Subject:

Hip-Hop and Rap

  • Music

    May 24, 2012

    Is Riff Raff Serious?

    One thing's for certain: This maddeningly inscrutable white rapper is more entertaining than you are

  • Blogs

    May 24, 2012

    The Pharcyde - The Roxy - 5/23/12

    See also: *The Pharcyde's Bizarre Ride, 20 Years Later: 
An Appreciation *Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: The Complete List The Pharcyde The Roxy 5/23/12 Better than ... listening to the album. The city's been a little tense lately, honking on the freeway, power drinking, and tra ... More >>

  • Blogs

    May 23, 2012

    The Pharcyde's Bizarre Ride, 20 Years Later: 
An Appreciation

    See also: *J-Swift Made Big Hits 
With the Pharcyde 
Before Tragedy and Drugs 
Nearly Took Him Down *Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: The Complete List To fully appreciate the impact of The Pharcyde's "Ya Mama," you had to be in a junior high lunchroom in the spring of 1993. It w ... More >>

  • Blogs

    May 18, 2012

    Hit Boy: Whatever Kanye Wants ...

    One of the fascinating Angelenos featured in L.A. Weekly's People 2012 issue. Check out our entire People 2012 issue here. "Ni**as in Paris," last year's most popular song, exploded in roughly the same amount of time that its producer spent creating it. "It took me probably 15 minutes to make tha ... More >>

  • Blogs

    May 16, 2012

    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 >>

  • Blogs

    May 8, 2012

    Let's Not Reduce Adam Yauch's Career to a Single Lyric

    See also: *Our Adam Yauch Obituary *Adam Yauch, RIP: A Life in Photos Adam Yauch, better known as MCA of the Beastie Boys, died last week. His group was a big deal in hip-hop, not just because they were the first white act to break through, but because they helped establish both the sample-based pr ... More >>

  • Blogs

    May 8, 2012

    Top Ten Rap Albums For People Who Don't Know Shit About Hip-Hop

    Hip-hop is nearly 40, but many still find this slightly-disorienting world of beats, rhymes and oversize personalities a bit daunting. So consider this our hip-hop Cliff's notes; here are the albums you should know about if you don't want to look silly at cocktail parties. We're not saying these a ... More >>

  • Blogs

    May 4, 2012

    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 >>

  • Blogs

    April 30, 2012

    Author Jeff Chang: Hip-hop Predicted the L.A. Riots

    [Editor's note: Over the past week West Coast Sound has been speaking with rappers and writers whose work has been influenced by the L.A. riots, to coincide with their 20th anniversary yesterday.] Jeff Chang is the author of Can't Stop Won't Stop, perhaps the most important book about hip-hop ever ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 30, 2012

    Ice Cube - KDAY Krush Groove - April 28, 2012

    Ice Cube, Cypress Hill, Mystikal and others KDAY Krush Groove Gibson Amphitheater April 28, 2012 An invitation to Ice Cube's gangsta nation is tough to decline, even for those on the right side of the law. Which is why at one point during the Krush Groove hip-hop concert on Saturday a yellow-shirte ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 26, 2012

    Phife Dawg Is Down With Posthumous Holograms, Likes Funyons

    See Also: Michael Rapaport's A Tribe Called Quest Documentary A lazy reader of the internet would believe that since A Tribe Called Quest's 1998 breakup, Q-Tip has a platinum album and Grammy wins, while Phife Dawg has done little more than gotten a kidney transplant and eaten a bag of Funyons. Of ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 24, 2012

    Tupac on the L.A. Riots: "I Hate to Say I Told You So, But I Told You So"

    See also: Our coverage of the 15th anniversary of Tupac's death Tupac Shakur was a gangsta rapper of the old mold; he called himself a thug, sure, but he was also quite conscious when it came to social issues, particularly those impacting the black community. The rare video below -- taken one wee ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 23, 2012

    Best of Coachella: Sunday, April 22

    See also: Our complete Coachella coverage By the third day of Coachella's second weekend -- the sixth and final day of this year's festival -- folks had more or less learned to ignore the dust and the heat. Here are our intrepid writers' favorite things about the final hours of the 2012 event.

