Subject: Run-DMC

• LAFF 2008: Gardening at Night

  Scott Hamilton Kennedy is one of the whitest looking white guys you’ll meet, and yet he makes movies about South Central L.A. that come from a real place of knowing. Of course, OT: OUR TOWN was on one level just a movie about his girlfriend (now wife), but she also happened to be a drama teacher in South Central, and the chronicling of her class’ attempt to stage Thornton Wilder’s classic Americana piece in a way that was relevant to the inner city was a thing of beauty to watch. That said

  June 28, 2008

• "Jockin" is JV-The Lethargy of Post-Retirement Jay-Z

  August 13, 2008

• Letters

  May 17, 2001

• Praying to the Beat

  April 24, 2003

• Dandyland

  September 4, 2003

• A Day With The Locust

  September 25, 2003

• Idealist Propaganda: The Raw Power of Glen E. Friedman

  Photos by Erin Broadley. Click images for entire Idealist Propaganda slideshow."Search and Destroy" funnels out onto the 10:30 p.m. Saturday Sunset Blvd. sidewalk, violently greeting late-arrivals to Glen E. Friedman's Idealist Propaganda exhibit. Iggy's cocaine cacophony carves up Tymphanic cavities. Like a pistol gripped power drill, James Williamson's guitar rattles the window panes of the poor saps staying at the Echo Park Super 8, adjacent to Shepard Fairey's Subliminal Projects gallery. Go

  December 14, 2008

• Weiss' 50 Best Hip-Hop Songs of 2008 (#50-26)

  Over the next two weeks, myself and a very talented cadre of contributors will be emulating the book above. Unlike said tome, it won't cost money and you'll get free MP3s--which, presumably, serve a tangible purpose. Now go cry into your near-beer, Phillip Ardagh, you lovable rogue. 50. Redman ft. Oh No-"Lay You Out" You couldn't pay me to be a kid today: anaconda jeans in vogue, MySpace as courting ritual, "Lollipop" as teenage head-anthem. (Wherefore art thou Akinyele?) But no matter how

  December 16, 2008

• 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 a rookie gladiator in the Colosseum. Whether it's deriding his "frat boy good looks," MySpace photographs with the movie stars he's guarded with critiquing or calling I Am Legend "one of the greatest

  February 24, 2009

• SXSSXSW Day 4/Days Late (Pt. 1): On Rap/Rock, The Legacy of the Beasties, and Asher Roth Vs. The Knux

  Other than freshman Delta Sigma Theta rushes at Cal-State Chico, no substrata of the American population has worse taste in rock than rappers. Sure, your little brother likes Fall Out Boy, but eventually, he's going to grow up and discover The Clash, then weed, then hopefully Junior Murvin and Lee Perry, until ultimately he's repudiating his past like a music writer with Jim Morrison posters still taped to the walls of his childhood bedroom (I stand by them). Your dad* might take his tips from

  March 26, 2009

• Has the L.A. Hip-Hop Plague Finally Passed?

  Four on the floor

  September 25, 2008

• Record Reviews: Gnarls Barkley, Evangelista, No Age, Destroyer

  Also, The Knux, Ghost on the Highway, The Little Ones

  April 3, 2008

• Escape from Allentown

  Beardo’s long journey into teenage wasteland

  December 6, 2007

• N.W.A: A Hard Act to Follow

  Hip-hop and hype from the streets of Compton (reprint of May 5, 1989, Weekly cover story)

  November 29, 2007

• Public Enemy's 20 Years in the Game

  Bringing that beat back

  August 9, 2007

• He Is the Champion

  Brother Ali raps beyond the pale

  April 19, 2007

• Nothing's Shocking

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

  April 12, 2007

• Everybody Do the Pigeon!

  September 7, 2006

• Theater Reviews

  June 8, 2006

• Freaky Kinky Nation

  The weird-ass, beautiful history of ’80s hip-hop, as curated by Tommy Boy records

  April 27, 2006

• The Beat Goes On

  April 20, 2006

• Rawk Your Body!

