Marion "Suge" Knight

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 >>

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 >>

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

L.A. Film Festival 2013: Documentaries About the City, From Rappers to the LACMA Rock

L.A. County Hospital, casting directors and Richard Nixon also feature in a fest brimming with nonfiction SoCal films

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 >>

Katt Williams Goes Off On His Own Hummer In Seattle -- Source

The train wreck that is Katt Williams' latest comedy tour has taken some bizarre turns in Seattle. The Weekly has learned that his Thursday no show was caused not by an arrest, as audience members were told, but by an episode in which Williams' Hummer ran out of gas on the way to the event and the ... More >>

Katt Williams A No-Show In Seattle; Arrest Reported (VIDEO)

Updated at the bottom with the latest. Post has been edited throughout. First posted at 5:30 a.m. L.A. stand-up performer Katt Williams has been on a comedy tour, often with an locally-based entourage, that seems to be more notable for his peculiar behavior than for punchlines. Only days after he ... More >>

Life After Death

Biggie Smalls' Mom Wants Grand Jury on Murder

Slim the Mobster Has An Amazing House

Slim the Mobster​Slim the Mobster and I are scheduled to do an interview at a Northridge gun range, set up by his publicist. But as the rapper pulls up and peers out from under his black Dodgers baseball hat, he looks hesitant. "I don't want my picture taken with a gun, you feel me?" he says ... More >>

Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: The Complete List

​Editor's note: In conjunction with our music issue we rolled out the top 20 L.A. rap albums of all time this week, as picked by Ian Cohen, Rebecca Haithcoat, Jeff Weiss and Ben Westhoff. But the list was broken up into four posts, which can get a bit unwieldy, so we've compiled the full list ... More >>

Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: 5-1

​See also Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums of All Time: 20-16 Editor's note: For our music issue, out on Thursday, Ian Cohen, Rebecca Haithcoat, Jeff Weiss and Ben Westhoff run down the top 20 L.A. rap albums of all time. We're unveiling the list all this week on West Coast Sound. 5. The Phar ... More >>

Greg Kading, Author of Tupac, Biggie Smalls Murder Book, Discusses One Hell of a Week

​At the beginning of the week, former LAPD detective Greg Kading was a bundle of nerves. As first reported by LA Weekly, he was putting his neck on the line Tuesday by self-publishing the book, Murder Rap, and revealing new evidence in the Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls murders that implicates e ... More >>

Best Posts of the Week

This week Weekly staffers Chris Vogel and Simone Wilson broke revelations from the new book Murder Rap, in which former LAPD detective Greg Kading cites testimony implicating Suge Knight in the death of Biggie Smalls and Diddy in the murder of Tupac. On our sister blog The Informer, Wilson also brou ... More >>

Cop's Book Says Sean Combs, Suge Knight Ordered Tupac and Biggie Killings

Top detective on rap murders says LAPD pulled the plug despite confessions

Five Hip-Hop Snitching Controversies

Yesterday LA Weekly brought you the shocking revelations of former LAPD detective Greg Kading, whose new book Murder Rap fingers Suge Knight for ordering Biggie's killing and Diddy for ordering Tupac's. At the center of the story is Duane Keith "Keffe D" Davis, who told Kading that Diddy offered him ... More >>

Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls Murder Book Shoots to Top of Amazon

​Murder Rap, the book written by former LAPD detective Greg Kading implicating Sean Combs and Suge Knight in the slayings of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, officially came out today. So far, only LA Weekly has interviewed Kading about his self-published book and the revelations he shares, which ... More >>

VIDEO: Greg Kading's Book Says Sean Combs, Suge Knight Ordered Tupac and Biggie Killings

In the pages of his potentially game-changing self-published book Murder Rap, set for release Oct. 4, former Los Angeles Police Department Detective Greg Kading reveals that LAPD has been sitting on extensive tapes and documents containing confessions from key players behind the alleged assassinatio ... More >>

Tupac and Biggie Murders: An Up-to-Date List of Characters, Given New Evidence From Ex-LAPD Detective Greg Kading

Update: "The 'Keffe D' Tapes: 10 Highlights of Confession From Gangster Who Says Sean Combs Hired Him to Kill Tupac." Of the many theories that have emerged over the last 15 years as to who was behind the drive-by killings of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, the closest thing we've seen to an invest ... More >>

The 'Keffe D' Tapes: 10 Highlights of Confession From Gangster Who Says Sean Combs Hired Him to Kill Tupac

Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson (pictured) shot Tupac to death, according to his uncle, Keffe D.​"A barrel-chested black man with a front tooth missing, relaxed yet instinctively cautious, is seated across from four spellbound cops in a glass-walled conference room at 8200 Wilshire Blvd." So beg ... More >>

Biggie Smalls Murder Confession: Voletta Wallace's Attorney Still Has Questions

​A couple weeks ago, ex-LAPD detective Greg Kading says he handed Voletta Wallace, mother of Biggie Smalls, a copy of his new book, Murder Rap, in which Kading reveals never-before-seen evidence implicating Suge Knight in the death of her son. After giving her the book, Kading claims that Wallace ... More >>

Having Already Influenced Every Rapper You Like, Freestyle Fellowship Are Back

Trevor Treynor​Sunshine men go dark and sky rappers eventually touch cement, but Freestyle Fellowship swore that they would never fall the fuck off. That was the promise of 1991, the pre-riot boiling point when their first hand-hawked collection of songs, To Whom It May Concern, crushed casset ... More >>

Compton Rapper Game Returns to an Industry That's Gone Soft

Will his old tricks still work?

