Island Def Jam Music Group

Shlohmo Is Blowing Up Before Our Eyes

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Slightly sick and bone-weary, Shlohmo staggers past airport security and baggage claim to hop into his ride back to his apartment near Fairfax. After sle ... More >>

My Favorite Albums of the Second Half of 2012, in Haiku Form

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Kendrick Lamar attributed L.A.'s primacy to the women, weed and weather. He was quoting Biggie, who consecrated the left coast via song, despite his long ... More >>

Icon Ultra Lounge Stabbing After Show By Rapper YG Sends Victims To Hospital

At least two people were stabbed early this morning at Icon Ultra Lounge, a relatively new club near LA Live downtown, police tell the Weekly. Police could not elaborate for us when we asked about the extent of the injuries. But City News Service reports that there were four victims, with three hos ... More >>

Let's Raise a Glass for the Underrated Warren G

This weekend Warren G turns 41, celebrating with a show at the Key Club on Friday. But while everyone knows him for "Regulate," his signature duet with Nate Dogg, he's actually had important roles in hip-hop history, many of which have gone under-discussed. Warren Griffin III started his career as ... More >>

Fun Size Review: Gossip Girl Creator Josh Schwartz's First Film

DJ Mustard and the Story of Ratchet

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Hip hop is constantly inventing new slang for getting down and dirty. You could get buck, crunk, and freaky. Wild out or act a fool. This summer was the ... More >>

Rapper Wax Loses Def Jam Deal, Regains His Mojo

See also: Rapper Wax on 'Rosana' and Little Mamacitas Who Don't Play Recently L.A. rapper Wax told us about his Internet-generated fame, the raunchy hit video for "Rosana," and being signed to Def Jam. But even more recently he had surprising news: he's parted ways with the label, after being on it ... More >>

Rapper Wax on 'Rosana' and Little Mamacitas Who Don't Play

I recently meet up with local rap sensation Wax, whose raunchy hit "Rosana" is all over radio and YouTube. (Its equally raunchy video is below.) We're at Melgard Public House, and I'm informed that I just missed something newsworthy. "Just before you got here, there was a homeless guy that pulled do ... 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 >>

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 >>

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

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

World Famous V.I.P. Records To Close

Long Beach shop helped foster the G-Funk era

Mary J. Blige, Larry Carlton, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

Also, Peanut Butter Wolf, Lucy Woodward, Chromeo and others

Music Picks: Esperanza Spalding, Elbow, Toro Y Moi, Blink-182

Also, Glen Campbell, the Smashing Pumpkins, Lanie Lane and others

Natali and Lady Gaga? How About The Five Most Truly Talented Sets of Siblings In American Music?

Over the weekend we became aware of the fact that Lady Gaga a) has a little sister named Natali Germanotta and b) that Natali is pretty stylish, just like her big sis. This got us thinking about all the other famous musicians out there with siblings that are just as talented as they are, even if ... More >>

Music Picks: Tift Merritt, Clinic, Microscopic Septet

Also, J. Cole, the Crazy Squeeze, Wild Flag and others

Music Picks: BB King and Buddy Guy, Silversun Pickups, Hard Summer, W.A.C.O.

Also Lady Gaga, Frazey Ford, Whispertown 2000, Ludacris and others

The Long and Winding Road to 'Wu-Massacre'

The latest Wu-Tang-related album is dropping (we are almost certain, though this is the Wu we're talking about, so insert proverbial grain of salt here) on March 20th, and the names on the cover--Ghostface, Method Man and Raekwon--are promoting Wu Massacre in their expectedly eccentric way. Method ... More >>

A&R Star Makers: The Vanishing Gatekeepers

The once-powerful executives have become an endangered species

Slayer’s Bloody Template

More tales of serial murder and psychosis, state oppression, snuff films and endless war over oil

He’s Out of Our Life ... Not

SXSSXSW Day 4/Days Late (Pt. 1): On Rap/Rock, The Legacy of the Beasties, and Asher Roth Vs. The Knux

Other than freshman Delta Sigma Theta rushes at Cal-State Chico, no substrata of the American population has worse taste in rock than rappers. Sure, your little brother likes Fall Out Boy, but eventually, he's going to grow up and discover The Clash, then weed, then hopefully Junior Murvin and Lee ... More >>

SXSW Questionable Marketing Ideas #1: 'Affliction' Pillow Case

Randall RobertsWaking up with Affliction We don't know whether this was a Hilton Hotel exclusive or not, but everyone checking in received a special gift when they got their (Island/Def Jam/Mercury) keycard: a black and brown pillowcase with a screaming, crazy-looking eagle with its evil tongue sti ... More >>

Airborne Toxic Event Signs to Island Def Jam, Further Enraging the Haters

Kevin Bronson over at Buzzbands is reporting that polarizing LA band Airborne Toxic Event has signed to Island Def Jam. The band, who in the past year have moved from playing Sunset Junction underbills to becoming one of the most talked about new rock bands of the year, had been signed to indie Ma ... More >>

Inauguration Day Extravaganza: The First Hip-Hop President?

