The Game (Rapper)

The Five Kids I Eat Lunch With Every Day

[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.] School has been in for four weeks already. I teach at an inner city middle school in Housto ... More >>

DJ Skee Built a Giant Multimedia Hip-Hop Empire

He succeeded thanks to dedication and charm

Spoken Reasons, the YouTube Poet, Jumps to Hollywood in The Heat

There are plenty of YouTube "stars" on the Internet -- written with quotation marks because they rarely are recognized by age groups outside their target audience of teenagers. But this past week, Spoken Reasons, born John A. Baker Jr., went beyond his subscribers' computer screens and onto the silv ... More >>

We Traveled With the Band Hands to SXSW. Craziness Ensued

This was Los Angeles four-piece Hand's third trek to the festival in the past three years and by far the grandest. With a new van and a new album Synesthesia due to come out in April on Kill Rock Stars, the guys were feeling really good about this year. So good that they foolishly agreed to let me e ... More >>

Five More Iconic Key Club Shows

The Key Club's last day is today! Ever since West Coast Sound broke the story of its impending closure, local music fans have been mourning the place. Personally, we've been to the venue hundreds of times, and worked there as a DJ during Metal Skool's heyday for about two years. We believe the venue ... More >>

Fuck Guilty Pleasures: Critics Need to Lay Off Macklemore

[Editor's Note: Fuck Guilty Pleasures celebrates the over-produced, commercial, artless, lowbrow music that we believe is genuinely worthwhile. Like, among the best music ever.] The number one song in the country, as you probably know, is a Seattle-based white independent hip-hop artist's ode to sh ... More >>

5 Films People Will Be Talking About at Sundance

For the next 10 days, all Hollywood eyes--and those of many a filmgoer--will turn toward the frigid wilds of Park City, Utah, reportedly experiencing its chilliest winter in a decade. Their collective hope: to discover at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival (January 17 through 26) the next Beasts of the ... More >>

Clyde Carson Finally Has a Big Hit with "Slow Down"

Last December, Bay Area rapper Clyde Carson recorded "Slow Down." Within a couple months, a DJ named J-12 had invented a dance specifically for the song, inspiring dozens of kids to upload their own versions to YouTube. A year later, it's inescapable, with Power 106 playing it every hour on the hour ... More >>

How's That "Millennium of Aftermath" Going?

See also: *Here Are Pictures of Dr. Dre's New $13 Million House *The Best Hip-Hop Albums of 2012 Thus Far It was November of 1999 and we were on the cusp of the millennium when Dr. Dre famously proclaimed that the next one thousand years would be "the millennium of Aftermath," on the song "Forgot A ... More >>

Top 10 Sexiest Hip-Hop Video Vixens

LMFAO 'Bikini Girl' Says She Was Fired For Being 'Big Boned' Top Ten Sexiest Album Covers We've Ever Seen Top 60 Worst Lil Wayne Lines on Tha Carter IV Top Ten Rap Albums For People Who Don't Know Shit About Hip-Hop Top 20 Greatest L.A. Rap Albums Of All Time: The Complete List Thoughts From A Rando ... More >>

Your Weekly Movie To-Do List

Barbers, Sharks and Treasure

Here Are Pictures of Dr. Dre's New $13 Million House

See also: The Original Original Gangsta: Ice-T talks about his star-studded directorial debut, his famous affiliates and his life with Coco in New York Ice-T's ambitious documentary Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap comes out today, and in honor of the occasion we spoke with him for our music ... More >>

Rufus Wainwright - Orpheum Theater - 5/12/12

By Oliver Wang Rufus Wainwright Orpheum Theater 5/12/12 See also: Exclusive: Rufus Wainwright On His New Album, "I've Done That Whole Ponderous, Psuedo-Genius Thing" Better than: ...the ham elevator next door at UMAMIcatessen At the Orpheum last night, Rufus Wainwright opened his show by beginn ... More >>

UCLA Video Game Art Festival Features Caine's Arcade Made by a 9-Year-Old, and More

A homeless seven-year-old in Russia named Pjotr is addicted to cigarettes. He must navigate the streets of St. Petersburg, doing whatever he can for a smoke -- steal liquor to give to his prostitute mother for a few bucks and trade Mercedes hood ornaments to black market dealers for a spare stoge. I ... More >>

