After more than a decade with a lack of Slim Shady, Montreal was graced with the Detroit-native white rapper just last night. Eminem grabbed hold of the record setting crowd (in the six-year old festival’s history) of 38 000, and refused to let go. As his show-opening track states, Shady just “Won’t Back Down.” Eminem had stopped performing live back in 2005 when his drug addiction started to seriously interfere with his health. However, he’s been making a comeback to [...]
Kendrick Lamar is an impeccable lyricist. His flow seems natural, at times striking with a rapid, staccato delivery. Other times, he slows it down, allowing his rhymes to be malleable, and shape themselves into whatever form they see fit. Lamar, along with Odd Future, Pac Div and many others, have put California back on the map for hip hop, delivering a new, refined approach, and implementing some of the lyrical themes common in rap with a fresh, and innovative perspective. [...]
It wouldn’t be a lie to say that for the past two years, the Slightly Stoopid show at Redmond’s Marymoor Park has commanded the spot of number one concert of the year in my book. Formed in 1996, this Long Beach, California reggae-rock-hip-hop fusion band is most notably known for its surfer attitude and stoner style. That’s right – if you’ve got anything whatsoever against the smoking of, consumption, possession, or association with marijuana, Stoopid’s shows are probably not going [...]
Last weekend’s Capitol Hill Block Party provided the setting for some 70 up-and-coming indie bands to showcase their offbeat repertoires and whimsical numbers. The 15th annual Block Party hosted bands from all over the country, but, as tradition dictates, focused specially on Northwest groups. The festival was held over a three-day period of sun and heat in Seattle’s trendy Capitol Hill neighborhood – one that’s famous for its gay-friendly scene and Bohemian vibe. A landscape of free spirits chugging down [...]
With their first full-length album, When Fish Ride Bicycles, The Cool Kids finally get to prove to the world they really are that cool. After a string of impressive mixtapes and a years-long period of record label uncertainty, the Midwestern duo, consisting of Mikey Rocks and Chuck Inglish, delivers a polished, cohesive, record that accurately represents just what those kids are – and have always been — all about. Put simply, The Cool Kids are all about the beat. That’s [...]
It’s a sticky Seattle Saturday night, and outside downtown’s illustrious Paramount theater congregate swaths of young’uns and elderly alike, all there for the collective cause of getting down to some fresh beats. I scan the crowd surrounding the Paramount’s entrance, noticing everyone from candy ravers to…hey…aren’t they that one old couple I saw getting jiggy and making out at that last rave? I digress; the point is, the mystical combination of Oakland’s Beats Antique and England’s psychedelic project Shpongle has [...]
AraabMuzik; quirky name, but a monster at producing, and trust me, that is not an overstatement. Anyone who can manipulate an MPC drum machine to do its bidding, while creating various melodies with different samples, all at once, is someone worth knowing about. Abraham Orellana, better known as AraabMuzik, has worked with artists such as, Jadakiss, Fabolous and Busta Rhymes. When he isn’t working with well-known artists, he is creating his own type of music. A mixture of pulsating drum [...]
If Jamaican dancehall phenom Vybz Kartel’s new album Kingston Story is in fact a narrative on his lifestyle in Kingston, Jamaica, we all might be left feeling a bit anticlimactic about our own. Keeping true to form, Kartel and his partner — Brooklyn hip-hop producer Dre Skull – deliver sexuality, ignominy, and obscenity on Kingston Story, and Kartel doesn’t seem to have shed any of the qualities that earned him the title of the most controversial dancehall artist there is. [...]
“Monumental” seems like a fitting title for an album by the likes of Pete Rock – a man who has oft been labeled one of the best hip-hop producers of all time. The legendary producer teams up with Brooklyn rap duo Smif-n-Wessun on Monumental to deliver a funky, beat-centric record that, with its boom bap quality and diversity in sound, hails back to the Golden Age of the hip-hop genre. Old-school die-hards like my 40-something friend who still devoutly bumps [...]
Freddie Gibbs’ road is layered with evocative imagery; when he delivers, he delivers. His does not hold anything back, and his tough guy attitude never falters, contributing to the dark themes that are commonplace in the world of gangsta-rap. In his latest EP, Lord Giveth, Lord Taketh Away, Freddie Gibbs continues on with his street-smart bravado, teaming up with producer Statik Selektah, and a list of guest appearances, to create a 19 minute mix of ’70s music influenced production, hyper-technical [...]
