Notorious B.I.G.

Where Have All of Diddy's Bad Boys Gone? (To Prison, Mostly)

At a concert in New York this past weekend, Bad Boy Records presented its recent signee King Los. Other members of the crew, including MGK, are currently getting some shine as well. But what about the Bad Boys of yesteryear? What are they up to these days? Glad you asked! Here's a rundown.

Sorry, But Kanye Is the GOAT

Kanye West is the greatest hip-hop artist of all time. He's made the best albums and changed the game the most, and his music is the most likely to endure. One thing before we get going: This isn't one of those arguments meant to piss people off or "start a conversation." We really mean it. And, c ... More >>

Music Picks: No Doubt, Nikki Hill, Alice Cooper

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 >>

Ten Rap Songs More Republican Than Nicki Minaj

Earlier this week Nicki Minaj stepped in a fresh pile of political shit when she, in an attempt to stir the pot on a "Mercy" freestyle remix, rapped that she is voting for Mitt Romney. People stupid enough to think anything Minaj does or says matters were outraged, and some even sent her death threa ... More >>

Lil' Kim - Key Club - 6/13/12

Sean Healy Presents Lil' Kim Key Club 6/13/12 We have all been unfair to Lil' Kim. Try to imagine how scary it must have been to be the first female rapper to lay bare her sexual proclivities for the entire world to examine. Even if Notorious B.I.G. ghostwrote her words (as has been alleged) it' ... More >>

James Rosemond, Who Once Managed Rapper The Game, Convicted For New York-to-L.A. Cocaine Ring

James Rosemond, the rap manager one L.A. journalist says was behind an attack that sparked the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop wars of the 1990s, was convicted today in a case that accused him of running a New York-to-L.A. cocaine ring, a courtroom observer told the Weekly. Rosemond, who goes by the ... More >>

Coachella 4/20: Let's Talk About Weed

See also: *The Best of Coachella: Friday, April 20 *Our Complete Coachella Coverage Yesterday was 4/20. It was also Coachella. And so, the percentage of festival-goers who were stoned rose from a paltry 75 percent to a full 98 percent. (These estimates come courtesy of our editor, Ben Westhoff, wh ... More >>

Music Picks: Robben Ford, Hard L.A., Adams Conducts Adams, the Polyphonic Spree

Also, Mindless Self Indulgence, the Pierces, Heartless Bastards, Darasuum and others

'L.A. Xicano' Exhibits Wrap a Banner Season for Chicano Art

The outdoor balcony on the north end of UCLA's Haines Hall was a fitting place for the informal pizza party last week concluding a series of Pacific Standard Time exhibitions loosely gathered under the "L.A. Xicano" heading. The campus building houses the Chicano Studies Research Center as well as t ... More >>

Battle of the Barbies: Who's Better, Lil' Kim or Nicki Minaj?

See also: The Boss Vs. The Bawse: Who's Better, Bruce Springsteen or Rick Ross? [Editor's note: Deathmatch pairs two artists who have something in common, and determines who is better. It's a concept we sort-of ripped off from MTV, except that instead of claymation it's the printed word!] Lil' Kim ... More >>

World Famous V.I.P. Records Officially Closes

c/o Kelvin AndersonOwner Kelvin Anderson Sr. with Craig Mack, left, and Notorious B.I.G., right​For this week's feature story, we wrote about the impending demise of World Famous V.I.P. Records in Long Beach, which once boasted a dozen branches and was instrumental in the rise of West Coast hi ... More >>

Top Five Rappers In Absolutely Ridiculous Sweaters

Drake and his sweater on Saturday Night Live​The young rap billionaire Drake has a new album out this week. It's probably fantastic! But more important than any critical assessment of his music, it's another opportunity for Drake to assert his commitment to the bemusing art of wearing really a ... More >>

There's Three Of Us, But We're Not The Beatles: The Ten Most Illogical Rap Lyrics In History

Wait, where's Ringo?​By Chaz Kangas "No one ever climbs a ladder alone," said Bill Clinton at his Hollywood Bowl fete on Saturday. This makes not a lick of sense. But perhaps he was just taking cues from the world of hip-hop, which is famous for its wildly inaccurate and illogical statements. ... 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 >>

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 Sex Tape' Hits Internet Same Day as Sean Combs Is Accused of Hiring His Murder

Update: You want the dirt on Tupac? Here's the real dirt on Tupac. "The 'Keffe D' Tapes: 10 Highlights of Confession From Gangster Who Says Sean Combs Hired Him to Kill Tupac." TMZ claims to have viewed a sex tape starring the late L.A. gangsta rapper Tupac Shakur -- an alleged feat in multitasking ... More >>

