Hip-Hop and Rap

It's Crunch Time For Nipsey Hussle

Before Kendrick Lamar, Dom Kennedy and YG, it was Nipsey Hussle who was dubbed the next big L.A. MC. The Crenshaw neighborhood native was called the next Snoop Dogg and featured on XXL's Freshman cover in 2010 with Freddie Gibbs, Big Sean, J. Cole, and Wiz Khalifa. That same year Hussle left Epic ... More >>

Quit Calling Yourself Old

Detroit rapper Danny Brown has a new album out, called Old. Brown's occasional boasts about receiving in-show fellatio aside, just about everyone who likes good rap music likes him, and this new work does not disappoint. But the title is really annoying. Because in hip-hop, as in many other se ... More >>

RZA Headlines L.A. Weekly's Bedrocktoberfest: Here's Our Interview

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] There's no musical comparison to interviewing RZA. Having a conversation with the Wu-Tang abbot is closer to interviewing the Dalai Lama, if the Dalai La ... More >>

The Life and Death of Rapper Kevin "Flipside" White

By Jake Paine Around 7:30pm this past Monday evening, rapper Kevin "Flipside" White was shot dead in what is believed to be an unprovoked attack during a gang conflict at Watts' Nickerson Gardens and Jordan Downs housing projects. Flipside was a founding member of Watts' first major label hip hop ... More >>

Low End Theory's Nobody Does Not Give a Damn

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] "If you set yourself up as the 'I don't give a fuck guy,' you can do whatever you want." This is Nobody explaining the creative left hooks of his singul ... More >>

No, Seriously: My Musical Taste Was Shaped By Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto changed my life. Not because the games got me robbing, stabbing, and running over prostitutes, but because, as a 20-year-old guy, it has directly shaped my musical taste. The latest game in the series, Grand Theft Auto V, drops today and takes place in a fictionalized version of L. ... More >>

Rock the Bells - San Manuel Amphitheater - Sept 7 & 8, 2013

Rock the Bells Hip-Hop Festival San Manuel Amphitheater 9/7/13 - 9/8/13 This weekend was the 10th anniversary of hip-hop festival Rock the Bells. Anticipated for its reunions, game changing new artists, and ODB and Eazy-E holograms, it was two days for hip-hop fans and artists to connect. Still, we ... More >>

The Best Concerts to See in L.A. This Weekend

Don't forget to check our constantly-updated Los Angeles Concert Calendar Friday, September 6 Anticon 15th-Anniversary Party featuring Baths, Daedelus, Doseone, et al. ECHOPLEX Tip your hat to 15 years of Anticon greatness: The label/collective founded by Oakland's Adam "Doseone" Drucker has champ ... More >>

Top 10 L.A. Hip-Hop Producers in History

For better or worse, L.A. hip-hop is strongly identified with gangsta rap, and that genre is mostly identified with its rappers and their outsized personas. But the classic Los Angeles albums wouldn't be what they are without the incredible sonic textures that define them, the funk, electro, rock, a ... More >>

Funk Volume: Valley-Based Rap Label Builds an Independent Empire

The Five Greatest Clean Versions of Hip-Hop Songs

By Chaz Kangas Even though it's patently ridiculous, a clean version of A$AP Rocky's "Fuckin' Problems" exists. It's funny. And, like watching Die Hard on TBS ("Yippee ki-yay, mother trucker!"). Indeed, it's much more fun when rappers sub in different words, rather than just bleep them, case in poi ... More >>

The Best Concerts to See In L.A. This Week

Don't forget to check our constantly-updated Los Angeles Concert Calendar Monday, July 29 System of a Down HOLLYWOOD BOWL The Monty Python of heavy metal, System of a Down's irreverent and sometimes downright Dadaist take on its chosen medium achieves an unlikely yet enduring resonance thanks to s ... More >>

Rapper Nocando's New Home for Hip Hop in L.A.

