of June 8 - 15

Fugee-L.A.

Fugees at Hollywood & Vine, February 6, Kanye West at Avalon, February 6

Grammy Diary - Updated

Fugees at Hollywood & Vine, February 6, Kanye West at Avalon, February 6

Rock Picks

For February 3 - 10

Quik As F**k

The violent life, tumultuous career and fundamental goodness of DJ Quik

East Vs. West, Part II

February 24, and Tangier, February 25

Killaz and Victims

DJ Quik lays 'em out

A Neighborhood Just West of Downtown

DJ Quik lays 'em out

Sigh Language

A darker shade of AWOL One

Saving It

A darker shade of AWOL One