The Games People Play

Blue Ivy Carter: Top Five Worst Examples of Rap Nepotism

Barely two days after his and Beyonce's baby Blue Ivy Carter was born, Jay-Z put her on a song. "Glory" is a tribute to his new daughter, who closes the track out with a guest feature -- crying. Jay-Z may be starting his kid off young, but nepotism is standard practice among rap superstars. There' ... More >>

Best L.A. Twitter Beefs of 2011 (and Who Won)

​Like most news bloggers, we probably spend too much time on Twitter. Tips arrive in real time -- quicker than on news television, or over the wire -- and Twitpics open us up to a world of witnesses. In effect, we might also talk about it too much. (Online celebrity rags are guiltiest of all: ... More >>

Ghostface Killah Changes Mind About Online Impersonator Ghostfase: 'Shout Out to My Mini Muse.... Funny Ass Ninja'

​Internet junkies earned a new respect for Ghostface Killah back in March, under the illusion it was he who had conjured the brilliant and hysterical (to the point of tears) "Top 10 Softest Rappers In The Game." But when West Coast darling Wiz Khalifa and the other teddy bears on the list sta ... More >>

Remember Our Top 20 L.A. Rap Albums? Here Are The Worst Records By Those Artists

​[Editor's note: Haterade Monday continues! Earlier in the day we told brought you the five dopiest Beach Boys songs (including one where Brian Wilson raps). And now, on the heels of our top 20 greatest L.A. rap albums of all time here's some more drivel from classic artists.] Hip-hop doesn' ... 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: 15-11

​ 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. The party ... 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 >>

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 >>

The Game's Twitter Account Used to Blast 'Flashcalls' to Compton Sheriff's Station: D.A. to Weigh Case Against Rapper

lockerz.comThe Game.​It wasn't exactly an attack by the hacker group Anonymous, but the Compton Sheriff's Station was inundated with calls over the weekend after a tweet from the account of rapper The Game offered internships and listed the non-emergency number for deputies. Sheriff's officia ... More >>

Eight Potential Outcomes of Impending Collaboration Between The Game and Tyler the Creator

​Last Friday, L.A. rapper cum professional scapegoat The Game revealed plans to collaborate with fellow local Tyler the Creator on a track ostensibly titled "Martians vs. Goblins." It is unclear as to whether these two have forged a genuine rapport, or if Game is simply trying to arouse public ... More >>

Fanatics! Henry Rollins' KCRW Show Saturday Night: Ludos, Buzzcocks, Joy Division

Timothy Norris​KCRW BROADCAST #109 for Saturday, April 9. Fanatics! If you notice, our show tonight does all it can to evade all classification. Perhaps the single song that embodies the idea behind the overall is track two, our Ludus. Check that arrangement! That's what tonight's show is all ... More >>

Freddie Gibbs on Last Call with Carson Daly (Watch)

Rebecca HaithcoatFreddie Gibbs: major network without a major label ​Other rappers in L.A. make national television appearances, too, you know. The stage ain't big enough for two stars when Freddie Gibbs is on the bill, so NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly kept an appropriately low-key profile ... More >>

Listen: The Game's "Purp & Patron: The Hangover" (New Mixtape)

​As the music industry keeps sinking into a morass of Ke$has and disposable American idols, Music (capital M) continues thriving. The Game recently released a free mixtape called Purp & Patron. It was so successful it spawned a sequel today called Purp & Patron: The Hangover. And you can lis ... More >>

Rapper The Game vs. Canoga Park Mall: A Tale of (Allegedly) Thieving Valet Parkers, (Allegedly) Racist Cops and a Louis Vuitton Duffel Bag with $75,000 in It

​Billboard reports an amazing tale concerning rapper The Game's Christmas shopping misadventures at a local mall. Apparently Game and his associate Avante Rose (also, apparently a Tila Tequila associate) were at the Westfield Topanga Mall in Canoga Park last Friday and they left their vehicles ... More >>

Tonight: The Soft Pack, Kurt Vile, Nosaj Thing, Dean Wareham, Tim Kasher, KT Tunstall, Sonny & the Sunsets, Sabrosa Purr

The Soft Pack​During their year of touring dangerously, San Diego-bred, L.A.-based quartet the Soft Pack have succeeded in getting everyone to forget their old band name ... you know ... the one that people misunderstood ... and they tired of answering questions about ... what was that name, a ... More >>