Image via Hip Hop is Read Unless you've been living in the Madagascan Rain Forest or are a cave-dwelling ignicolist in Outer Mongolia, you're well aware that today marks the inauguration of Barack Obama. To the delight of the rap world and the chagrin of the social security set, Obama has been bi ... More >>

From Cool Kids to Kanye: Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums Of 2008

By Dan Leroy A couple of weeks ago, an expert on the Harry Potter series told an audience of high school kids how lucky they were to have this Big Shared Experience--these seven books and 41,000 words in common. What does Harry Potter have to do with hip-hop in 2008? In an age when many year-end ... More >>

2008's Top Ten Pop Songs

By Annie Zaleski Pop music often gets a bad rap for being disposable or vapid, and in many cases that's true. (Katy Perry, Danity Kane and the Pussycat Dolls, step right up!) But every year, a few irresistible bits of innovative ear candy rocket up the charts and seep into our subconscious. The ... More >>

Busted Rhymes: The Top 10 Most Preposterous Rap Songs of 2008

By Ben Westhoff Hip-hop A-listers including Rick Ross, Akon and Plies were caught grossly exaggerating their gangster credentials this year. (Turns out they were painfully law-abiding. The horror!) But even if your favorite rapper wasn't caught in a lie, you can bet he or she put out a hilariously ... More >>

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

Four on the floor

Elzhi's Europass: The Best Rap Album of the Year Thus Far

One of the more frustrating things about hip-hop heads*, specifically those old enough to remember the first two Golden Ages, is the general groupthink that no hip-hop album made today can possibly be as great as anything made during 88-96. This is just how it goes. Nostalgia is a motherfucker and ... More >>

Who's the "Boss?": The True Definition of Boss According to Rick Ross

If there are any aspiring young rappers out there reading this, now is the time to rejoice. With his second album, Trilla, Rick Ross has proven that all you need to do to have a viable rap career is the foresight to rhyme "Ross" with "Boss." For those keeping score, that's two albums on Def Jam, t ... More >>

Felli Fel: Feel the Power

106 FM star hooks up with Jermaine Dupri, rides wave of renewed interest in DJ culture

Weiss' Top 50 Albums of 2007 (#5-1)

5. Dungen-Tio Bitar [Kemado] Dungen did not tour this record in America. This is because the band's mastermind, Gustav Estjes was rumored to be alone in the snowy Swedish hinterlands, ingesting enough hallucinogens to give Hunter S. Thompson pause, and trying to untangle the beautiful mess of sou ... More >>

Weiss' Top 50 Albums of 2007 (#50-46)

50. Redman-Red Gone Wild [Def Jam] Other than M.O.P., Redman is the only East Coast rapper able to conceptually re-make the same album since 1992 and get away with it. The only difference is that where Billy Danze and Fizzy Womack are concerned with curb-checking you if you wander into Browns ... More >>

Record Reviews: Badd Santa, Beanie Sigel, Regime Noir

Holiday music that doesn't suck, unhinged thug talk and a MySpace page

How Shit Be

Freestyle riffs & ruminations on black music and pop culture at the dawn of 2007

Rock Picks

For the week of December 14 – 21

Rock Picks

For the week of November 10–16

Music Picks

For the week of June 8 - 15

Music Picks

For the week of June 1 - 7

The Beat Goes On

Rick Rubin

Rock & Roll Torchbearer

Brett Gurewitz

Art Pick: Abo Ovo, Tue., Feb. 7

10 Albums That Stank Up the Room

Blogs & iPods & Jay-Z & (non-ironic) Metal

The Hipster’s musical year-end predictions and post-game analysis

Lady Spice

Jay-Z just signed her, but Brit-rapper Lady Sovereign bows to no man

Hunger Pains

Ja Rule, Krayzie Bone: Inside the New Sensitive Thug

U Don’t Know

A Perfect Pop Plan

Child of the Night