  • Blogs

    April 19, 2012

    Here Is a Children's Cartoon About Snoop Dogg's Murder Trial

    See also: Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Tupac's Hologram at Coachella, April 15, 2012 Before kids' programming was relegated to cable, the major networks competed for young viewers. With the relatively new Fox network's penchant for cutting edge programming, their block of '90s shows for kids was no exce ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 9, 2012

    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 >>

  • Blogs

    April 6, 2012

    Ten Rap-Rock Songs That Are Actually Awesome

    See also: Crazy Town's Shifty Shellshock Is Out of His Coma! Here's Everything You Need To Know About Him Rap-rock remains the coolest idea ever. You've just been scared off of it by the mountain of terrible rap-rock in existence. Here are ten songs that prove the Woodstock '99-tainted genre could ... More >>

  • Blogs

    March 28, 2012

    Big Sean, Kid Ink - Club Nokia - 3/27/12

    Big Sean, Kid Ink Club Nokia 3/27/12 Better Than... hanging out with the people who went to the Lady Antebellum show at Staples Center. Since 2008, XXL Magazine has anointed a group of up-and-coming rappers as their freshman class in order to show fans what the future of hip-hop will look like. M ... More >>

  • Blogs

    March 21, 2012

    Taking Physics Class 
with Professor GZA

    [Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] See also: Our review of Wu-Tang Clan's January 21, 2012 show at Club Nokia The Wu-Tang Clan once said if we picked up their double album, Wu-Tang Foreve ... More >>

  • Blogs

    March 12, 2012

    Why Limp Bizkit on Cash Money Makes Sense

    See also: Fuck Guilty Pleasures: Limp Bizkit Had An Amazing Run It's confirmed: The Limp Bizkit-on-Cash Money era is upon us, whatever that might entail. We know because last week at the Laundry Bar in Melbourne, Austrailia, Bizkit/House of Pain turntabilist DJ Lethal spun "Ready to Go," the world ... More >>

  • Blogs

    March 12, 2012

    Alert: SXSW Coverage Ahead

    "What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area." -- Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive You don't have to spend much time at South By Southwest to know that all of the above building ... More >>

  • Blogs

    March 9, 2012

    Snoop Dogg, Bishop Don "Magic" Juan, and Debbie "The Glass Lady" on Pimp Cups, Religion, and Life Lessons

    In this week's cover story, we trace the elusive and colorful history of hip hop's most interesting accessory, the pimp cup. These bedazzled chalices, made and prayed over by Chicago church-goer Debbie the Glass Lady, are carried by celebrities ranging from Lil Jon to Owen Wilson. Pimp-turned-preach ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 28, 2012

    Seven Ghostface Killah Songs Showing His Softer Side

    ​See also Ghostface Killah Changes Mind About Online Impersonator Ghostfase: 'Shout Out to My Mini Muse.... Funny Ass Ninja' Story by Reed Fischer Ghostface Killah has flirted with mainstream hip-hop, but has spent most of his career being the critics' favorite rapper -- for good reason. Tony St ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 22, 2012

    Killer Mike - Echoplex - February 21, 2012

    Ben Westhoff​Killer Mike w/ Busdriver, Nocando, and Open Mike Eagle Echoplex February 21, 2012 Better than: John Rocker Killer Mike is conscious without being boring, a street preacher rapper who knows that no one will listen to your message if your beats aren't dope. He's an obvious heir to ... More >>

  • Music

    February 16, 2012

    Gangrene Get High, So High

    Alchemist and Oh No's label gave them a weed budget

  • Blogs

    February 14, 2012

    Lauryn Hill's Top Five Career-Torpedoing Tendencies

    ​Lauryn Hill is the world's greatest unhinged rapper-turned-singer. As part of the Fugees she came to worldwide fame, and then released a widely-loved solo album. But that was before she proceeded to bicker with her bandmates, give horrible live performances, and embark on a series of decision ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 9, 2012

    Is Syl Johnson Rich Off of Rap Samples? He Says So

    The Grammy-nominated soul singer Syl Johnson is currently suing Jay-Z and Kanye West for an alleged illegal sample of his song "Different Strokes" on the Watch The Throne album track "The Joy." (No, not the theme song from the television show starring Gary Coleman.) If successful, it won't be the f ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 1, 2012

    Never-Before-Seen Photos of Tupac and Eazy-E From New Book West Coast Hip Hop: A History In Photos

    See also: Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: The Complete List Michael Miller and Paul Stewart had capped a successful Kickstarter project and planned a digital imprint of their book, a collection of photographs from the golden era of West Coast hip hop, called West Coast Hip Hop: A Histo ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 25, 2012

    Danny Brown and Kid Sister - The Echoplex - 1/24/12

    Aaron FrankDanny Brown and Main Attrakionz​See also: Danny Brown is Hip-Hop's Cormac McCarthy Danny Brown and Kid Sister The Echoplex 1/24/12 Anticipation for rapper Danny Brown's first headlining performance in Los Angeles was already at fever pitch when I entered the Echoplex last night. A ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 24, 2012

    Battle of the Barbies: Who's Better, Lil' Kim or Nicki Minaj?

