Slick Rick

The Best Concerts to See in L.A. This Weekend

Don't forget to check our constantly-updated Los Angeles Concert Calendar Friday, September 6 Anticon 15th-Anniversary Party featuring Baths, Daedelus, Doseone, et al. ECHOPLEX Tip your hat to 15 years of Anticon greatness: The label/collective founded by Oakland's Adam "Doseone" Drucker has champ ... More >>

Music Picks: Anticon Anniversary, Rock the Bells, Murder By Death

Sunset Strip Music Festival - West Hollywood - Aug. 1-3, 2013

Sunset Strip Music Festival Sunset Strip, West Hollywood Aug. 1-3, 2013 The Sunset Music festival sought to reverse sagging attendance this year, and the line-up got a shake-up. There was less emphasis on head-banging, with instead such artists as rap-rock arena rockers Linkin Park, a mix of hip-ho ... More >>

Kreayshawn's New Album Is Not, In Fact, the Worst-Selling Ever

The internet is broken again. It's telling us that first-week sales of Kreayshawn's debut Somethin' 'Bout Kreay -- released last week, it moved about 3,900 units -- are the weakest ever for a major label release. Thanks for the misinformation everyone, which has come fast and furious, often with th ... More >>

Let's Play 'Guess the Rapper'

See also: KDAY, the Gangsta Rap Oldies Station, Breaks New Ground by Playing Music From the Bad Old Days Below are some illustrations of rappers. (The top is an example.) They also contain hints to help you guess who they are. There are 15 total. If you miss more than three, you lose and everyone ... 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 >>

Justin Bua's Paintings Of His Most Influential Rappers

Justin Bua​Justin Bua is a hip-hop painter; you may have seen the print of his painting "The DJ" (see below), at Target, of all places. It's been out for over a decade, and has been selling ridiculous amounts of copies for years. He's done portraits of everyone from Nas to Kool Herc to Quee ... More >>

Why This Song Sucks: Beyonce's "Party (Remix)" Featuring J. Cole

[Editor's note: Why This Song Sucks determines why particular tracks blow using science. It appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday.] Song: Beyonce's "Party" featuring J. Cole History: "Party" is the fourth single from Beyonce's fourth studio album, 4. That's three fours in a row, bro. Three ... More >>

Everlast's Top Five Most Influential West Coast Rap Albums

​See also: *Don't Call Him Country. Everlast is Hip-Hop, Dammit. *Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: The Complete List As a teenager, Everlast was a graf writer. He made a couple tapes with his buddies, and the next thing he knew he was part of Ice-T's Rhyme Syndicate crew. He, Dan ... 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 >>

The Top Five Sassy Salt-N-Pepa Songs

Salt-N-Pepa​Long before there was rap vixen Nicki Minaj, and almost a decade prior to Lil Kim and Foxy Brown introducing the world to their sexed-up shopping spree lyrics, two female rappers from the heart of Queens named Salt-N-Pepa helped craft the idea of sassy female rap. And while the wor ... More >>

Jill Scott - Gibson Amphitheatre - 8/10/11

Timothy Norris ​Jill Scott Gibson Amphitheatre 8/10/11 Better than ... drinks, dinner, and a movie. No venue is too big for Jill Scott's voice. It wields the kind of deeply supported, belly-rumbling power every Broadway baby dreams of. She had no problem saturating the Gibson Amphitheatre ... More >>

Top Ten Rap Remixes Of '90s R&B Songs

Take that​This Friday, the Stokely Williams-fronted Mint Condition will be taking the stage at Club Nokia. The group came to prominence in the '90s with the huge hit ballad "What Kind Of Man Would I Be?" But beyond Mint Condition's slick soul moments, the band also embraced the mid-'90s trend ... More >>

Music Picks: The Psychedelic Furs, Orgone, Raekwon, Beach Fossils, The Raveonettes

