Tupac Shakur

My Favorite Albums of the Second Half of 2012, in Haiku Form

[Editor's note: Weekly scribe Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. His archives are available here.] Kendrick Lamar attributed L.A.'s primacy to the women, weed and weather. He was quoting Biggie, who consecrated the left coast via song, despite his long ... More >>

The Five Best Los Angeles Rap Albums of 2012

As Max Bell noted in his round-up of L.A. rap earlier this month, it was a very good year for hip-hop in our city, with all corners of the varied scene -- from Open Mike Eagle's smart 4NML HSPTL to Odd Future's rambunctious The OF Tape Vol. 2 to Ty$ and Joe Moses' raunchy Whoop! -- well represented ... More >>

This Is the Mixtape I Made For the Guys Who Keep Breaking Into My Car

Three, maybe four times in the last month, my car has been broken into. I suppose at least a portion of that is my fault, both macro and micro. Macro: I mean, if I'd have maybe paid more attention in school, I'd probably make more money than I do today, which means I wouldn't have to live across t ... More >>

Future's "Turn On The Lights": Why This Song Is Amazing

[Editor's note: Why This Song Sucks determines why particular tracks blow using science. It appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. However, this week we're utilizing science to explain why a song is goddamn amazing.] Song: Future's "Turn On The Lights" History: history? History? HISTORY? Don ... More >>

What's the First Rap Song I Should Play For My Newborn Son?

In maybe one or maybe eight or maybe two or maybe six days, my third son will be pulled from my wife's womb. (C-section life, bitches.) He has a name, but I'm not going to tell you what it is. If you want to refer to him as Boy C, that's cool. That'll do just fine, I imagine. There are a bunch of r ... More >>

Randy Newman's "You've Got A Friend In Me": Why This Song Sucks (Movie Theme Song Edition)

[Editor's note: Why This Song Sucks determines why particular tracks blow using science. It appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday.] Song: Randy Newman's "You've Got A Friend In Me" History: "You've Got A Friend In Me" is the theme song from Toy Story. It came out in 1995. Teenagers pretended ... 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 >>

Meet Poolside: L.A.'s Newest Monster Truck-Driving Disco Duo

See also: Allah-Las and Chicano Batman Headline KCRW's Summer Music Series at the Hammer Yes, Poolside has a swimming pool in front of their Los Feliz studio, which which doubles as an apartment. But it's not the one you might have expected to inspire their chill-as-hell "daytime disco." It's small ... More >>

Chuck Philips, L.A. Journo Who Said James Rosemond Was Behind Tupac Attack, Removed From 'Henchman' Drug Trial

L.A. journalist Chuck Philips was kicked out of court yesterday as he covered the New York trial of alleged drug dealer and longtime rap industry manager James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond. Rosemond, was indicted on federal drug charges in what authorities alleged was a New York-to-L.A. cocaine ring w ... More >>

Iggy Azalea - The Roxy - 5/12/12

See also: Meet Iggy Azalea, the Street Smart Blonde Bombshell Behind "Pu$$y" Iggy Azalea The Roxy 5/12/12 Iggy Azalea's last L.A. show was something of a catastrophe; she didn't go on until after 1 am, and the performance was marred by theft, arrests, and a fight. This time, however, she let every ... More >>

American Idol Meets Arts Journalism, in KCET's Artbound

Ever been inside a disco ball-esque "steam egg" with a bunch of sweaty, half-naked strangers? Talked to Filipino inmates who wrote, directed and starred in their own musical, filmed within prison walls (and that went viral with more 50 million YouTube views)? Writers for KCET's new arts journalism ... More >>

Best of Coachella: Sunday, April 22

See also: Our complete Coachella coverage By the third day of Coachella's second weekend -- the sixth and final day of this year's festival -- folks had more or less learned to ignore the dust and the heat. Here are our intrepid writers' favorite things about the final hours of the 2012 event.

