Erykah Badu

An Intimate, Eye-Opening Night With Tyler, the Creator

Better Than: Oprah Tyler, the Creator lost his virginity at age 17 in his grandmother's bed. Yep. You know that now. But chances are, if you're like the type of Tyler obsessive that bought tickets to the Highline Ballroom's sold out interview between the controversial rapper/designer/video director ... More >>

Papoose Turned Down Kanye West Beats To Release The Nacirema Dream

Just under a decade ago, Papoose was going to save New York City hip-hop. Or at least that's how rap folklore likes to parse it, with Bed-Stuy's mixtape phenomenon Pap and upstate NY rapper Saigon being the hometown figures who were going to stop the Southern ascent and bring back virtuous street-co ... More >>

Bilal's New A Love Surreal Was Inspired By Salvador Dali

Even though Bilal Sayeed Oliver -- that's Bilal, to his fans -- has a new album, A Love Surreal, ready for fans to consume, he is still hounded by that one question: Will Love for Sale ever get the proper release it deserves? "Well, I don't know," Oliver says. "I would like for it to, but it's a lo ... More >>

The 25 Best OutKast Songs of All Time

Here's a hard truth that needs to be told and heard and understood: OutKast aren't getting back together. They just aren't. Stankonia, their last proper release as a bonafide duo, was 13 years ago. Andre is going to be Jimi Hendrix. Big Boi is making music with Phantogram and Wavves. They've moved o ... More >>

Jessie Ware - Bowery Ballroom - 1/17/2013

Better than: Watching the sweetest girl at your high school make it big. Last night at the Bowery Ballroom, British songstress Jessie Ware played an hour long set to an adoring, well-heeled crowd. Though perfectly professional throughout her set, Ms. Ware seemed taken aback by her fans' enthusiasm: ... More >>

Ten Things We Hope To See During My Morning Jacket's Three Day Port Chester Run

When My Morning Jacket play live, they tend to come off as an elemental force. They play three hours, paradoxically leaving you wanting more and leaving you absolutely spent. MMJ gives everything live, but also requires a lot of you, pulling you through blissed-out calms into twisting, peaking jams ... More >>

"You Write From Your Soul and They Try and Make It Into A Minstrel Thing": Our Interview With Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire

Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire is Brooklyn's rap superstar-in-waiting. He released a new EP (Passion & Power) on Universal yesterday, and we interviewed the venerable eXquire for this week's print edition of The Voice. Here's the bonus beats of the chat, which includes eXquire revealing the song that snag ... More >>

'Milk It A Little Longer For Me': Watching The Flaming Lips' Attempt To Make The Record Books

When news broke that the Flaming Lips were going to play eight separate shows in 24 hours in an attempt to eclipse a Guinness World Record set by Jay-Z, the collective response was something along the lines of, "Well, of course they are." The Lips have done so much bonkers shit up to this point in ... More >>

Q&A: T.E.E.D. On Surprising Himself With His Singing, Bandwagon-Jumpers, Remixing Katy Perry And Lady Gaga

Primitive plodding creatures and an environmental catastrophe that wiped them from the face of the earth: not topics that usually loom over enjoyment of spit-shined synth hooks and gleeful twists on dance-pop. However, that's exactly the case with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, the willfully we ... More >>

Q&A: Questlove On Artistic Freedom, "Shuffle Culture," And Spreading The Springsteen Gospel

In a recent tweet responding to a follower's assertion that he was a celebrity, the drummer and head Root Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson demurred, claiming he was merely "a personality." The follower had a point, though; according to a website devoted to Quest's blogs about meeting famous people, for in ... More >>

Live: Robert Glasper Brings His Glow To The Highline Ballroom

Robert Glasper Experiment Highline Ballroom Tuesday, February 28 Better than: Sitting at home with the radio. "About what time does ?uestlove finish up at the Fallon show? It couldn't have been that long ago, right?" That query, overheard amid the big beats pumping from the Highline Ballroom's s ... More >>

Seven Classic Clips From The Soul Train Archives

This morning, Soul Train creator and host Don Cornelius was found dead from an apparent suicide at age 75, and the outpouring of grief and nostalgia was probably best summed up by the Roots' ?uestlove, whose Brooklyn Bowl party Bowl Train is an homage to the show. He wrote passionately about how the ... More >>