Between Low End Theory, Dub Club, Funkmosphere, Funky Sole and the Do-Over, nearly every music scene in Los Angeles has a party it can call its own. But with the closing of places like famed rap haven the Good Life Café in Leimert Park, the L.A. rap scene has lacked a true locus for some time. Lo ... More >>

Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar - BET Live - June 29, 2013

Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Miguel, Schoolboy Q Staples Center 6/29/13 It may feel like summer all year long in L.A., but there's still something special about summer in L.A. On Saturday night at Staples Center Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar co-headlined as part of the BET Experience event ... More >>

Have You Ever Tried To Put A Puzzle Together With A Child? Because Don't

School is out. This is a treacherous time for parents. My boys, Boy A and Boy B, twin six-year-olds, we try to keep them as busy as possible during the summer. There's basketball camp and there's vacation bible school and there's swim lessons and drums practice and underground kiddie cage fighting a ... More >>

Tupac's California Dreamin': New Book Details the Recording of All Eyez on Me

Could Dr. Dre Save KDAY?

As we reported in April, local gangsta rap oldies station KDAY -- the best station in L.A. -- has been sold, for almost $20 million. The buyer is RBC Communications, which is largely owned by a Chinese-American entrepreneur named Anthony Yuen. Word on the street is that KDAY's format will switch to ... More >>

Yeezus: Good, Not Great, and Quite Misogynist

Once in a while Kanye West goes ahead and does something that's truly impressive. You can't always tell this because, for West, there's no difference between an act of genius and being a genius. For him, genius doesn't stem from action; genius is an extension of his very state of being. His unwave ... More >>

What Artistic Movements Do These Rappers Exemplify?

By Noah Hubbell Stylistically, rap has exploded, and the pieces have fall everywhere from the mind-bogglingly complex to the unbelievably simple, from the brazenly dissident to the unapologetically mainstream. Rappers' influences seem to come from everywhere, but the differences between, say, Aes ... More >>

Don't Laugh: The Lonely Island Are the Best Rap Group Going

By Ben Westhoff and Katie Bain Last night at Sonos Studio, The Lonely Island -- Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schafer -- talked about their music, debuted a video, and hosted a listening party for their forthcoming Wack Album, out Tuesday. Collaborators include Kendrick Lamar, Solange, Ph ... More >>

New Survey Gives Beats By Dre Headphones Low Marks

Beat By Dre headphones helped buy Dr. Dre his dream home. They're also partly funding the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy at USC, as its benefactors, who founded Beats, chipped in $70 million. But are the headphones any good? Survey says no. In fact, according to a new report by FixYa, a crow ... More >>

A Jazz Renaissance Is Happening In Los Angeles

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Miles Davis once claimed, "The thing to judge in any jazz artist is, does the man project and does he have ideas?" Flying Lotus recently said about the b ... More >>

These Are the Strangest Hip-Hop Soda Commercials

Earlier this month Mountain Dew pulled its Tyler, the Creator directed commercial wherein a trash-talking goat in a police lineup (full of black men) taunts an assaulted women attempting to identify the perpetrator. Accused of both racism and trivializing violence toward women, it was another Tyler ... More >>

World Star Hip-Hop's Founder Defends His Site

Lee "Q" O'Denat, is the founder of WorldStarHipHop.com, a site once known mainly for rap videos that is now synonymous with grainy urban street fights. (When one breaks out nowadays, you can bet smartphones will come out and someone will yell "World Star!") Q recently came to L.A. for a round of pr ... More >>

Why Tupac's Legacy Endures

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Unlike Biggie, Tupac's questions were rarely rhetorical. His body has been ashes for more than a decade and a half, and people still holler when they hea ... More >>

Leave Snoop Lion Alone

When Snoop Dogg started calling himself Snoop Lion last year, those who casually follow him (ie the entirety of the internet) collectively snickered. His embrace of Rastafarianism and journey to Jamaica -- resulting in April's Reincarnated -- has been widely criticized and mocked, by those in the kn ... More >>