Best of Coachella: Saturday, April 21

See also: Our complete Coachella coverage Saturday at Coachella meant tributes, tributes, tributes. From Levon Helms to Biggie, everyone got a shout-out. In between all that, some nasty partying and a little recreational drug use. Read our highly-trained writers as they tell you the the best things ... More >>

Coachella 2012: Top Five Acts at the Sahara Tent

See also: *Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac's Hologram *Top Ten Awkward Coachella Dance Move GIFs *Our Complete Coachella Coverage By Alejandra Loera The weekend is over and Coachella came and went in a blink of an eye. It was pure amazingness, and there were so many talented artists to see. For elect ... More >>

Why This Song Sucks: Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know," featuring Kimbra

[Editor's note: Why This Song Sucks determines why particular tracks blow using science. It appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday.] See also: *Gotye Tells Us His Life Story *The Worst of Coachella: Weekend One Song: Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know," featuring Kimbra History: "Somebod ... More >>

Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Something": Why This Song Sucks

[Editor's note: Why This Song Sucks determines why particular tracks blow using science. It appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday.] Song: Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Something" History: "Wanna Be Startin' Something" is the fourth single from Michael Jackson's album Thriller (said Th ... More >>

Why This Song Sucks: "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" Is Hatemongering

[Editor's note: Why This Song Sucks determines why particular tracks blow using science. It appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday.] Song: "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" Atmospherics: Admittedly, this is pretty brilliantly composed. It is moody and fun and clever. History: Duh. From the c ... More >>

Fuck Guilty Pleasures: Chris Brown Can Do No Wrong

​[Editor's Note: Fuck Guilt Pleasures celebrates the over-produced, commercial, artless, lowbrow music that we believe is genuinely worthwhile. Like, among the best music ever.] It was fall 2005, and I was sitting in an Internet café in Berlin. Juelz Santana's "There It Go (The Whistle Song) ... More >>

Thoughts From A Random Black Guy: That Time I Adopted An Asian Kid

Kelly Clancy​[Editor's note: Odd Future member Lionel Boyce writes a weekly column for West Coast Sound. His archives are available here.] For a brief period I had a kid. A daughter. I didn't really tell anyone. For some reason people never asked who she was; I guess they assumed she was my s ... 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 >>

Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls Murder Book Shoots to Top of Amazon

​Murder Rap, the book written by former LAPD detective Greg Kading implicating Sean Combs and Suge Knight in the slayings of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, officially came out today. So far, only LA Weekly has interviewed Kading about his self-published book and the revelations he shares, which ... More >>

Toronto Film Festival Preview: 10 Must-See Films

Brad Pitt in Moneyball​ The Toronto Film Festival kicks off tomorrow, offering the usual mix of Oscar bait, new films from foreign and experimental masters, and basically every conceivable thing in between. With the caveat that the lineup, hundreds of films strong, could not possibly be tackle ... More >>

Compton Rapper Game Returns to an Industry That's Gone Soft

Will his old tricks still work?

Carmageddon Playlist: 7 Songs that Namecheck the 405 Freeway

​ By Sheila Dichoso Carmageddon is coming! We thought we'd remind you again about the three-day 405 shutdown. The media warns that chaos will ensue, so stay at home and smoke weed or something. The San Diego freeway is notoriously loathed. Because of its congestion, we put up with way too ma ... More >>

The 5 Most Hilarious Republican Attempts To Co-opt Rock Songs

​The problem with being a Conservative, besides the fact that you spend all your time trying to ruin things for everyone else, is that, let's face it, you're really square. You probably have a million sexual hang-ups, you're always 50 years too late to claim credit for any social movements tha ... More >>

Soulja Boy to Play Tupac?