    See also: The Boss Vs. The Bawse: Who's Better, Bruce Springsteen or Rick Ross? [Editor's note: Deathmatch pairs two artists who have something in common, and determines who is better. It's a concept we sort-of ripped off from MTV, except that instead of claymation it's the printed word!] Lil' Kim ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 22, 2012

    Wu-Tang Clan - Club Nokia - 1/21/12

    Wu-Tang Clan Club Nokia January 21, 2012 Sorry, but Wu-Tang Clan is something to fuck with these days. Sure, their fans remain passionate -- a group of grown-ass music writers I know do almost nothing but analyze their lyrics and recent solo projects -- but there's fewer of them. The group's rele ... More >>

  • Music

    January 19, 2012

    Music Picks: Skrillex, Diplo, Wu-Tang Clan, The Health Club

    Also, Art Lande, Albert "Tootie" Heath, Gilad Hekselman, The Stitches, The Villains and others

  • Blogs

    January 17, 2012

    Dr. Dre Tribute Album: We Tear It A New One

    Now I need a doctor​Seeing as Detox still shows no signs of life -- seriously, another couple years of this and we're going to get angry -- what's a real G supposed to do? For that matter, what are we supposed to do? Well, there certainly is plenty of prime Dr. Dre material ripe for re-purpo ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 14, 2012

    Rick Ross and Busta Rhymes - Nokia Theatre - 1/13/12

    Rick Ross feat. Busta Rhymes 1-13-12 Nokia Theatre See also: Fictional Cutting-Room Floor Outtakes From Rick Ross' Amazing GQ Profile Better than: Actually being Big Meech. Or Larry Hoover. At least in 2012. "Schindler and I are like peas in a pod! We're both factory owners, we both made shells f ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 11, 2012

    J-Swift Made Big Hits 
With The Pharcyde 
Before Tragedy And Drugs 
Nearly Took Him Down

    Nanette Gonzales​[Editor's note: Longtime Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] See also: Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: The Complete List J-Swift hit rock bottom five years ago. Sacks o ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 11, 2012

    Blue Ivy Carter: Top Five Worst Examples of Rap Nepotism

    Barely two days after his and Beyonce's baby Blue Ivy Carter was born, Jay-Z put her on a song. "Glory" is a tribute to his new daughter, who closes the track out with a guest feature -- crying. Jay-Z may be starting his kid off young, but nepotism is standard practice among rap superstars. There' ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 10, 2012

    The Top Five Hip-Hop Albums Of 2012 So Far

    I Self Devine​What a year it's been for rap music! None of us knew what to expect of 2012 way back on January 1, last Sunday, but it has panned out big time. This year's class is an inspired bunch, a crew of rappers who are really pushing things forward. While it's a little early to call this ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 9, 2012

    World Famous V.I.P. Records Officially Closes

    c/o Kelvin AndersonOwner Kelvin Anderson Sr. with Craig Mack, left, and Notorious B.I.G., right​For this week's feature story, we wrote about the impending demise of World Famous V.I.P. Records in Long Beach, which once boasted a dozen branches and was instrumental in the rise of West Coast hi ... More >>

  • Music

    January 5, 2012

    World Famous V.I.P. Records To Close

    Long Beach shop helped foster the G-Funk era

  • Blogs

    January 4, 2012

    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 >>

  • Blogs

    December 30, 2011

    Hip-Hop's Four Elements: The Old Ones Suck. Here's Our Suggestions for New Ones

    We've long thought hip-hop's "four elements" were bogus. Sure, back in the early days of the genre, rapping, DJing, graffiti writing and b-boying were interwoven into the culture. But c'mon. Even back then, it was pretty arbitrary. I mean, it's not like guys in the Bronx invented tagging. Cavemen ... More >>

  • Blogs

    December 16, 2011

    Mos Def and Talib Kweli - Club Nokia - 12-15-11

    Timothy Norris​Black Star (Mos Def and Talib Kweli) Club Nokia 12-15-11 Better than: Vanilla Ice's cameo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze. Mos Def and Talib Kweli were already established alternative hip-hop artists when they came together to form Black Star, produc ... More >>

