Island Def Jam Music Group

Lil B Is the Most Important Rapper of the Decade So Far

Lil B, the heavily tattooed Berkeley, California rapper with a gleaming grill and oversized earrings, entered the hip-hop game in 2006 as part of Bay Area rap group The Pack. Over the last three years he's garnered a tremendous Internet following, popularizing the words "swag" and "based," the lat ... More >>

Power 106 Cali Christmas Concert - Gibson Amphitheatre - 12/14/12

Meek Mill, Rick Ross, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, Kendrick Lamar Power 106 Cali Christmas Gibson Amphitheatre 12/14/12 Ah, the holiday season in L.A. -- a crisp chill is in the air, every twinkly light installment and bit of tinsel available has been vomited onto that particular property on Los Feliz Blvd. ... More >>

Jhene Aiko Wins with the Hand She's Dealt

Singer Jhené Aiko has had more than her share of setbacks and misfortune. When she was in second grade, her family's house in South L.A. burned down. She says that as a preteen no cliques accepted her because of her mixed ethnicity -- she's a blend including Japanese, Native American, Dominican, bl ... More >>

Ratchet Up: Street Hero YG Eschews Gangsta Rap in Favor of Party Music

Frank Ocean - The Wiltern - 7/17/12

Frank Ocean The Wiltern 7/17/12 See Also: Why Is Frank Ocean's Coming Out a Big Deal, But Not Syd the Kyd's? Since nobody's talking about much else on the internet right now, we won't bore you with too much background on Frank Ocean. He's a 24-year-old R&B singer aligned with Odd Future who lives ... More >>

Kanye West Doesn't Seem To Know Much About Lamborghinis

See also: *Color Me Badd Lyrical Dissection: What Does "We Can Do It 'til We Both Wake Up" Mean? *What The Hell Is Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" About? Anyone who tells you they know what's going on in the mind of Kanye West is a liar or a prophet. So just know up front: We have no idea wh ... More >>

Those Shepard Fairey-Designed MCA Billboards? Here's How They Came to Be

See also: Adam Yauch, RIP: A Life in Photos Shortly after the death of Beastie Boy MCA in early May, a billboard appeared on an industrial stretch of Venice; designed by Brooklyn artist Kaves, it was mostly black and white with a Beastie Boys photo and lyric. (It has since moved to Sunset.) This we ... More >>

Adam Yauch is Dead: RIP Beastie Boy MCA

See also: Our Adam Yauch slide show Hip-hop pioneer Adam Yauch, better known as MCA of the Beastie Boys, died this morning of cancer, at age 47. The information was reported by Def Jam founder Russell Simmons. The Beasties' legacy spans three decades, crossing genres and mediums. The group had a k ... More >>

Phlo Finister: A Portugese, Black, And Irish Former Model Who Sings R&B

Phlo Finister's hair is black and stick-straight. She's wearing Tims and a tight, cropped Tommy Hilfiger tank. Her boxers are puffed out of the approximately size 38 jeans that pool around her ankles. With her gold wire-rimmed sunglasses, she's Aaliyah, circa 1994. This is not what we expected. Th ... More >>

Scarface Is Out Of Jail, Performs At Key Club Tomorrow: Excerpts From His Last Interview

​Scarface plays the Key Club tomorrow night. This is big news, considering most folks didn't even know that the greatest of all southern rappers was out of the pen. In October 2010 he began a term at Montgomery County Jail in Alabama over numerous unresolved child support cases. (There is also ... More >>

Evidence: A Conscious Rapper Who Doesn't Mind Being Called As Much

See also: Pictures Of Rappers' Cats (Including Evidence's Mr. Drummer) Evidence has a history as a tagger. An apt metaphor since, like graffiti, he's not loud and you can see him everywhere. But only if you're looking. The Los Angeles native came of age in the '90s with Dilated Peoples. Since the ... More >>

Top Five Greatest Rap Hook Singers

Frank Ocean​Last week we were supposed to get the major label release of Odd Future cohort Frank Ocean's debut project, nostalgia, ULTRA, previously a mixtape. Unfortunately, the suits at Def Jam have apparently stricken it from the upcoming-release schedule, with Ocean reacting by releasing t ... More >>

