Atlantic Recording Corporation

Five NYC Rappers Who Deserve To Be In XXL's 2013 Freshman Class Issue

XXL magazine revealed their annual freshmen list today. Among the10 picks for future rap fame (plus a boxed-out bonus picture of Chief Keef's head), New York City is represented by the monolithic Action Bronson, Pro Era leader Joey Bada$$ and Angel Haze. In the interest of municipal pride then, here ... More >>

Q&A: Bettye LaVette on Thankful N' Thoughtful and Losing a Grammy to Eric Clapton

By Katherine Turman It's only taken Bettye LaVette 50 years to become an overnight success. Yet at 66, the saucy soul singer still laments, "That was my biggest grievance--I just want somebody to say my damn name. Even if you say something bad, just say my name." Since her first single in 1962- ... More >>

Eight Revolution-Inciting Takeaways From Lupe Fiasco's Album Listening Session

Last night, Lupe Fiasco took a break from attempting to set the record for uses of the word "bitch" on an MTV station to preview tracks from his upcoming album to a small bunch of journalist types. That album, Food & Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album Part One, is due out on September 25; SOTC w ... More >>

Q&A: VP Records' Patricia Chin, Olivier Chastan, And Neil "Diamond" Edwards On Running Their Queens Reggae Powerhouse

VP Records is the Jamaica, Queens-based powerhouse of the international reggae scene. It owns and distributes a score of other labels including its longtime rival, Greensleeves. Founded by Vincent "Randy" Chin (who died in 2003) and his wife, Patricia—children of Chinese immigrants to Jamaica ... More >>

Unsane Tap In

On the band's strange place between the record store and the Octagon

Lupe Fiasco

Alvin Moore Becomes Second Idiot to Overestimate David Letterman's Power

​For the second time this week, someone looking for attention chose to vandalize the Ed Sullivan Theater, home of the Late Show With David Letterman. Alvin Moore, the latest aggressor, was drunk and mad because he sent Letterman "several demo tapes," NBC NY reports, but had not heard back. Pol ... More >>

The Melvins' Power Disinfectant

How their sludgy 1992 album Lysol became the blueprint for the metal underground

Why Wiz Khalifa Isn't Snoop Dogg

A big man on campus, with a mainstream profile, but the music is another matter

The Seven-Year War of Saigon

New York's longest-suffering rapper finally has a debut album

Q&A Part 1: Harlem Rapper Donny Goines On The Life And Death Of Producer Disco D

"He told me, 'Donny, don't make music for others, make it for yourself.'"​Saturday marks four years since producer David "Disco D" Shayman took his own life in the basement of his parents' house. Disco's D's public legacy is defined by his involvement in the ghetto-tech scene, allegiances with ... More >>

Lupe Fiasco's #FiascoFriday March on Atlantic Records Is Underway, Right Now

Fiasco Friday, undeterred by the weather. All photos via LupE.N.D.​The official start time for Fiasco Friday, the coordinated march of Lupe Fiasco fans (and, allegedly, Lupe Fiasco himself) on the New York and Chicago offices of Atlantic Records in protest of their long-standing (and now remed ... More >>

Week in Review: Apollo Kids

​In the week one of this blog's authors inspired a short play about juggalo zombies and Lady Gaga, we celebrated by announcing the 2010 Village Voice/Redeye Distribution Day Party, featuring the great Marnie Stern, Hooray For Earth, and a bunch of others, including a wonderful special secret g ... More >>

Lupe Fiasco's Lasers Has A Release Date

​So Atlantic Records has been sitting on Lupe Fiasco's new record, Lasers, for a couple years now, an untenable state of affairs given that "he's really much more than just a rapper from Chicago -- he represents a generation, and a movement," as it was explained to us last week by the guy plan ... More >>

Week In Review: Kill Harvilla, But Get Belly To Reunite First

​It was the week White America lost its mind, as did the guy who wrote a song called "Kill Harvilla" and sent us both the lyrics (not bad) and the instrumental MP3 (very bad). But we here at SOTC prefer more constructive exercises, like listing every '90s band that hasn't reunited yet. A lot o ... More >>