Mayer Hawthorne Hooks Up with Virginia Beat-Maker Nottz, Drops Etched 12-Inch for 'I Need You'

Mayer Hawthorne meets Nottz​It's been an incredible year for Mayer Hawthorne. He's turned Snoop Dogg's ear. He's released a series of awesome music videos. He'll be doing the international festival circuit into October and--perhaps most importantly--he just beat Fitz & the Tantrums to the thr ... More >>

Tonight: Laura Marling, Squeeze, Sister Nancy at Dub Club, Obits, Neon Trees, Vanaprasta

Laura Marling​One week, two acclaimed U.K. folk singers: Somebody must have planned this thing. Last night it was Conor O'Brien, aka Villagers, giving a mesmerizing solo performance at the Hotel Cafe. (And, yes, this Conor O. very much recalls Conor Oberst.) Tonight, Laura Marling visits the ... More >>

This Weekend: Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Rage Against the Machine, Robyn, Jackson Browne, Lyle Lovett, Keith Urban, Delta Spirit

via MySpaceMiguel Atwood-Ferguson​Tonight's installment of Grand Performances at California Plaza -- one of our town's finest, free music al fresco opportunities -- figures to be especially grand. Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, the composer/producer/arranger/multi-instrumentalist who boasts a resume ... More >>

Nightranger: Once Bitten, Twice Buy

Nightranger on (Slutty) Summer Reads

Our social calendar has been packed with book signings and their after-bashes recently, some wilder than any club night. Two books in particular are rockin' our reading radar, and not just because both have the word "slut" in their titles. It was the same eve as the Cobrasnake hullabaloo, so we miss ... More >>

Tonight: DJ Skee Reinvents the Wheels of Steel with "Skeetox"

Via DJ Skee's TwitpicNo word if J. Lo is one of the surprise guests at Skeetox (Probably not). ​Taking the DJ performance to a new level is a tall task. Since DJs stepped outside of the club and onto the stage, they've struggled with making the often-obscure craft translate to their crowd. Wha ... More >>

Give Up!: Top Five Sad Songs, Picked by Dublab's Frosty and Dntel

Just give up. Do it.​Mark "Frosty" McNeil will be spinning at "GIVE UP -- stop dancing and cry...," dublab's regular "dj's-on-a -bummer" night at the Hyperion Tavern this coming Sunday, March 21st. WCS interviewed him this week about this peculiar event. What is "Give Up"? Give Up is an expl ... More >>

Game Drops "The" Then Drops New Street Single

​As The Game, LA rapper Jayceon Taylor released three incredibly solid albums, but is now switching it up a little bit for his upcoming fourth release, "The R.E.D. Album" (December 8th). He's redacted the The and will now be referred to simply as Game. He's promised two singles this week, the ... More >>

Last Night: The Marijuana Policy Project Party at the Playboy Mansion--The Dandy Warhols, Playmates, and Pinball

Laurie ScavoI don't need to explain the Playboy Mansion. You've probably seen Girls Next Door, the E! Entertainment show that managed to successfully de-mystify the estate like the channel did Saved by the Bell, Puff Daddy, and Fabio. But despite the camera's depiction of Heff as goofy and groping g ... More >>

If the Lakers Were Rappers: A Study in Similitude

Prediction: If Kobe doesn't grow a mullet, the Lakers will take it in June. Kobe Bryant = Kanye West Raised in more affluent circumstances than their peers, Kobe and Kanye are not only among the best in their respective fields, they share a severe lack of humility and empathy. Mutually ol ... More >>

Over the Weekend: Prince Performs Post-Oscars Party, Golden Age of Comic Books Exhibit, Mindshare LA, Mardi Gras at Farmers Market, The Game at Club Nokia

Academy Awards weekend in L.A. is madness so rather than exhaust ourselves party hopping the typical Oscar bashes, L.A. Weekly opted to check out what the rest the city had to offer. We indulged our inner geek at Skirball Cultural Center's new exhibit "Zap! Pow! Bam! The Superhero: The Golden Age of ... More >>

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

Four on the floor

Live in LA

Live in LA

To Be Real

Is The Game playing for keeps?

East Vs. West, Part II

February 24, and Tangier, February 25

California Love

The Game and Daz bring gangsta back where it belongs

The Year's Best DVD Gift Boxes