Greg Kading: The Internal Affairs Report that Cleared the Tupac and Biggie Cop from Wrongdoing in the George Torres Case

​In the wake of ex-LAPD detective Greg Kading's recent book, Murder Rap, revealing new details about the shootings of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, many people will almost certainly try discredit Kading by citing past Weekly and other newspaper stories. In 2009, after eliciting confessions impl ... 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 >>

James Rosemond, Alleged Tupac Attack Orchestrator, Indicted For Interscope-Related Cocaine Ring

James Rosemond​Update: Interscope reps have responded to allegations that their L.A. offices were involved in the narcotics ring described below. Washing their hands of Rosemond, they call reports of Interscope's involvement "erroneous and completely unsupported," asserting that his alleged us ... More >>

Top 7 Hall & Oates-Sampled Hip-Hop Songs

We can go for that!​By Sheila Dichoso Nothing says hip-hop like Hall & Oates. That's right. Not even the filthy mouths of 2 Live Crew could resist their soft rock hooks, luxurious hair and awkward, ambiguous lyrics. (You can't go for what, exactly?) From Wu Tang to Kanye, rappers have paid ... More >>

Chuck Philips Demands L.A. Times Apology on Tupac Shakur

James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond, Rap Manager Allegedly Responsible for 1994 Tupac Attack, Arrested

James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond​As just reported by Dennis Romero on our news blog, The Informer, James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond was apprehended this morning in New York. Rosemond was collared this morning after a foot chase near Park Avenue and 21st St., a federal official told the Weekly. ... More >>

Music Picks: The Undertones, Prince, Eternal Summers, Check Yo Ponytail 2

Also, Earth, Wind & Fire, Tinie Tempah, Arctic Monkeys, Woodsman 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 >>

Human Nature at LACMA

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?

Today's New Releases: Stereolab, Girl Talk, Dum Dum Girls and Tommy Santee Klaws

​ STEREOLAB, NOT MUSIC (DRAG CITY) Twenty years and 12 albums in Stereolab gives us Not Music, a record derived from the same sessions that produced 2008's Chemical Chords and released during their self-imposed hiatus. This mix of "new" songs and remixes of "old" ones is fantastic, but if you ... More >>

Manny Mania

Full Court Press: Dominick Dunne's Cameo at Phil Spector Retrial; Anand Jon's Explosive Evidence of Juror Shenanigans

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 >>

Phil Spector Trial: Dominick Dunne Drops By, A Juror Drops Out

The murder retrial of music-producing legend Phil Spector resumed today with the momentary return of Dominick Dunne, the Vanity Fair correspondent who'd sat through the first trial in all its melodramatic glory. Dunne arrived at Department 106 this morning solely for pleasure and had not come to tow ... More >>

On the Eve of the Grammys, Heavy D Discusses His Nomination, Reggae, Diddy and More

To hip-hop fans in the early-'90s, Heavy D was the original "Overweight Lover." A rap generation later, he was name-dropped more in the reciting of one of hip-hop's most beloved lines: the first bars from another heavy weight, Notorious B.I.G's "Juicy." Now? Without Notorious it'd be a wonder if t ... More >>

Good Times Never Seemed So Good: Snapshots From Coachella

From the express train to the Gobi Tent to the VIP and beyond

Discovering the Candidates Through Their Playlists

It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To

Pause and Rewind: The Show

I remember watching The Show for the first and only time when I was a freshman in high school. I wasn't very impressed. This was 1995, Biggie was alive, Warren G was the biggest star in the world, Wu-Tang was in the middle of the greatest run in rap history and Snoop Dogg hadn't yet released Tha D ... More >>

Death and Girl Talk

Mash-up star Gregg Gillis may be about to blow up — literally

The Mad Science of Fredwreck

Snoop, Xzibit and Dr. Dre all praise the Palestinian-American freak of beats

East Vs. West, Part II

February 24, and Tangier, February 25

Forever Then

Eazy Does It

Gangsta rap hits L.A.

Killaz and Victims

DJ Quik lays 'em out

How Neatly Spreads His Claws

The 18th annual Sundance Film Festival

Daily Radical

How to subvert the funny papers

Anarcho Syndicalist

Hard Times for Net News

Between the Lines

Filling in the rap gap

Loco Mosquito

Iggy Pop, time and the American Way

Myth Master

The fabrication of Ms. Foxy Brown

As the World Turns

Timbaland, Magoo and Ma$e: These are the daze of our lives