Ludacris

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down - The Troubadour - 4/8/13

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down The Troubadour 4-8-13 Better than... folk songs by the fireplace. They say go big or go home. Thao & The Get Down Stay Down did both. Playing Los Angeles as the last night of "a very long tour," Thao should have been exhausted, but performed with big energy and big ... More >>

Yung Jake, a Recent CalArts Grad, Could Be the Breakout Art Star of Sundance

Although half of Los Angeles will decamp this weekend to the snowy hillsides of Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival, not everyone is going for the movies. Starry-eyed attendees relish access to the suits, the skiing and the swag, but what about the art? Shari Frilot has curated Sundance ... More >>

This Is What It Feels Like In My Stomach Right Now

There is an evil inside of me. It is brooding and malevolent and vicious. It is absolute darkness. It is rotting my body on a cellular level. And it is there because I thought a bad idea (getting a burrito at the mall right before it closed) was a good idea ("HEY, LET'S GET A BURRITO FROM THE MALL B ... More >>

The Five Best Concerts in L.A. This Weekend

Friday, December 28 Fishbone, Quinto Sol KEY CLUB Fishbone have gone through a lot of changes since emerging from South Central L.A. in 1979, but the group can always be counted on for a funky good time. Lead singer/saxist Angelo Moore, bassist Norwood Fisher and crew have evolved from a ska-reggae ... More >>

Music Picks: Fishbone, the Growlers, Redd Kross

The Best Rap Singles of 2012

Let's be honest: It's been a great year for hip-hop. Mainstream and underground MCs made some of the most refreshing and innovative work in years. It's been a good year for albums, for sure, but also a dynamite one for singles. Here are our picks for the five best five, from artists around the count ... More >>

2 Chainz Has The Year's Funniest, Creepiest Sexual Boast

[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.] Formerly known as "Tity Boy," Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz is best known as a member of Ludacris' Disturbing tha Peace crewand ... More >>

Top 10 Sexiest Hip-Hop Video Vixens

LMFAO 'Bikini Girl' Says She Was Fired For Being 'Big Boned' Top Ten Sexiest Album Covers We've Ever Seen Top 60 Worst Lil Wayne Lines on Tha Carter IV Top Ten Rap Albums For People Who Don't Know Shit About Hip-Hop Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: The Complete List Thoughts From A Rando ... More >>

The Time I Whooped a 14-Year-Old Kid at Basketball

You (probably) don't know him, but trust when I tell you that T is a real shitbag. In our little cluster of townhomes, there are six boys who live there. A quick scouting report: There is a family that lives across from us. They have three boys; J and D and L. They're sweet kids, and the boys' ... More >>

If You Don't Like Country Music You're a Blue State Elitist

See also: Toby Keith's "Red Solo Cup": Why This Song Sucks Asking people what kind of music they like can be a loaded question. People want to seem open-minded, yet cool, which for some reason tends to inspire this insipid response: "I like pretty much everything. Except country." (The hipster var ... More >>

The Worst Rapper Names Of All Time, Besides Shorty Shitstain

Why not Royce Da 5'9" 170 pounds, 10 shoe size?​See also: *Top Five Worst Ironic Indie Rock Band Names, Besides Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. *There's Three Of Us, But We're Not The Beatles: The Ten Most Illogical Rap Lyrics In History In the tarnished annals of rubbish musician names, rappers have ... More >>

Skrillex, Odd Future, Gaslamp Killer, and Chromeo at HARD Summer Fest - Los Angeles State Historic Park - 8/7/11

Timothy Norris​By Roselle Chen Guys in rice picker hats and Jabbawockeez masks, and girls in booty shorts, sports bras and furry boots filtered into sunlit, grassy Los Angeles State Historic Park Saturday for HARD Summer Music Festival. 30,000 people were in attendance, so perhaps one should ... 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 >>

Pulitzer-Prize Winner Jonathan Gold Writes Moving Nate Dogg Obituary for LA Weekly

Christopher Victorio for OC WeeklyMr. and Mrs. Broadus before Nate Dogg's memorial service Saturday ​ Within the structure of a classic G-funk track, a musical form as precise as a Mozart string quintet, after the opening skit, the establishment of the minimal beat, the rapper's expository ver ... More >>

Top Ten Musician Restaurant Franchises (In Honor of Flavor Flav's New Fried Chicken Joint in Iowa--Yes, Iowa)

Don't Believe the Hype! 10 Musician's Restaurants Less Strange Than Flava Flav's Chicken Joint

Holy Sh*t! Top 10 Uses of Profanity in Music in 2010

​Cuss words can be a lazy lyricist's exclamation points but, in the right hands, profanity affords a landscape of creativity and rhyme schemes that breathe new life into descriptions of coitus, anger, and self-reflection. There may not be enough amazing uses of "fuck," "ass," and "shit" in roc ... More >>

Hennessy or Cristal?: Top Ten Booze-Pimping Rap Lyrics

Jay-Z gazes upon the glory of BevMo!​It's a top ten of the hip-hop verses we all know and love, that promote the liquor we've all loved but can't remember (because of how much we loved it). 10. In a very special Snoop Dogg track called "Stoplight," Snoop educates the layman on the proper way ... More >>

Who Cares About Bieber, Gaga, or the VMA's? You Do! Winner Recaps Past and Present

