Ben Westhoff

Eminem and Rihanna Rose Bowl August 7, 2014 Now that all the superstars in hip-hop and R&B are required to tour with a "buddy" (see: Jay Z and Beyonce, Drake and Lil Wayne, Jay Z and Justin Timberlake) Eminem and Rihanna are kind of a cool pairing, at least on......

Warren G remains best known for "Regulate," his 1994 collaboration with Nate Dogg, which familiarized kids around the world with the rugged streets of Long Beach's East side, and just celebrated its 20th anniversary.  But he's been everywhere and done just about everything when it comes to L.A. hip-hop. Shuttling between......

The beleaguered Sunset Strip Music Festival announced its lineup today. The event takes place September 20-21 on the strip and will be headlined by Jane's Addiction, who on the first night will play their album Nothing's Shocking in its entirety. That album celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.    Elsewhere, the lineup includes......

Recruited by Eazy-E for N.W.A., MC Ren was a part of the group through its critical years, and went on to solo success on Eazy's Ruthless Records label. Though not a household name like compatriots Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, Ren more than held his own in the group, with......

Long Beach rapper RBX made his name on The Chronic, absolutely killing it on tracks like "Stranded on Death Row." Weekly contributor Jake Paine calls that song the West coast's  answer to Marly Marl's "The Symphony" - perhaps the greatest posse cut in rap history - and indeed RBX went on to contribute......

In the Village Voice's most recent Pazz and Jop critics poll, I called local psychedelic garage act Jail Weddings' latest album Meltdown: A Declaration of Unpopular Emotion the best album of 2013.  Well, now it's 2014 and the fun - if you can call such heavy music fun - hasn't stopped. Below, West......

The Twilight concert series - now in its 30th year - goes down at the Santa Monica pier every Thursday, beginning July 10.  The lineup for the free series has just been announced, and includes a diverse range of sounds from all over the globe, from Malaysian transplant Yuna (whom......

Though sports teams using names, gestures, and uniforms offensive to Native Americans has been a subject of debate for many years, the issue of ravers wearing garb inspired by tribes has flown largely under the radar. Despite criticism from various media outlets (including the Weekly), the practice has only seemed......

We've talked about how these are trying times for band names. Whereas groups once named themselves after animals or simple concepts that described their character or sound, in recent years they've tended to prefer the arbitrary and twee. The latest trend is for male-dominated bands to name themselves after females.  You......

Editor's Note: We have finally reached the conclusion of L.A. Weekly's Best Live Band contest. You can also read about our other two finalists, The Vim Dicta and Yoya. After months of voting, controversy, and lots and lots of live music, L.A. Weekly has a winner in our best live band contest. Take a bow, Mars......