Jay Rock

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 >>

The Five Best Los Angeles Rap Albums of 2012

As Max Bell noted in his round-up of L.A. rap earlier this month, it was a very good year for hip-hop in our city, with all corners of the varied scene -- from Open Mike Eagle's smart 4NML HSPTL to Odd Future's rambunctious The OF Tape Vol. 2 to Ty$ and Joe Moses' raunchy Whoop! -- well represented ... 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 >>

Jay Rock: Our Interview With Kendrick Lamar's About-to-Pop Crewmate

Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city is the frontrunner for hip-hop album of the year, and one of its most discussed verses comes from his Black Hippy crewmate Jay Rock. Far from new to the game, Jay Rock has put out music both on major labels and independently, he's been in boardrooms and boarde ... More >>

Kendrick Lamar - Club Nokia - 10/17/12

Kendrick Lamar Club Nokia October 17, 2012 From a distance, it looked like a lazy protest was being staged at L.A. Live last night -- a handful of people dressed alike in baggy white t-shirts wandered the sidewalk or propped themselves up on fire hydrants, occasionally waving placards that announc ... More >>

The Best Musicians in L.A., 2012

Our Best Of issue just hit stands! We found our fairy tale, and now we present it to you: 435 of the most fabulous things in all of Los Angeles. From the city's most amazing restaurants to its tawdriest dive bars, from its edgiest art exhibits to the top spots for live music, we've got it all covere ... More >>

Jenny Lewis, Ab-Soul, Céu

Also, Vinny Golia Sextet, Mary Anne Hobbs, Delta Rae and others

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 >>

Schoolboy Q's Questions and Answers

He didn't know what to do with his life. Rap was the last resort

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 >>

Tech N9ne - The Roxy - October 14, 2011

​Tech N9ne The Roxy 10-14-11 Tech N9ne has been around more than a decade, and gone platinum without a major label. He's been touring on and off since May in support of his last album All 6's and 7's, which #4 on the Billboard Top 200. He's on Tha Carter IV. Not exactly a lightweight. In fa ... More >>

Music Picks: Agnostic Front, the Latebirds, Def Leppard, Jay Rock

Also, Kristeen Young, Diego Garcia, the Human League and others

The UnderDawg: Ab-Soul's "LongTerm Mentality" Starts Paying Off

​Back before ScHoolboy Q, the third artist to be fired like a cannonball from the TopDawg Entertainment camp, sold out his first solo show at the Key Club, we theorized that the local label was strategizing the rap game like a war. With two of its artists, Jay Rock and Kendrick Lamar, rising t ... More >>

Music Picks: Liz Phair, DeVotchKa, Peter Murphy, Fergus & Geronimo

Also Whitechapel, Motorhead, Juanes and others

Five Must-See L.A. Rappers at SXSW

Pac Div​ We know Odd Future's SXSW show will be swarming with ... everybody, and admittedly, we add to that mass media feeding frenzy with our special spread in this week's print issue, out tomorrow. But we like being able to breathe a little bit (which is why we live in this sprawling, sparkl ... More >>

Inside the Nickerson Garden Projects with Rapper Jay Rock: "They can call anyone a terrorist, a gangbanger, and put cameras in your neighborhood."

Sam SlovickJay Rock​Papa Dad didn't make the big Martin Luther King Jr. Parade on MLK Boulevard. He was shot dead on Jan. 3 at 103rd and Crenshaw. Jay Rock and Punch didn't attend, either. It's a turf thing. They want to stay alive. So on the day of the parade, they hung out in Nickerson Garde ... More >>

The Black Thing

Born and raised in Compton, Kendrick Lamar Hides a Poet's Soul Behind "Pussy & Patron"

West Coast Rappers Dominate XXL's Freshman Class

Break out the champagne, Cali, your rappers are set to run the game once again. New York's XXL magazine today revealed the cover of its third annual "Freshmen Class" cover -- spotlighting the publication's top 10 emcee up-and-comers for the new year -- and artists born or based here on the West Coas ... 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 >>

Feb. 16, 2007

Choc Nitty’s All-Star Ghetto Mixtape Tour by Sam Slovick and Glow: photographs and text by Matthew Pillsbury

The Brand New Grind

Choc Nitty’s All-Star Ghetto Mixtape Tour... starring Six Reasons, DJ Ayah, Fleshless, Jay Rock, Jay Ridah, Fatso Fasano, Grown Mo and many more