Meet the Surprisingly Young Guy Who Is Organizing Lupe Fiasco's Protest Against Atlantic Records

Won't somebody please liberate this record?​Matthew La Corte is a 17-year-old rap fan from West Paterson, New Jersey. Specifically, Matthew's a fan of Lupe Fiasco, the bright, tortured, socially-conscious Chicago rapper whose third album, Lasers, has been infinitely delayed by his record label ... More >>

Introducing Fiasco Friday, A Quixotic Plan to Picket the Offices of Atlantic Records In the Name of Lupe Fiasco

As far back as 2007, Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco was threatening to quit music and telling us, "The entity of recorded music really sucks, it's really wack, especially when you're doing it through a major. It's like, you don't make any money unless you sell tons and tons of records. And I'm not sel ... More >>

The Ten Most Exploitative Posthumous Rap Projects

​Being a dead rap artist isn't much fun. Whether The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac, or J Dilla, death has never seemed to do much to alleviate the constant pressure on artists to muster up new recordings to satisfy the bulging posthumous rap retail market. (In the hip-hop world, possessing a heart t ... More >>

Damon Dash Resurrected

Cast out of Jay-Z's kingdom, a notorious hip-hop mogul takes a kinder, gentler, hipper approach to reinvention

'GRUNGE' THIS

The mighty Melvins live on

Little Brother's Retirement Party

Yes, these hip-hop shape-shifters are breaking up. Don't get sentimental about it.

Live: Even Lou Reed Gets Sentimental At Rock Hall MSG Blowout #2 (Featuring U2, The Boss, The Black Eyed Peas, And Some Dude Named Mick)

Ooooh plus "Iron Man" Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Celebration Madison Square Garden Friday, October 30 "When we were down, rock 'n' roll lifted us up," says Tom Hanks in his introductory remarks for the final night of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's benefit-concert extravaganza ... More >>

Willy DeVille, 1950-2009

Punk rock soul man Willy DeVille has died of pancreatic cancer in New York at the age of 59. Though his band Mink DevIlle was more bluesy, swinging and sometimes Springsteenesque than most of the groups that congregated at CBGB back in the glory days, he fit comfortably amid its grunge, and glitte ... More >>

Who Is Fabolous?

On a constantly-on-the-brink Brooklyn rapper and perils of undersharing

Jay-Z's Blueprint 3 Gets a Release Date: September 11

On September 11, 2001, Jay-Z released The Blueprint, his sixth studio album and arguably his best--arguably being the key word, as this is the guy who also made Reasonable Doubt. Anyway now, eight years later--and six after Blueprint 2, Jay's not-nearly-as-good follow-up--the long-rumored Blueprint ... More >>

'Trouble and Bass'

Dan Kennedy's Gonna Scrawl

Led Zep buff joins music biz, gawks, writes memoir

Magical Musical Piss House

CBGB regular Jesse Malin remembers the late Hilly Kristal

Status Ain't Hood Interviews Lupe Fiasco

Lupe Fiasco: A Progress Report

Both Sides Now

From the underground to the chart tops, Just Blaze aims to save New York hip-hop

Signifying Something

Second album shows brothers not quite workin' it out

Party Out Of Bounds

A new documentary digs up a forgotten post-punk TV classic and a lost cultural moment

Film

Undermine Your Own Business

EMI cleans house, Elektra merges, Arista folds, what's left?

It's Over

The Big Chill

Brats and Boomers Dominate Sundance Docs

Vice Bust

Kicking the Jackass of the Magazine World

'Vice' Squad

Microtones and Bebop

Joe Maneri Turns 75; Nick Brignola 1936–2002

Tori’s Got a Gun

How Life Isn’t Anymore

Letters

The Surreal Deal

Take This

View Finders

The Season’s Best Photo Books

Queen of Pop