  February 16, 2006

• Grammy Diary - Updated

  February 9, 2006

• Tricky!

  September 29, 2005

• Quik As F**k

  The violent life, tumultuous career and fundamental goodness of DJ Quik

  September 29, 2005

• ''Led by God to Do Me''

  September 15, 2005

• Brother Man

  June 23, 2005

• Deconstructing Prophets

  March 10, 2005

• White Man’s Burden

  December 9, 2004

• Dopest Throwback Jerseys Spotted

  December 25, 2003

• Eazy Does It

  December 11, 2003

• Relax

  December 20, 2001

• Music of the Heart and Other Organs

  November 8, 2001

• Chúntaro Power

  August 23, 2001

• Letters

  May 31, 2001

• Beat Baggage

  December 28, 2000

• Dr. Kool's Pop Quiz

  December 14, 2000

• The Idiot Beat

  October 26, 2000

• Down for the Good Life

  June 29, 2000

• Between the Lines

  March 16, 2000

• Southern Milk

  January 27, 2000

• Bring the Sauce

  September 17, 1998

• All About the Benjamins

  April 2, 1998

• A Conversation with Posdnuos of De La Soul: On Nike Run Mixes, The Current State of Hip-Hop and Oodles of O's

  De La Soul, back in the day Only a handful of rap groups can be bandied about as G.O.A.T: Wu-Tang, Outkast, EPMD, Tribe Called Quest, Public Enemy, Run-DMC, UGK, The Geto Boys, and De La Soul. If you need an introduction to the De La -- Posdnuos, Dave/Trugoy the Dove, and Maseo -- you obviously haven't listened to their seminal first four albums. Since the release of their most recent full-length, 2004's The Grind Date, the trio has largely kept quiet, save for receiving a VH1 Hip-Hop Honors A

  April 30, 2009

• Some Thoughts on the "Best. Politician. Inspired. Single. Ever." Also, Nazis. Also, Jesus. Also, NFL football.

  Los Angeles's own Sa-Ra create a rallying cry for Obama. Plus, a bunch of other crap this video brought to mind. Super random, super fun.

  May 6, 2008

• SXSW Flashback: Interview With Del Tha Funky Homosapien

  It was my third night in Austin. Devin had just blazed through an epic set that had been celebrated in the appropriate fashion , El-P was currently on-stage and I was wandering around the Def Jux party with four cups of Jack in my stomach, a head full of smoke and the strange desire to approach people and ask if they had also expected everything to be "1984" themed and staffed entirely by surly robots. But I held my tongue, instead approaching a ornery, heavily tatted bartender at the Scoot

  April 8, 2008

• Del tha Funkee Homosapien Returns From Outer Space

  God knows what Del's been doing since the millennium. The guy practically retired around then, after dropping the rightfully canonized Deltron 3030 record and appearing on "Clint Eastwood." It was a weird move considering that with all that Gorillaz exposure, Del could've probably signed with a major (at a time when people actually bought rap albums) and made a real play for that Damon Albarn money. Instead, he faded into oblivion, popping up only on the occasional Hiero album and claiming tha

  January 17, 2008

• The Sly Life: Music-Biz Escapee Matt Robinson Finds Happiness as DJ Mattnifique

  May 21, 2009

• Last Night: Brother Ali and the Night of Three E-V's (Evidence, Evelyn and ... Everlast)

  It's easy to think that underground hip-hop is dead. The Internet has equalized everything to the point that there isn't much difference between Mos Def's and Mickey Factz's marketing plan, or Elzhi's and Eminem's, or Wale's and Will.i.am's. During the WWWization of the rap world, the next generation of indie hip-hop stopped standing in opposition of the mainstream and started emulating it. Maybe it's because weird and original became cool, but whatever the case, today's DIY-minded rappers are n

  October 22, 2009

• Build an Ark’s Covenant

  November 5, 2009