Also, Thao & Mirah, Sun Araw, Cass McCombs, Trinket and others

Music Picks: She Wants Revenge, Nilbog, Lady Gaga

Also, Men, Ice Cube, OMD, the Aussie BBQ and others

Richard "Scar" Lopez, Founding Member of Pioneering East LA Chicano Rock Combo Cannibal and the Headhunters, Dead at 65

Richard "Scar" Lopez, founding member of pioneering East LA Chicano rock group Cannibal and the Headhunters died last July 30 of lung cancer, the LA Times reports. Most obituaries about Lopez's life and career (and the band's monster hit "Land of 1,000 Dances") are drawing from a great 2005 artic ... More >>

Where To Spend New Year's Eve: In A Place Where Everyone Knows Your Name. At Least For One Night.

Logline for the proposed horror film, "Where To Spend New Year's Eve": Thousands of hallow-eyed would-be-revelers, in a desperate search for a party, comb the streets in their finest digs, racing against the stroke of midnight. This year, instead of staying home like a curmudgeon, or running aroun ... More >>

Slit-eyed Ladies, Edible Willies, and Evan Dando Up Your Nose: Deep Inside the World of Crap Lyrics

Rod the Mod (#7) once fell in love with "a slit-eyed lady" (not pictured)​For every "Blowin' In the Wind"and "The Times They Are A-Changin'" there's a "We Didn't Start the Fire" and "Muskrat Love." There's never a shortage of lists out there of good and bad pop lyrics. And who among us hasn't ... More >>

Rock Picks: Quantic and his Combo Bárbaro, Elvis Costello, Rock & Roll Summer Circus

Also, Flaming Lips, Clipse, Silk Flowers, the Muffs and others

Nightranger: Thriller Nights Before, During and After Halloween

Steel Wheels, Darling Stilettos and the Boo-Over

Rock Picks: Slick Rick, Tapes 'n Tapes, Kate Nash

And other May 8-15 shows

Rock Picks: Lucinda Williams, Fuck Buttons, The Sword

Also, Kanye West, The Black Heart Procession and more

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 >>

Rock Picks: Lucy Lawless, The Dagons, Big Daddy Kane and more

For the week of Jan. 25-31

The 25 Best Hip-Hop Songs of 2007 Pt. 5 (#5-1)

Even if you are a jewel thief, it is never wise to mess with a man whose name is Sgt. Larvell Jones. 5. Jay-Z ft. Nas-"Success" These two. Thing is, this song shouldn't be this high on my Best Of list. Say these guys hadn't spent a decade trying to fuck each other's baby mama's, Sean Carter an ... More >>

The 25 Best Hip-Hop Songs of 2007 (#25-20)

25. Chamillionaire ft. Slick Rick: "Hip Hop Police" Chamillionaire's a good rapper. His flow kind of reminds me of Krayzie Bone had he grown up chugging syrup through humid Houston summers. And unlike a lot of his Southern brethren, Chamillionaire has interesting ideas, even if he doesn't always ... More >>

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)

Raiders of the Lost Art

Sometime after 50 arrived, the art of the narrative wandered into a blizzard of coke raps, artificial hood mythologizing and pandering simplicity. Complexity no longer moved units, and with sales sliding, Scarface xeroxes and ringtone rappers became the safe bets. You can't blame the suits either ... More >>

Rock Picks

For the week of December 21 - 28

Music Picks

For the week of July 20 - 27

Freaky Kinky Nation

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

Mickey Avalon’s True Hollywood Stories

Death, drugs, rap and redemption

Naa Na Na Na Naa

How the West Coast Eastside sound changed rock & roll

Live in LA

The Revolution Will Be Posterized

Eazy Does It

Gangsta rap hits L.A.

The Year In Music

Om Nia Merican

Dr. Kool's Pop Quiz

Keith Thornton, Ph.d., an old professor from the new school, knows rap is here to test you

Rap and Revelation

Words to the wise from Blood of Abraham

Word According to B.I.G.

Do U Know Us?

Armand Van Helden, Mos Def: A masculine equation

Darkness Audible

An interview with Me'Shell Ndegéocello

Cubanismo, L.A.-Style

A Perfect Pop Plan