Who Really Cares About Bieber, Gaga, or the VMA's? You Do! Winner Recaps Past and Present

This Weekend: HARD Summer, Silversun Pickups, Weezer, New L.A. Folk Festival, Power of the Riff festival

Soulwax​The two most pressing questions about Saturday's HARD Summer in downtown Los Angeles have nothing to do with quality. With Soulwax, Crystal Castles and Major Lazer topping a bill that includes the likes of Flying Lotus and Diplo, promoter Gary Richards has assembled the kind of dance ... More >>

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

This weekend: The Swell Season, MGMT, One Day as a Lion, Die Antwoord, Shelby Lynne

Piper FergusonThe Swell Season​Boy, girl. Boy, girl. Boy, girl. It's a bill made for date night on Sunday at the Hollywood Bowl as some of music's favorite collaborative couples team up to provide a soundtrack for your wine and cheese. Of course, the Swell Season -- Glen Hansard of Irish r ... More >>

Can a Yeasayer Remix Save N*E*R*D (and Nelly Furtado) from Totally Sucking?

N*E*R*Ds​Or a Hot Chip remix? Or one from Crookers? Or an entire iTunes EP of remixes of the exact same song -- the Nelly Furtado-featuring "Hot-N-Fun," which is neither of the things its title suggests? The Neptunes have made some of the darkest, weirdest, greatest beats that mainstream hip- ... More >>

Nightranger: Big Wangs, Little Wangs

Big Wangs, Little Wangs: Bieber, Glambert, Ke$ha and more at Wango Tango

No matter how indier than thou you think you are music-wise, uber pop hits can make it into your consciousness, whether you like it or not. Unless you make an adamant point of blocking them, these ubiquitous confections need not be heard on mainstream radio like KIIS FM, either. They will seep in vi ... More >>

Must Have Kitchen Tool? The Celebrity Chef iPhone App

Brooke Burton​ The list of necessary kitchen utensils - whisk, wooden spoon, fish spatula, immersion circulator, nitrogen canister - now seems to include an iPhone. Because now not only must the celebrity chef have the de rigueur stack of cookbooks and (ideally) a reality television show, but ... More >>

Music Picks: Soweto Gospel Choir, Paul McCartney, Melissa Auf der Maur

Also, Jay-Z, Metric, Triorganico, Air and others

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 10/10 - 10/16

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "We play a lot of his music and Snoop's music, Diddy's music, and Eminem on our breaks on the TV shows. It's all rap."

Talking Hip Hop (and Phil Collins) With At the Movies' Ben Lyons

By Brandon Perkins Perhaps if Ben Lyons' movie chops were as obvious as his hip-hop track record, then sites like StopBenLyons.com wouldn't exist. Ever since the E! personality took the helm of the Siskel, Roper and Ebert's beloved At the Movies, Lyons has been berated with more thumbs down than ... 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 >>

Weiss' 25 Best Hip-Hop Songs of 2008

25. Prafit-"Nice Weather" The nice weather is long gone--the ostensibly immutable Los Angeles sun blotted by kidney colored clouds and cold rain. So Prafit's ode to the sizzle of July feels like an antique postcard documenting endless light, chicken breasts smothered in BBQ sauce, and basement ... More >>

WORN OUT: The Hollywood Life Style Awards

Planning outfits for a night on the town can tough, but during Fashion Week in LA, it's especially treacherous. You wanna look good and somewhat "on-trend," but not like you're trying too hard. If you do go for the gold -i.e. glam it out and stand out- ya better make sure you're pulling off whatever ... More >>

MTV Video Music Awards: Keeping Up With the Vamps

VIP = Very Irate People

Felli Fel: Feel the Power

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

An Interview With Pete Rock

Pete Rock needs no introduction. His new album NY's Finest drops on Tuesday. While it might not be a classic on the level of a Soul Survivors or Mecca & The Soul Brother, it's a strong record with occasionally great moments. But buyer beware: Jim Jones yells "floooosssssiiiin'" no less than fo ... More >>

Check the Technique: Notes from the Golden Age

Hip-hop scribe profiles 36 seminal rap albums. Let the arguments begin

Rock Picks: The Humpers, Secretary Bird, Cut Chemist & DJ Shadow

For the week of June 21–28

The Vest of the Grammys

Grammy fashion, supposedly, is "anything goes" – an opportunity to let your freak flag fly, get a little rock 'n' roll, show some skin, etc. But the looks on display last night - with the exceptions of a wonderfully courageous Imogen Heap who dressed, I think, as a tree? and OK Go, who perso ... More >>

Power Lunch

First Bite: Bridge

Into the Groove

Last weekend was all about Coachella (see this week's paper), but there is much that I didnt have room for and you, the lucky SC reader get extra scoop...and pics! But first, let me digress a bit and tell ya about this insane party I went to the night before heading out to the desert. You've probabl ... More >>

Schmooze Operator

or, When Foxxes Attack

Pimping the Ride

Why Hustle & Flow matters — too much

Photo Essay

Destroy All Music

The Weirdos: American barbarians

The Whole Damn Thing

Outkast, Dead Prez in the freedom stakes

Cold Tears

Heathen Worship

Bring the Sunshine

Can’t Go to Sleep

Beat Baggage