Missy Elliott

Let's Break Down the Awfulness of Kendrick Lamar's New Video

[Editor's Note: Shea Serrano sometimes writes about Why This Song Sucks, and sometimes about his hilarious and poignant life and times. Better put your shoes on because your socks are about to be blown off.] Last year, Kendrick Lamar released good kid, m.A.A.d. city, his gorgeous proper debut album ... More >>

Here's What Didn't Suck About B.E.T.'s Top 100 Videos Of 2012

On December 31, BET showed their Top 100 videos of the year. It was a block of television that ended at 10 p.m. and began, if I'm remembering accurately, around 48 BC. I'd planned on watching all of it, absorbing the videos and then using that information to reach some grand, great point about rap ... More >>

Coachella 2013 Lineup: Is This It?

Could the below be a leaked line-up for Coachella 2013? Or is just another fake like we get every year? Some signs point to the possibility that this flyer, which is going round the internets, might have at least a grain of truth. After all, there's reason to believe the Rolling Stones will be in at ... More >>

The 1997 Edition Was the Best MTV Video Music Awards

Tonight is the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards. Now in its 29th year, it's had its share of memorable moments, none more so than during the 1997 broadcast. On the occasion of its 15th anniversary, here's the case for why it was the best VMA's ever televised.

The "Spider-Man" Theme Song As Sung By the Ramones, Michael Bublé and Pauly Shore

If your spider-sense has been tingling lately it's because, today, The Amazing Spider-Man brings everyone's favorite arachnoid dude back to theaters. But while not everyone's looking forward to this Tobey Maguire-less incarnation, it does present an excellent opportunity to revisit the Spider-Man t ... More >>

Cassette Tapes Are Awesome Until You Actually Have To Listen To Them

See also: Here Are the Songs They Play at a Middle School Dance About a decade ago I crashed my car. Bad. I still remember it pretty clearly. I had a bad haircut and was driving on the feeder next to a highway and listening to music (maybe Missy Elliott's "Work It" or maybe Jimmy Eat World's "The ... More >>

Rock the Bells 2012 Lineup Announced

See also: Our review of Rock the Bells 2011 Last night Guerilla Union announced this year's Rock the Bells 2012 dates, headliners and lineup. Beginning in 2010, the hip-hop festival's headliners -- famous acts whose first few albums often outshine their later work -- have performed their classic ... More >>

Prince at the Forum, revisited

Five Artsy Things to Do This Week, Including an Exhibit About Prince at the Forum

A festival run by a rapper, brunch inspired by Prince, a Cadillac in a gallery, a soap opera cast with women in white, "taking account of oneself" taken to its extremes: It feels like spring. 5. The "fun" in fundraiser Until May 6, the Beastie Boys' Mike D is moonlighting as a MOCA curator. He has ... More >>

Top Ten Sexiest Fat Chicks in Music

See also: Top 20 Sexiest Female Musicians of All Time: The Complete List I'm into fat chicks. I run a blog about this subject because, even though I'm not alone (oh, not even close) it's still rare for dudes to come out and say it. Last year, LA Weekly's sister paper Village Voice did a whole story ... More >>

Syd the Kyd On Odd Future, Her Sexuality And Why She Hates The Word "Lesbian"

Star Foreman​In this week's cover story, we kick it with Odd Future members Syd the Kyd and Matt Martians, and talk with them about their new duo The Internet, whose album Purple Naked Ladies was recently released digitally. Syd also opens up about her sexuality and what it's like being in a g ... More >>

Know Your L.A. Hip-Hop Dances: The Evolution Of Krump

Dave LaChapelle's "Rize"​Editor's Note: Writer Jessica A. Koslow is a USC master's student writing her thesis on krumping. Know Your L.A. Hip-Hop Dances explores some of the most popular street dances in our city. Krump Background: Krumper Lil' C holds court on So You Think You Can Dance, an ... More >>

Dedication To My Sex: Why Lloyd and His String of P-Bombs Pissed Me Off

If only iTunes had a return policy, or at least the ability to exchange for store credit. I'd gladly swap the original version of Lloyd's "Dedication to My Ex" for the cleaned-up radio edit, because frankly I feel like I got tricked. I heard the song for the first time in the car, and for much the ... More >>

