Eazy-E

The 10 Best Concerts in New York This Week, 6/17/13

For more shows throughout the week, check out our New York Concert Calendar, which is updated daily.

Composer David Earl Buddin Can Totally Relate to Lindsay Lohan

In 2012, the Voice doled out honors to David Earl Buddin, tabbing him New York's Best Composer for very good reason: he's a beer-swillin', chain-smokin', gloriously prolific pioneer of electronic music and ringleader of the honky tonkin' trio of high rolling drunkards, American Liberty League. As ... More >>

The Best Dipset Songs Ever

Time flies especially when one of your aliases is "The Fly Boys." It's been 10 years since the Cam'ron, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana and the rest of that "hooligan gang" the Diplomats (a collective of Harlem hustlers and goons) released their double disc effort, Diplomatic Immunity. Since then they've g ... More >>

The 11 Best Fictional Bands of All Time

Who the hell needs real bands when there are so many great fictional ones? Here's some of the best -- our list goes to 11, of course: See also: Top 10 Concert Films to See Before You Die

The A$AP Rocky Drinking Game

This month buzzier-than-thou rapper A$AP Rocky released his major label debut, Long.Live.A$AP. You may have heard. We've thought long and hard about the album, and want you to have the optimal Rocky listening experience. Among its tracks you'll find several tropes and repetitive aspects. A$AP Rocky ... More >>

Pazz & Jop: Riff Raff Is Keeping It Surreal

He's believable as a hip-hop star because nothing he says is true

Double eXcel: Wu-Tang Clan's Masta Killa and OutKast's Big Boi

Old souls speaking the same tongue

The Next EP-isode

The long(ish) player gets reborn in the digital age

Your Frighteningly In-Depth Guide To Insane Clown Posse's Upcoming Record The Mighty Death Pop!, Featuring Kreayshawn, Ice Cube, Color Me Badd, and a Christina Aguilera Cover

On August 14, Insane Clown Posse will deliver their 12th studio album, The Mighty Death Pop! The last time Detroit's finest punching bags released a full-length original album, September 2009's Bang! Pow! Boom!, they gave the world "Miracles," an unintentionally hilarious viral-video ode to giraffes ... More >>

Live: Ab-Soul Turns In A Gutsy Solo Performance At S.O.B.'s

Ab-Soul S.O.B.'s Thursday, June 21 Better than: Watching the final fourth quarter of the 2011-2012 NBA season. For a crowd full of Thunder fans, Ab-Soul provided a much-needed distraction last night during his first New York headlining gig. In subtle contrast to the mighty LeBron James, Ab debut ... More >>

Ice-T's Newest Role: The Voice Of Reason On Ice Loves Coco

​ Who knew Ice-T was a role model? Ice Loves Coco, E!'s new reality show about the rapper/actor and his model/fashion designer wife, makes them look like such a perfect couple that you almost expect them to turn into anime characters and see little cartoon hearts popping above their heads as t ... More >>

The Top Ten Failed First Singles Off The Game's The R.E.D. Album

​This list began as a joke, but the longer I contemplated it, the more depressing its basic concept became. Consider: not only could I easily string together ten of Game's fruitless attempts to force label executives to release The R.E.D. Album, his followup to 2008's LAX; I had to make decisi ... More >>

100 & Single: Late Bloomer Nicki Minaj Scores Summer Smash Off Aging Album

​Imagine if People named an actor "Sexiest [Gender] Alive" months before he or she had released a hit movie or TV show. It's not unthinkable, certainly—think back to the '90s and the Julia Ormonds and Skeet Ulrichs who scored Next Big Thing magazine covers before face-planting in a flop ... More >>

The Top Ten Best Worst Singing Rappers

​These days, there's nothing attention grabbing about rappers who sing, whether it's Andre 3000's amped squawk, an Auto-Tune-enabled Kanye West, or Lil Wayne's upcoming Riker's Island shower room spirituals. This week the canon sees new album additions from one-time Goodie Mob member Cee-Lo Gr ... More >>

Ricky Powell's Official Guide to Rappin' With The Rickster, His Legendary '90s Public Access TV Show

Sitting on a park bench in Washington Square Park on a Thursday afternoon, with a small silver transistor radio clutched in his left hand and his trusty Minolta AF2 Hi-Matic camera slung around his shoulder, 49-year-old Ricky Powell breaks off from conversation to yell at a gaggle of teenage girls ... More >>

The Diss-Track Family Tree

Who to insult, how, and why

"They Put on Wigs, They Buy Dildos, They Put It in They Mouth"

"That's stuff we would have done in middle school. When you're dealing with degenerates on this level, it's something you have to deal with. Did we think it was a threat to Khaled's mother? Of course not. That's what these dudes do: They put on wigs, they buy dildos, they put it in they mouth, they ... More >>

Arabian Prince Will Not Stop Until He Gets That Fergie Money

Patiently waiting for a track to explode on In a lawsuit that's making no one look good, NWA founding producer Arabian Prince, is suing, over all things, for a share of royalties earned by Fergie's "Fergalicious," an event Prince surely did not anticipate when originally composing "Supersonic" with ... More >>

T.I. As Dr. Dre: "Topless," "Shit Popped Off," "I Am Hip Hop," and the Glory of Being Ghostwritten

Ed Kavishe We're up to three or four reference tracks leaked off Dr. Dre's Detox: "Crack a Bottle" (which 50 has now apparently taken for Before I Self-Destruct), "Topless," "Shit Popped Off," and maybe some other ones. "It Could've Been You," on which 50 Cent shouts out a phantom D.R.E.: probably. ... More >>

The Audacity of TV on the Radio

More dystopian ecstasy from a (slightly) more joyful band

Status Ain't Hood Interviews Dizzee Rascal

Status Ain't Hood Interviews Luke

The Death of Disco

The frantic rise and fatal fall of hip-hop producer Disco D

Diddy's Little Helpers

Why hip-hop ghostwriting is an art now, and an actually respectable one

VH1's Hip-Hop Honors: A Running Diary

Welcome to Florida. Here's Some Cocaine.

Walk the Line Vs. Ray: Battle of the Oscar-Bait Music Biopics

The Quarterly Report: Status Ain't Hood's Favorite New Albums

Get Down, Moses

Upstart local Jewish musicians weave a coat of many colors

50 Cent Defends George W. Bush Against Kanye West

Black Women!

Letters

This Year’s Remodel

Bitches Brew