Yeah She Raps, But Don't Call iLLCamille a "Female Emcee"

On a Friday night, West Pico bar The Mint was host to a small, hardcore crowd of hip hop purists donning hi-top fades and African medallions. On stage, a woman dressed in a vintage Nike windbreaker, silver leggings, and gold bamboo earrings grabbed the mic and introduced herself to the crowd. "I lik ... More >>

Dr. Dre on His USC Academy: "This Is the Biggest Thing I've Ever Been a Part Of"

As our sister blog The Informer reported yesterday, Interscope Records boss Jimmy Iovine and boss of all bosses Dr. Dre pooled together $70 million they had lying around to establish the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation. It will offer stude ... More >>

Jay-Z's Great Gatsby Soundtrack Is a Failure

When the first trailer for Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby was released a year ago, it was set to the music of Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," from the sometimes duo's incredibly self-important Watch the Throne album. On the surface it made sense. Jay-Z -- who retired as a rapper i ... More >>

LL Cool J's Authentic: A Track By Track Review, Without Prejudice

LL Cool J can do no wrong lately. Actually, strike that, LL Cool J does everything wrong lately. Last year there was his trend-hopping track "Ratchet," dubbed one of the worst of 2012. More recently there was his duet with Brad Paisley, "Accidental Racist," in which he more or less forgave the sin o ... More >>

Where Have All of Diddy's Bad Boys Gone? (To Prison, Mostly)

At a concert in New York this past weekend, Bad Boy Records presented its recent signee King Los. Other members of the crew, including MGK, are currently getting some shine as well. But what about the Bad Boys of yesteryear? What are they up to these days? Glad you asked! Here's a rundown.

The Best West Coast Christian Rappers in History

Christian hip-hop has had an important presence on the West coast for many years now, although the genre continues to bleed into the secular industry. Even its biggest star, Lecrae, seems to be poising himself for a mainstream invasion. Hey, everyone wants to stay culturally relevant; after all, one ... More >>

Ice Cube Talks About His Favorite Projects He's Ever Worked On

Having long, long ago secured his place in the rap pantheon, Ice Cube today is, to the average Dlisted reader, a man to be both mocked (for his Are We There Yet period) and possibly feared -- if, say, confronted in the type of bar where denizens consume Coors Light. But in person he's cordial and ... More >>

Adrian Younge: New Soul Legend

The composer and producer reimagines old-school hip-hop

KDAY Is Closing? A Eulogy to the Best Station in L.A.

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," normally appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] "Remember KDAY?" Tupac asked that question on "To Live & Die in LA," but the answer was obvious. Makaveli never even lived in Southern Califor ... More >>

Paid Dues - San Manuel Amphitheater - 3/30/13

Paid Dues Independent Hip-Hop Festival San Manuel Amphitheater 3/30/13 Traffic was hellish. Parking was a mess, the outhouses were a disaster, the lines for food were ridiculously long, and one edifice labeled "will call" was not, in fact, will call. The dust was Coachella-like, and after the boil ... More >>

Terrace Martin's Jazz and G-Funk

Terrace Martin plays tomorrow's Paid Dues festival in San Bernardino. The producer, saxophonist, and emcee came up on the streets of Crenshaw and Slauson, and was tapped for Snoop Dogg's 2004 Rhythm & Gangsta album at 17 and for Quincy Jones' production staff at 22. Millions of record sold contain ... More >>

Ghostface Killah and Adrian Younge - The Mayan - 3/28/13

Ghostface Killah with Adrian Younge The Mayan 3/28/13 Somewhere between a classic film score and an adventurous concept album is where Ghostface Killah and Adrian Younge meet on their upcoming album "Twelve Reasons to Die. Inspired by Tarantino and the RZA, the album is heavy in genre specific homa ... More >>