As far as a stunt, Soulja Boy?​"Power. Respect. JUICE. How far will you go to get it?" Apparently, the much maligned rapper Soulja Boy Tell'em will try reprising Tupac's role from the 1992 cult classic Juice in a "mini movie" reset from Harlem to his current home base, Atlanta. Yesterday, ... More >>

New Leads In L.A.'s Biggie Smalls Murder Investigation?

Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G., a.k.a. Biggie Smalls.​The Los Angeles murder of the Notorious B.I.G. has led to a notoriously fruitless investigation, a few movies, magazine covers and many a conspiracy theory (Suge Knight, the LAPD ... ). But authorities have given rapper Chris ... More >>

WATCH/DOWNLOAD: From Oakland to Compton, Aloe Blacc, MED and Oh No Pay California Love on New West Coast Anthem 'Where I'm From'

Aloe Blacc pays tribute to the state he's in. Could this be the new "California Love"?​ Oxnard rapper and Stones Throw artist MED doesn't eff around. When it comes to dropping singles, he goes straight for the broad-theme anthem, and always with a West Coast bent. On "Where I'm From," he bri ... More >>

"We're Not Sexual Blobs!"

Pocahaunted's Amanda Brown on their "body music," loving leather, and getting funky with the French

10 Hip Hop Highlights of 2009, from Doom to Raekwon to Antipop and Beyond

Top of the Hip-Hop Or, how Dan LeRoy learned to stop worrying and love da bomb.   While year-end, catch-all wrap-ups are common to every musical genre, in no other style of music do they turn into the hand-wringing, "state of the game" examinations that hip-hop seems to provoke. (I've certainly wr ... More >>

The Continuing Education of Freddie Gibbs: A Follow-Up To This Week's Cover Story

​ Thursday's cover story on Gary, Indiana-raised rapper Freddie Gibbs, engendered a substantial response within the hip-hop blogosphere, with prominent sites Rap Radar, Nah Right, Fake Shore Drive, and The Smoking Section, all taking note. Even Wale twittered a congratulations message. Cons ... More >>

The Great Tortilla Conspiracy Gets on the Sotomayor Case

Photo credit: Rio YañezMovements in food, politics, and, of course, art, are many. And sometimes there's a confluence of all three. Meet the tortilla art movement. The San Francisco-based Great Tortilla Conspiracy wastes no time in using its medium of choice with pressing issues of the day. So thi ... More >>

Newspaper industry death watch vs. music industry death watch: Why did the NY Times fire music biz reporter Jeff Leeds?

Seriously, I don't understand. It's not like he was publishing fake stories about how P. Diddy offed Tupac.

Pan African Film Festival: Homeless Rappers, Freedom Fighters

Sixteenth annual event circles the globe

10 Questions Raised By Mista Grimm's "Indo Smoke" Upon Re-Examination In the Year 2008

1. Is it ever a bad idea for rappers to open their video with shots of them buying 40's at the liquor store? 2. Nate Dogg> a lump of aluminum foil> Akon? 3. Is the only thing better than a G-Funk classic from 1993, a video of said G-Funk classic interspersed with clips from the John Singlet ... More >>

Music

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

Rolling With Big Boy

The voice of Power 106 What’s a few hundred pounds between friends?

The Temptations

The Tempt One benefit

Moment of Truce

After a five-year war, Snoop and Tha Dogg Pound reunite for love, profits and West Coast pride. Ben Quiñones catches the buzz.

10 Albums That Stank Up the Room

Live in LA

Sunset Junction August 27-28 Snoop Dogg/Red Hot Chili Peppers/Ice Cube at the Greek, August 25

Miscellaneous Works

New books from our contributors

Pose and Mean It

Rock Steady

¡Arriba Chalino Sánchez!

Like father, like son: Adán takes over

The Crack-House Rave

Word According to B.I.G.

Darkness Audible

An interview with Me'Shell Ndegéocello

In the Key of Dee

Conversing with the elder stateswoman of spirit

The Big Sleep

Eulogies for heads of state and underground artists, pop icons and ’60s revolutionaries