"Freeway" Ricky Ross Slaps Fake Rick Ross with a New Lawsuit

"Freeway" Ricky Ross vs. Rapper Rick Ross: Who would you put money on? ​He thinks he's Big Meech! Larry Hoover! But Miami rapper Rick Ross might be blowing money fast in court, not in the club, soon if he keeps calling himself the moniker he adopted from "Freeway" Ricky Ross, the Los Angeles ... More >>

Page Two: A Young Person's Guide to Odd Future

The Complete Discography (till this afternoon)

Russell Simmons

Slow Soul: The Rise of Neoclassical Soul

Can R. Kelly’s latest be called “throwback” when all of R&B seems to be playing Back to the Future?

Pedraza vs. Macintosh: Worms in the Apple

We’re Jerkin’ (Starring the New Boyz, J-Hawk and Pink Dollaz)

Gangsta rap is over. Clownin’ and Krumpin’ too

Rock Picks: The Kills, Lady Sovereign, Fischerspooner, the Dears

Also, Sun Kil Moon, St. Vincent, Alexandra Hope and others

Idealist Propaganda: The Raw Power of Glen E. Friedman

Photos by Erin Broadley. Click images for entire Idealist Propaganda slideshow."Search and Destroy" funnels out onto the 10:30 p.m. Saturday Sunset Blvd. sidewalk, violently greeting late-arrivals to Glen E. Friedman's Idealist Propaganda exhibit. Iggy's cocaine cacophony carves up Tymphanic cavitie ... More >>

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

808 state

Rock Picks: Antony & the Johnsons, Kings of Leon, Jay-Z

Also, Joan Osborne, Earl Zero, Petra Haden and more

The B-Sides: The Knux Interview

Confessions of a Promo-CD Junkie: Who Will Stop the Music Industry Gravy Train?

With so much music available at the click of a mouse, do tastemakers really need hard copies anymore? Is it worth the waste?

Who's the Best: Debating DJ Khaled

Last week, DJ Khaled announced the creation of his We the Best Music, a new vanity label that will be distributed and released under the Def Jam umbrella. In a press conference to promote the pact, Khaled repeatedly proclaimed "we the best" and that "we taking over internationally." As I find Kha ... More >>

N.W.A: A Hard Act to Follow

Hip-hop and hype from the streets of Compton (reprint of May 5, 1989, Weekly cover story)

Mixed Messages

The mixtape scene slowly rebounds nearly a year after DJ Drama’s bust

Brett Ratner, The Popcorn King

Rush Hour 3's director has been called a fauxteur, a womanizer and, worse, over budget. Why you should take him seriously anyway

Rock Picks

For the week of March 1 - 8

Rock Picks

For the week of Feb. 8 - 15

Hip-Hop Is Dead

...and other reports that have been greatly exaggerated

Rock Picks

For the week of December 28 - January 4

Rebel Central

The fantastical real-life story of L.A.’s Stones Throw Records, a hip-hop legend in the making

Music Picks

For the week of October 26 - November 2

Killah on the Road

Ghostface returns to the streets — and his own inner weirdo — on Fish Scale

Rock Picks

For February 3 - 10

Foghat Does Quaaludes, Wille Does Reggae

Sleepwalker

Elliott Smith’s unhappy dream life

The Story in the Soil

The Omaha rock scene, the world of the flyover people, the future of the music business, and one vicious head wound

The Piano Lesson

Styles of Beyond

Riff-Boom-Bap

Think Pink

Von Bondies: Boogie Children

Dopemen

Getting a fix on Scarface and Clipse

Warped 'n' Woofers

Great Unwashed scrubbed squeaky clean

Smut Factory

The corruption of the American television critic

Independent Music’s Right to Fight

The record industry sued Napster and has just inhaled MP3.com. Is there a future for music on the Internet? Analog Pussy thought so... Then they got a scary e-mail...

Dr. Kool's Pop Quiz

Keith Thornton, Ph.d., an old professor from the new school, knows rap is here to test you

Myth Master

The fabrication of Ms. Foxy Brown

Bring the Sauce

To live, love and leave before dying in L.A.: how the Beastie Boys beat the very odd odds