Top Five Rappers Who Are Worse Then Lil B

The Game​For all of the disses and shots Game is throwing out lately, you'd almost think he had a new album due next week or something. (Well, he does, and he's going to be on our cover, too.) The latest to find themselves on Jayceon's shit list is Bay Area phenomenon Lil B, whom Game this we ... More >>

Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G. Murders and ex-LA Times Reporter Chuck Philips: A Timeline

Chuck Philips, award-winning LA Times journalist, is out of a job.​Chuck Philips, once a top reporter for the Los Angeles Times, spent over a decade investigating the murders of West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur and his East Coast rival, the Notorious B.I.G. But in 2008, when it was revealed tha ... More >>

Snoop Dogg Wants to Get You Blasted With His New Four Loko-Inspired Drink

Snoop Dogg Wants to Get You Blasted With New Four Loko Style Drink

New Leads In L.A.'s Biggie Smalls Murder Investigation?

Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G., a.k.a. Biggie Smalls.​The Los Angeles murder of the Notorious B.I.G. has led to a notoriously fruitless investigation, a few movies, magazine covers and many a conspiracy theory (Suge Knight, the LAPD ... ). But authorities have given rapper Chris ... More >>

Suge Knight Arrested (Again)

​According to an AP report, Marion "Suge" Knight was arrested last night in Gardena after someone reported that the notorious rap impresario "had pointed a gun at him in South Los Angeles." The police are investigating this allegation of "assault with a deadly weapon." Besides assault, the rep ... More >>

Ice Cube To Play Bad Cop In LAPD 'Rampart Scandal' Movie

​Rapper-turned-film-star Ice Cube is reported to have taken a starring role -- ostensibly as a bad cop -- in the upcoming film about the Los Angeles Police Department's "Rampart Scandal" that rocked the city in the late 1990s with allegations that gang officers shot and beat suspects, planted ... More >>

Tupac's 'All Eyez on Me': The LA Weekly Word Cloud [NSFW]

West Coast Sound has been analyzing classic Los Angeles albums for the past six months by creating word clouds from the lyrics. We've tackled Black Flag's Damaged, the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, N.W.A's Straight Outta Compton, Guns 'n Roses' Appetite for Destruction and, most recently, just for kicks, ... More >>

Death Row Records, Post-Suge Knight, Returns with Petey Pablo to Say What's Up from Canada

It's hard to even write this: Toronto-based Death Row Records announced today that the company will be issuing a sampler in conjunction with National Record Store Day, which takes place around the country on April 18. The label, founded in LA by Dr. Dre and Suge Knight, released some of the most i ... More >>

Is Mayoral Candidate Walter Moore a Billboard Enabler? Or Just In Love With Neon?

As the March primary election nears, L.A. mayoral candidate Walter Moore is taking some heat from bloggers who are questioning his day job. Moore, who is running for the big spot for the second time, is an attorney with Richard Hamlin Attorneys. The problem? The Los Angeles-based law firm, which spe ... More >>

Death Row's G-Funk Fire Sale

Death Row Records Auctions Off Its History in Fullerton

(All photos by Brandon Perkins. For full gallery, check out the Death Row Auction slideshow.) It was perfect. The portrait of Nate Dogg in itself was tacky, but Suge Knight's alleged tweaks to the painting -- black eye and multiple bullet holes -- were priceless. The frameless artifact wasn't th ... More >>

Movie Reviews: Hotel for Dogs, Notorious, Paul Blart, Mall Cop

Also, My Bloody Valentine 3D and Owl and the Sparrow

Holler if You'll Drink Me: The 2Pac Energy Drink

Are you frequently fatigued? Do you lack the energy to assault major American film directors over the role of O-Dog? Do you find yourself drinking beverages, one part Alize, one part Cristal, and one part Suge Knight tear drop, while wondering why your particular brand of thug lacks passion? Well, ... More >>

Weiss' Summer Jamz 08-G'Z Up, Prose Down

Summer Jamz '08: G'Z Up, Prose Down http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4NBDRWLQ 1.Parliament-“Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker) 2.N.W.A.-“Alwayz Into Somethin’” 3.Dr. Dre-“Nuthin’ But a G Thang” 4.Above the Law ft. 2Pac & Money B-“Call It What U Want” 5 ... More >>

Chuck Phillips should not resign from being a reporter, but it would be fantastic if the LA Times resigned from being a newspaper

The funniest thing about this scandal is that Philips is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise blighted, stupid, and irrelevant publication.

Comments from around the Web: Chuck Philips' debunked Tupac story

Among the hundreds of responses to this week's debunked LA Times story on the murder of Tupac Shakur, and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' alleged involvement in it, have been a few fascinating and incendiary allegations. What follows are a few of the most intriguing. From an anonymous post to the Velvet ... 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 >>

Eazy Does It

Gangsta rap hits L.A.

Singled Out: Everybody has a Mother

The Undeath of West Coast Flow

Biggie & Tupac (remix)

Nick Broomfield imitates life imitating art

Lost in a Maze

More puzzles than clues in new Rampart book

How Neatly Spreads His Claws

The 18th annual Sundance Film Festival

Letters

Rampart East

Media from the other coast bungle the story of LAPD�s scandal

Cubanismo, L.A.-Style