Jeff Weiss

Honesty is more important than the truth. For instance, the bullet points of Kadhja Bonet's biography are easily repeatable: raised in the East Bay among six other highly musical siblings, classically schooled in violin and cello, a star long-distance runner turned USC film student turned psychedelic soul illumination. But the......

At first, G Perico refused to go to the hospital. Despite the fresh bullet in his hip and blood flowing down his leg, the South Central rapper said medical attention was unnecessary. Besides, he had a show that night at the Roxy that he couldn't miss. The attack occurred as......

If the Afro-futurist science fiction author Octavia Butler was correct that “God is change,” clipping. are eligible for special communion. In the 26 months since the experimental rap trio released their debut on hallowed Seattle indie label Sub Pop, their lives have been in constant flux. One producer, William Hutson,......

The Gaslamp Killer’s latest album started when he was supine, full of stitches and freshly missing his spleen. This was three years ago, when the Gustavo Dudamel of beat music suffered a near-fatal motor scooter accident in Mount Washington. I visited him then, and it was tough to watch. The......

You could walk past George Clinton today and not even realize that you’d just rubbed shoulders with Dr. Funkenstein, the Atomic Dog, the high commander of the Funkadelic Mothership (now docked at the Smithsonian). Without his trademark psychedelic rainbow of dreadlocks or bushy beard, the prime minister of funk can......

In September 1996, Tupac Shakur hobbled out of the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada. Despite dire predictions that 2Pac wouldn’t survive four bullets, the indestructible rapper came home to L.A. — paranoid and wounded but determined to break the destructive loop of violence. After Suge Knight returned to prison,......

For a pre-adolescent at the dawn of the ’90s, House Party doubled as a beginner’s guide to hip-hop. Before its release, most cinematic depictions of the genre were cash-ins, eager to capitalize on its swiftly rising stature in urban youth culture. It’s slightly reductive to say that House Party changed......

In the reasonably near future, when President Jaden Smith presides over the Scientology wing of the White House and self-driving iCars croon Snapchat news in Auto-Tune, it will be possible to attend a different music festival every week of the year. This stratum of the economy will be responsible for......

Gonjasufi was ready to quit. The San Diego native turned desert mystic had just released Muzzle, his 2012 sophomore LP, on Warp Records. But despite critical acclaim, he felt broken and disgusted by the music industry. The onetime yoga teacher had become similarly alienated from his previous profession, too. So......

If N.W.A introduced the world to South Central and Compton, Cypress Hill cracked the 40 and sparked the blunt for the rest of L.A. County. Until the South Gate trio emerged, the East Coast tended to stereotype local rap as either stone cold gangsta nihilism inspired by Eazy E, Dr......