Jean Grae

Talking Louis C.K., South Park and Popcorn With Talib Kweli

Editor's note: In Tweets is Watching, Phillip Mlynar asks local artists questions based solely on the contents of their Twitter timeline. Talib Kweli is gearing up to release his fifth solo album, Prisoner of Consciousness, on May 7th. The project features collaborations with Kendrick Lamar, Curren ... More >>

The Polo Files: Buckshot, Sean Price, and Dallas Penn Talk The 'Lo-End Theory

Last Sunday, the Highline Ballroom hosted The 'Lo-End Theory, an event that celebrated a faction of the New York City hip-hop community's obsession with Ralph Lauren Polo clothing. Conceived by Dallas Penn, the festivities included a Polo clothing swap during the day and a series of live spots from ... More >>

What To Expect At Tonight's Lil B-Themed Party "I'm Lil B"

It's been nearly a year since rapper/spiritual guru Lil B blessed the hallowed halls of New York University with his unique brand of lecture, and electronic provocateurs Silent Drape Runners are marking the occasion by throwing "I'm Lil B," an event that they're describing as "A #Rare #Based Live Re ... More >>

Harlem Rapper Vinny Cha$e Does Not Have $10,000 To Loan Strangers From the Internet

Editor's note: In Tweets is Watching, Phillip Mlynar asks local artists questions based solely on the contents of their Twitter timeline. Vinny Cha$e represents the new generation of rappers hailing from Harlem. Building on the buzz of his Golden Army mixtape, Vinny will be strutting the stage at S ... More >>

Jean Grae Picks Christmas Sweaters For Talib Kweli, Sean Price and Pharoahe Monch

Editor's note: In Tweets is Watching, Phillip Mlynar asks local artists questions based solely on the contents of their Twitter timeline. Jean Grae is one of the world's most talented twitterers. When not lighting up her timeline with talk about Christmas sweaters, the Great Yam Debacle and the fol ... More >>

What the Not Jay and Ye Members of Roc-A-Fella Records Have Been Up To

Tonight Gramercy Theater is hosting a Roc-A-Fella Records reunion concert. (Although, ummm, considering the notable absences, it seems maybe unauthorized.) It's been just over eight years since Jay-Z and Dame Dash split, ending one of the most influential and dominant labels in rap. While the long-r ... More >>

Immortal Technique, Pharoahe Monch, Jean Grae, and Others Play a Sandy Benefit Tuesday Night

A week after the 12-12-12 Concert raised tens of millions of dollars for Hurricane Sandy relief while causing aging white baby-boomers across the country to spontaneously come in their pants, now comes a Sandy relief benefit for a different musical demographic. Tuesday night, politically-oriented h ... More >>

We Plugged Ten Rappers' Names Into Juicy J's Stripper Name Generator

Earlier today, Juicy J encouraged his Twitter followers to embrace the full spectrum of the American dream by going out to vote and then discovering their official stripper name on his website. This seemed like a fine excuse to run the full and proper real names of ten notable rappers through the Ju ... More >>

Sean Price: "Cornell West Is the Devil"

Editor's note: In Tweets is Watching, Phillip Mlynar asks local artists questions based solely on the contents of their Twitter timeline.Sean Price is Twitter rap royalty. The Brooklyn-based M.C. is followed by your favorite rappers and his own timeline sparkles with a bunch of endearingly uncouth j ... More >>

THE BREAKUP ARTIST

Jean Grae hosts an anti–V-Day reading

CMJ Announces Second Round Of Performers: J Mascis, Zomby, Kendrick Lamar, And More

Surfer Blood, who once upon a time was "just some band." ​ Last month the CMJ Music Marathon—coming to the city's music venues from October 18 through 22—announced the first batch of artists that would be playing next month's industry confab; that list included (among others) Neon ... More >>

Eighty-Eight Pianos To Storm The Streets Of New York City Next Week

​Beginning June 18 and running through July 2, the nonprofit organization Sing For Hope will once again install a bunch of pianos for public playing at various places around New York City in an installation that, this time around, they're calling Pop-Up Pianos. The 88 pianos—60 uprights ... More >>

Beyond Kreayshawn: The Women In Hip-Hop Who The Internet Should Freak Out About Next

Last week, the birth of rap's newest star-to-be happened suddenly. Kreayshawn, a California rapper with Amy Winehouse's tattooes and piercings, Queen Latifah's earrings, and a modified version of Michelle Williams' pixie bob, dropped her video for "Gucci Gucci," and every person who was tweeting abo ... More >>

Q&A: Pharoahe Monch On Growing Up in Queens, Twitter, Pizza, and Porn

​"A guy got shot in the head at a club and the brain pieces were on the mirror -- as I was running out I took a glance at it." Pharoahe Monch is talking about the most unfortunately explicit thing he saw growing up in the same Southside Jamaica, Queens neighborhood that 50 Cent would later myt ... More >>

SOTC Nightlife Awards: The Best One-Offs, the Best Party To Take Anyone To, and More

Farewell, Fat Beats​​Before we sink into holiday hibernation, we thought we'd take a moment to reflect on our exploits, and present to you our very own 2010 SOTC Nightlife Awards. Below, our fifth and final installment examines the rest of the best.