Ghost-Writing Allegation Rocks the Rap Battle World

In the decade since 8 Mile, the art of battling has become mainstream and big business. But recently it's faced controversy, with one rapper accusing another of paying for his rhymes. In the world of competitive battling, this is strictly verboten. A January bout for Canadian battle league King of ... More >>

Veteran Producer Sir Jinx is the Missing Link

[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: Edward "Apple" Nelson Is a Legendary L.A. Drummer and 70-Year-Old Yoga Enthusiast Sir Jinx is the missing link. He is a vital nerve. Remove th ... More >>

Dawn Richard - Roxy Theatre - 3/26/13

Dawn Richard The Roxy Theatre 3-26-13 Sure, the line was small outside the Roxy, but they were a faithful few. Once inside they got what they came for, as Dawn Richard (formerly of Danity Kane and Diddy - Dirty Money) took her loyal fans on a musical journey from grimy hip-hop to fist pumping EDM.

Fairfax's Truth Studios Makes More Hip Hop Than Money

For nearly two years Truth Studios, a recording space in the Fairfax District, has been a haven for West Coast rap talent. On any given night, you might find clothing reps chattering, owner Nick Breton rolling blunts with rappers, and intoxicated laughter absorbed by the muted walls. The combination ... More >>

Can You Match The Eyes To The Rapper They Belong To?

This is a ridiculous thing, to be sure; a game birthed in the crevices of 2 a.m. emails and WAY TOO MANY mp3s and SoundCloud links. And it's as simple as it is stupid as it is infinitythings. On the following page you'll find a picture of eight separate sets of eyes. Underneath the picture you'll ... More >>

Fuck Guilty Pleasures: In Defense of Common

[Editor's Note: Fuck Guilty Pleasures celebrates the over-produced, commercial, artless, lowbrow music that we believe is genuinely worthwhile. Like, among the best music ever.] Rap only exists in extremes. Don't let the polite reviews of Lil Wayne's Carter IV fool you, for instance. It got lots of ... More >>

Producer Khalief Brown: Beats for a Space Brawl

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] It's rare that you hear a rap song on the radio and your only thought is, "Who produced this?" That's what happened last summer when I first heard Kid In ... More >>

Sorry, But Kanye Is the GOAT

Kanye West is the greatest hip-hop artist of all time. He's made the best albums and changed the game the most, and his music is the most likely to endure. One thing before we get going: This isn't one of those arguments meant to piss people off or "start a conversation." We really mean it. And, c ... More >>

Who's the All-Time Champion of Rap Beef on Twitter?

Twenty years ago, rap animosity was expressed via diss songs. Like, if someone pissed you off you went home, thought about it, went to a recording studio, pressed up your album, and sent it around. The object of your diss might not find out until six months later. More recently the rise of the mix ... More >>

Man Alleges Lil Wayne Entourage Member Smashed His Head With Skateboard

Last year Downey, California-based bill poster Alfredo Marino saw Lil Wayne on Fairfax Avenue. He approached him hoping to get a photo, but says the encounter ended with a member of the rapper's entourage smashing him in the back of the head with a skateboard and sending him to the hospital. Marino ... More >>

Fuck Guilty Pleasures: Critics Need to Lay Off Macklemore

[Editor's Note: Fuck Guilty Pleasures celebrates the over-produced, commercial, artless, lowbrow music that we believe is genuinely worthwhile. Like, among the best music ever.] The number one song in the country, as you probably know, is a Seattle-based white independent hip-hop artist's ode to sh ... More >>

Top 10 "You Can't Tell Me Nothing" Rappers

In Macklemore's forthcoming single, "Can't Hold Us," he raps, "Nah they can't tell me nothing," thus continuing a long line of rappers to whom one can not tell nothing. It makes one wonder: Why are people always trying to tell rappers something? Why do the rappers refuse to listen? Why all the doub ... More >>