Wheelchair Sports Camp's Crip Life

If there were ever a moment for a queer, disabled rapper with a love for pot, jokes, and revolution to be a star, the moment is now

Live: Lauryn Hill Gives Her Debut A Makeover At Rock The Bells

Rock The Bells: Ms. Lauryn Hill Governors Island Saturday, September 3 Better than: Lauryn Hill's performance at Rock the Bells last year. Creating a classic album is a double-edged sword. Fans expect its songs to be performed the same way in perpetuity, regardles ... More >>

Photos: The Village Voice/Frank 151 SXSW Party, Starring Wild Flag, Wu-Tang, Erykah Badu, Donald Glover, Yelawolf, and More

Wu-Tang, who else? All photos by Nate "Igor" Smith​The Wu-Tang/Wild Flag encore of champions never quite went off the way we hoped it would, but Donald Glover's rapping alter-ego Childish Gambino did make a cameo appearance, Yelawolf took off his shirt, and fireworks shot off down the block, w ... More >>

Q&A: Questlove on Winning Three Grammys, the Glory of Esperanza Spalding, and Having His Parties Closed Out By Bill Murray

Grammy fresh. Photo via @questlove​You'd think between the tapings of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, being shuttled from to gig to gig, and freaking out at Prince concerts, it'd be hard to pin down Questlove for 15 minutes, but it was surprising painless. We caught up with the Roots' drummer an ... More >>

Remembering Ariel Panero: Damon Dash, These Are Powers, Grooms, and More on the Man Behind Less Artists More Condos

Ariel Panero, doing what he did. Photo via Facebook.​The news began to circulate on Tuesday--Ariel Panero, the audacious NYC promoter behind Less Artists More Condos, had passed away suddenly, at the age of 25. Two days later, the details of what exactly happened are still in part unknown. But ... More >>

Rick Ross's Alternate Reality

More transcendent absurdity from Miami's most improved rapper

Shelby Lynne, Miss Independent

Country vixen finally free to indulge in partial nudity and not make a Polly Perfect record

David Byrne and Fatboy Slim Pay Homage to Imelda Marcos

SXSW 2009: Top Five Wholly Subjective Austin Moments, Starring Dent May, Micachu, and Metallica

Nate "Igor" SmithJust some guy Two red-eye flights there and back, a night in a camper without a pillow or blanket, another crashed uninvited on an angry stranger's futon, no consistent shower or WiFi in sight--with pilgrimages like this, I think you're supposed to find God, but instead I found Den ... More >>

The Revenge of TV on the Radio

Bob Dylan (and the Voice itself) finally humbled, Dear Science wins the 36th Annual Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll

The Hook Cooks: Annabelle's, Le Bouillabaisse, and More

New restaurants in the city's most remote neighborhood

Solange Knowles: Crazier in Love

On the daffy, mesmerizing retro-soul surreality of Beyoncé's younger sister

Live: My Morning Jacket at Radio City Hall

The Swell Season's Victory Lap

Glen (the friendly Irish dude) and Markéta vacuum up your love

In Defense of Lil Wayne's "Lollipop"

Enter the 37th Chamber

The new Wu isn't nearly as bad (or bizarre) as some of its rappers would have you believe

The BET Awards: A Running Diary

VH1's Hip-Hop Honors: A Running Diary

Live: The Roots Forget to Call Jay-Z

Music

Chappelle's Show

Comedian's Bed-Stuy bash serves up local flavor and a homestyle, utopian vibe

Film

Runway Report

Gen Art's Fall 2005 Show

They Had a Dream

Vanguarde's Vision of a Black Magazine Empire Drowns in Red Ink

Listings

What's Not to Like?

A Success Story Where the Good Guys Win?

Reality Soundbites  

Time Will Reveal

Rock: Festivals

American Bandshell

Music

Love Wars Resurrection

Make My Crunk the P-Funk

Prophecy Fulfilled

'Alternative ' Soul: Progress in Design?

'Homicide By Cop'

The medical examiner ruled Reginald Bannerman's death a suicide, but his family insists that a rogue black cop pushed him in front of a subway train

Words Worth

Educating Lauryn

He Wants You To Want Him