Oliver Wang

The summer of 2008 is starting to sound a lot like ... 2007? Recent singles, including Solange Knowles’ sock-hoppin’ “I Decided” and Little Jackie’s tart “The...

Lil Wayne|Tha Carter III | Cash MoneyWhen New Orleans’ Hot Boys formed in 1997, few foresaw teenager Lil Wayne — the youngest of the four — as the group’s event...

Photo by Danny Clinch Throughout their 18-plus-year career, the Beastie Boys have been The Exception, The Alternative, The Antidote — anything but just another rap group. In their mercurial transformations from frat brats to sonic scientists to skate rockers to elder statesmen, Ad Rock, MCA and Mike D have also......

I didn’t grow up listening to P-Funk — I was too young, and my childhood suburbs too vanilla, for me to have hitched a ride on the Mothership in the ’70s. Instead, I discovered the world of Parliament-Funkadelic in my 20s, moving backward from the many hip-hop samples grifted off......

Listening to Pharrell Williams’ “Frontin’” makes me want to be 16 again, hugging the gymnasium wall at a school dance. Some music never sounds so good as when you’re young, and my affection for “Frontin’” stems from how it evokes memories of my teenage KROQ years. No one would mistake......

Styles of Beyond’s Megadef begins with a buzz. Not a metaphorical this-shit-is-hot buzz, but the needling, invasive sound of a mosquito tickling your ear. The zzz-zzz-zzz, panned in stereo no less, is first a novelty, then a nuisance, and eventually yanks you to the brink of frenzy. Before the pestering......

For all its reputation as an industry town, Los Angeles has long nurtured local and underground talent over the radio waves. Sure, we might be neck-deep in Clear Channel these days, but media monopolies aside, L.A. has given us everything from the old Greg Mack “Attack” mix shows on KDAY......