Music Picks: Ravi Shankar, Marilyn Scott, Duran Duran, Burkina Electric

Also, Emmylou Harris & Her Red Dirt Boys, Odd Future, Gillian Welch and others

Catfight! Lil Kim and Keyshia Cole's Twitter Beef

What's beef?​To quote the late, great Notorious B.I.G., "Fuck that beef shit; that shit is played out." How very disappointed Biggie would be in his protege, Lil Kim. Once again, the increasingly catlike Kim took to Twitter to fire shots at Nicki Minaj ripping off her (Barbie) act. This time, ... More >>

Nicki Minaj vs. Lil Kim (And Five More Potential Combatants) (NSFW for Beef)

Nicki Minaj recently set the record for female rapper with the most singles on the Billboard Charts at once; her single "Your Love" hit number one this summer, making her the first female rapper with a number one single since Lil Kim's "Jump Off" in 2003. The Queen Bee was not amused, accusing M ... 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

An Interview with Techno Kingpin Juan Atkins: "L.A. is Still Behind the Curve Three or Four Years"

Cybotron's "Clear," from 1983 More than any other person, Detroit's Juan Atkins is credited with creating techno. Of course, electronic dance music, which fills clubs, warehouses and festivals each weekend, provides sounds for car commercials, movies and public radio, and fuels the technology of c ... More >>

Bubba Sparxxx: One of America's Most Underrated White Rappers

If we're talking black and white, and we are, then Georgia's Bubba Sparxxx, who plays at the Knitting Factory tonight, is worth mentioning. You might from Sparxxx from his far-from-enlightened ode to ass, "Ms. New Booty" (though we do appreciate that Sparxxx addresses said Booty with the respectful, ... More >>

Girl Talk: One Trick Pony, or 21st Century Steinski?

Girl Talk: One Trick Pony, or 21st Century Steinski? By Ian Cohen If you’re the kind of poor soul who watches the workday tick away at places like ilxor.com, June has been Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Tet and the Feast of Maximum Occupancy all rolled into one. Not only have we experienced the ... More >>

Memorial Day Weekend in LA: Music galore (and MP3s)

Ah, Memorial Day Weekend, the perfect three-day break, tailor-made for chilling in the comfort of an abandoned LA. As long as you stay away from Hollywood Boulevard and the tourists imported from Hell, you can relax, go out to dinner, catch some music, sleep in, drive to the desert, take some LSD, c ... More >>

Tonight in LA: Ghanian Hip Hop, Blowfly and Les Nubians, Among Others

Okay, so on the surface perhaps a slow Thursday night in LA. No grand slams, it would seem, few hipster throw-downs. But I would like to present a few pieces of evidence that might provide a little nudge out the door tonight. Item one: BLOWFLY. Last year, I saw Blowfly open for Bonnie “Prince ... More >>

Fall Harvest

While the media was examining a fake beef, a bounty of music dropped

Music

Fall Harvest While the media was examining a fake beef, a bounty of music dropped

Breaking the Trance

The unexpected Burning Man soundtrack

Snip, Snip

Headed toward a split ending with your hairdresser? A cheater’s guide to some of L.A.’s most seductive salons

Nothing's Shocking

Timbaland’s solo LP has high highs (cowbell disco!) — and low lows (She Wants Revenge!)

Rock Picks

For the week of Jan 4 - 11

All I Want for Christmas Is a New Music Industry

Swag Hounds

Rawk Your Body!

L.A. club DJs mix indie rock and hip-hop; world does not explode

Going to the Grammys...

Considering I may be tone deaf, can't sing to save a life, it's pretty safe to say performing at the Grammy's is a dream out of reach. That is until I was chosen to be a stage performer for the Gorillaz's duet with MADONNA at this year's Grammy Awards!!  I was a little older than their projec ... More >>

The Dude With the Most Cake

Superhustler Damon Dash is sitting on ODB’s last album. What gives?

See Betty Rock

L.A.’s fave band-you-love-to-hate ask: What’s wrong with rockin’ like high school?

Glam-rock Sunglasses

Missy cooks, Last Days annoys, Paul Williams rocks

Live in LA

The Psychic Hipster’s Pop 10 Yindies And Crunksters And Christians, O My!

The Ego Has Landed

Live at Coachella ’05

After this, we promise we won’t even mention Coachella for a year

From Motown to Rimtown

The blinging of Los Angeles

Photo Essay

Pro-Ducer

Clubland

You Can’t Do That — It’ll Make the Record Skip!

Waylon Jennings, 1937–2002

The Year in Music

Bring the Sunshine

Saving It

Silver Screams

Music mutilates the movies

A Dollar a Holler

Two sides of Nas' coin

You Gotta Believe

Whitney wearies of whitebread