  • Blogs

    December 15, 2011

    Christmas Rapping: Jim Carrey, Busta Rhymes, And Eazy-E Bring The Ho, Ho, Hoes

    ​While visions of sugarplum fairies might be dancing in your head this time of year, it's going to take a little more to bring your Christmas party to the next level. While the traditional seasonal standards are... standard, the surefire way to put the star on your tree -- or the eggs in you ... More >>

  • Blogs

    December 14, 2011

    Why This Song Sucks: The Worst Rap Tracks Of 2011

    ​I still don't understand why more people didn't like Unbreakable. It was suspenseful, smart enough, featured an attractive color palette, and it had a horribly creepy opening. (Remember the baby who was born with all of his bones broken?) And the most clever part -- the crux of the entire mov ... More >>

  • Calendar

    December 8, 2011

    Madlib

    ​I still don't understand why more people didn't like Unbreakable. It was suspenseful, smart enough, featured an attractive color palette, and it had a horribly creepy opening. (Remember the baby who was born with all of his bones broken?) And the most clever part -- the crux of the entire mov ... More >>

  • Blogs

    December 5, 2011

    Nic Adler On Balistyx And The Genesis Of Grandmaster B

    Kevin Scanlon​See also: Bud Bundy's Rap Career?! Hear David Faustino's Music Our cover story this week "Bud Bundy, Original Gangsta" focuses on David Faustino and his Balistyx party, which ran for two years in the early '90s and helped bring hip-hop to the west coast mainstream. Faustino's me ... More >>

  • Blogs

    December 2, 2011

    Bud Bundy's Rap Career?! Hear David Faustino's Music

    In this week's cover story, "Bud Bundy, Original Gangsta," I delve into the remarkable hip-hop trajectory of David Faustino, who, while playing Bud Bundy on Married...with Children, threw one of the most influential rap parties the west coast has ever seen. In the early '90s, along with three of h ... More >>

  • News

    December 1, 2011

    Bud Bundy, Original Gangsta

    David Faustino parlayed his Married ... With Children fame into a hugely influential hip-hop party. Now he wants back into the scene.

  • Blogs

    November 30, 2011

    Rap Industry Fan Fiction: Here Are Some Freestyled Stories About Tyga And Tyler, the Creator

    Sure, you have your cosplay and your Star Trek, but Rap Industry Fan Fiction takes the genre to a place that it isn't know for going -- hip-hop. The brainchild of UNC history major Kate Davis Jones and grad Drew Millard, the site makes good on titles like "Ice Cube Shows Ice-T His Model Train Set" a ... More >>

  • Blogs

    November 29, 2011

    Know Your L.A. Hip-Hop Dances: Who, Exactly, Is Allowed To Crip Walk?

    [Editor's Note: Writer Jessica A. Koslow is a USC master's student writing her thesis on krumping. Know Your L.A. Hip-Hop Dances explores some of the most popular street dances in our city.] Crip Walk "I'm C-Walkin' on the mutherfuckin' concrete," raps Ice Cube on "Go To Church." Other Crip Walker ... More >>

  • Blogs

    November 21, 2011

    Hip-Hop's New Brainiac: K. Flay

    When she talks, K. Flay uses big words.Nascent.Dichotomous. Alienation.It's the sort of vernacular that writers splay all over the page when they're trying to sound intelligent. But Flay actually is intelligent; there's her dual degrees from Stanford in psychology and sociology, for one thing. Rig ... More >>

  • More >>
VOICE Daily Deals

Most Popular Stories

for free stuff, news info & more!

Now Click This

About Us | Media Kit | Work for LA Weekly | Esubscribe | Free Classifieds | LA Weekly Advertising | National Online Advertising | Mobile | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Site Problems? | RSS | Site Map
© 2012 LA Weekly, LP, All rights reserved.
Browse Voice Nation
avatar
Newsletters | Mobile
  • Voice Places

    Voice Places

    Discover restaurants, nightlife, travel, shopping...

  • VOICE Daily Deals

    VOICE Daily Deals

    Get 50 to 90% off every day on restaurants, movies, massages...

  • Best Of

    Best Of...

    More than 10,000 of the BEST things to eat, drink, and experience

  • My Voice Nation

    My Voice Nation

    Join the Village Voice community and get exclusive deals and info

  • Happy Hour

    Happy Hour

    Your local Happy Hour guide at your fingertips

or

Log in or Sign up

Social Connect:

Use your favorite account to access My Voice Nation.


Use your My Voice Nation account to log in:





Forgot password?
or

Sign Up or Log in

Social Connect:

Sign up for My Voice Nation with your preferred network.


Sign up for a My Voice Nation account:



Privacy policy