Nicki Minaj, Louie Vega, Talib Kweli, And Bollywood Disco Headline Your (Christmas!) Week In Nightlife

​The holidays tend to bring a mass exodus from the city, but not everyone is leaving. In fact, some of our favorite DJs (and rappers) have chosen to come for a visit, giving us a full week of dance parties and awesome shows. We recommend that you take a night off from your holiday daze, grab a ... More >>

Download: Skyzoo and !llmind, "Speakers on Blast"

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent. ​Fuck chillwave. Brooklyn rapper Skyzoo and producer !llmind have your tape-damaged nostalgia fix without any Peter Pan hysterics or lazy mush. Their full-length collaboration Live From The Tape Deck ... More >>

Is Kingmaking At CMJ A Real Thing Or An Act of Futility? Our Critics Discuss

Titus Andronicus play Webster Hall during last year's CMJ. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne​Ah, the first day of CMJ: a moment of optimism, possibility, and prophecy. Even now every website and publication with any kind of music-related bent is scrambling to post guides and predictions, links to MySpac ... More >>

Rumble, Oktoberfest, Flashing Lights, And Ratatat Headline Your Weekend In Nightlife

​On Friday, there's only three places we'd want to be. In Manhattan, The Fader is throwing an afterparty for those of us who won't be attending the Gorillaz takeover at Madison Square Garden. Spin, the Flatiron ping-pong hall/bar/dancerie, will host tonight's revelry, which is less corny than ... More >>

RAPPER’S DELIGHT

CMJ kicks off with a hip-hop reunion

CMJ 2010 Announces 700 More Artists: Phoenix, GZA, Francis and the Lights, Screaming Females, Franz Nicolay, and More

Our hero, Screaming Females frontlady Marissa Paternoster, at Siren. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​The second round of artists announcements is out, and it's the big one--count on newly installed acts Phoenix, GZA, Screaming Females, Extra Lens, Francis and the Lights, et al, to be your headliners, ... More >>

Damon Dash Resurrected

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

'BAM Sounds Like Brooklyn Festival Presents the Metrosonics'

HOLIDAY RAPPING

Talib Kweli gives you his label's stars

This Weekend! Devo, Sonic Youth, Talib Kweli, and Devendra Banhart

​So even Devo now is into this play-a-classic-album-in-its-entirety thing: They're at the Fillmore at Irving Plaza Friday (Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!) and Saturday (Freedom of Choice). Have the courtesy to let that part of the setlist run out at least before you start hootin' and holle ... More >>

Letters: July 8, 2009

This Week in the Voice

Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson. Harlem, the world. Greg Tate. Michael Jackson. Bed-Stuy. Jean Grae. Michael Jackson. Gary, Indiana. Jessica Hopper. The Village Voice Michael Jackson Archives. We all know about the Albany Coup and how bad it makes everyone look. But who really benefited ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Michael Jackson, 1958-2009

In this week's Village Voice, we remember Michael Jackson: Greg Tate on the man and his legacy, rapper Jean Grae on what Jackson meant to musicians everywhere, and Jessica Hopper, reporting live from Gary, Indiana the night Jackson died. Elsewhere, Rob Harvilla describes the daffy sci-fi audacity ... More >>

What I Want for Christmas: Brooklyn, Circa 2001

MGMT Dresses Up as Pilgrims on the Internet, Web Sheriff Sends Cease-and-Desist on Behalf of the Mayflower

The Trials of Jean Grae

Why an NYC rap star threatened retirement, and why she hasn't stopped threatening yet

Game Rebellion Party for Their Right to Fight

Brooklyn crew's furious rap-rock taps a new, fresh vein of gangsta militancy

Foxy Brown Wimps Out on Brooklyn's Don Diva

Inga Marchand blows a chance for real insight into both the world's insanity and hers

Outdoor Concerts & Music Festivals

Mos Def Is Boring

Butch Femme

Million-dollar baby of hip-hop hits the Plexiglas ceiling

White Freedom

The angstiest wigga alive exercises privilege, bears cross, rallies flock, begs forgiveness

Pull Your Socks Up

Long Island's original native tongues serve the grown-ups

Sonic Refuges

Rock and roll could never hip hop like this and vice-versa et cetera, part 400something

Your Guide to CMJ 2004

The Dean's List

Music

Listings

A Gem Uncut

Dark humor, self-destructive musings, and unorthodox jabs

Home Improv-Ment

Freestyling About Freestyling, for a World That Couldn't Care Less

Music

Power Nana Club

Not Your Superwoman

Opening Up

When Who's on First Is What Matters