Kanye West

My Casting Ideas For Pippin The Movie

MOMI Makes a Spectacle of YouTube and MTV's Best

The afterlife of the video star

TNGHT

Sorry, But Kanye Is the GOAT

Kanye West is the greatest hip-hop artist of all time. He's made the best albums and changed the game the most, and his music is the most likely to endure. One thing before we get going: This isn't one of those arguments meant to piss people off or "start a conversation." We really mean it. And, c ... More >>

Defend Your Ballot: Rob Sheffield, Pazz and Jop 2012 Contributor

You can't really know where you're headed unless you know where you've been. For that reason, we're taking a look back at Pazz & Jop 2012 to drill down into the ballots of contributors and voters who participated. Maybe amongst the rubble we'll find clues about what lies ahead for music lovers in 20 ... More >>

The Kanye You Once Loved Is Dead and Gone

Well, thanks for getting Kim Kardashian knocked up, Kanye? Ever since the rapper announced from the stage that the world's most famous (and least talented) Armenian is now carrying his seed, everyone's on Kimye baby alert. To tell the truth, I'm starting to think that all the attention being paid t ... More >>

'The Concert for Sandy Relief'

Review: Kanye's Sex Tape G.O.O.D. Music, Cruel Summer

By David Thorpe [Note: I thought I had a pretty hot scoop when I snagged a copy of Kanye West's notorious sex tape, which remains unseen by most of the public. Unfortunately, my editor didn't think a review of an ill-gotten celebrity porn clip was appropriate for a reputable family blog like Sound ... More >>

Bi-Polar Bear Roams Park Slope

There's a dilapidated storefront on Park Slope's Fifth Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets where Brooklyn-based hip-hop duo Bi-Polar Bear (Gabe Karter and Andy Kaufman) decided to film a man dressed up in an over-sized bear head there as part of their "Been Hiding" video. With Bi-Polar Bear's new alb ... More >>

New On The Hot 100 This Week: Taylor Swift's "Ronan," PSY's "Gangnam Style," And More

This week's Hot 100 debuts include big names and the viral video of the year—and, surprisingly, a nearly year-old track by Beyoncé. "Dance For You" was released on the deluxe version of 4 a little less than year ago and has been on the Hot R&B Songs chart since April; for a good but nowhere n ... More >>

The Fall Of Curtis: How September 11, 2007 Changed Everything For 50 Cent

Let me indulge in a little bit of Jay-Z/Kanye fan fiction in the least 50 Shades of Grey way possible: Def Jam President and retired rapper Jay-Z was fed up. 50 Cent had been sending subliminal barbs Jay's way for eight years, starting with a shot Mr. Carter's way on "How To Rob" when they were b ... More >>

Oddsmaker: Do Beyoncé And André 3000 Have Enough Swagu To Beat Kanye And His Dozens Of Friends At The Grammys?

​The Grammys created the awkwardly named Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category ten years ago, around the time Ja Rule's various "thug love" duets were dominating the airwaves. The award recognized a growing sector of popular music that didn't quite fit into the preexisting rap, R&B or pop song ... More >>

Help Me, Drs. Jay And Ye: Six Images I Saw In The Rorschach Test That Is The "Paris" Video

The video for Jay-Z and Kanye West's "Paris" has finally come out, and it's probably not surprising that the setting is one of the giddy live performances of the track that closed the Watch The Throne Tour last year. This is no straight-up "check us out live" video interspersed with shots of the two ... More >>

Oddsmaking: Who Will Win This Year's Best New Artist Trophy At The Grammys?

In this week's Voice I wrote about Skrillex, the emo-dude-gone-dubstep-auteur who's spawned a bunch of funny-Photoshop blogs and garnered five Grammy nominations. One of the categories he's nominated in is one of the Big Four—Best New Artist, which seems to have shaken off its "one-way ticket ... More >>

Jay-Z and Kanye West Guard the Throne

And try to bring back the group listen

Pazz & Jop 2011: Nick Minichino On Funkmaster Flex's ALL-CAPS Premiere Of Jay-Z And Kanye West's "Otis"

To supplement this year's Pazz & Jop launch, Sound of the City asked a few critics to expand on the reasonings behind their voting. This is from Nick Minichino, who voted specifically for Funkmaster Flex's premiere of Jay-Z and Kanye West's "Otis" this summer. ​That was the driving force of i ... More >>

2011: The Year In Kanye

Remember the time?​Does Kanye West exist because the world gives him so much attention? Or does the world exist because he gives it something to pay attention to? Heavy stuff, man. Whatever the answer is, the rapper-cum-producer has both dominated critics' best-ofs and been a celebrity-news st ... More >>

Underwhelmed And Overstimulated, The Finale: Jay-Z And Kanye West Fiddle While The Underground Gets Wasted

Smell that money burning. ​This concludes Sound of the City's year-end roundtable, a conversation about pop music in 2011 between Tom Ewing, Eric Harvey, Maura Johnston, Nick Murray, and Katherine St. Asaph. Read it all again. Thanks for the handoff, Nick, and thanks to Katherine, Tom and esp ... More >>

Q&A: Amy Sheridan, The Woman Who Commits Kanye West's Greatest Tweets To Thread

​Now available on Etsy for your gift-giving needs: hand-stitched cloth versions of Kanye West's tweets. The commemorations of West's epic 140-character missives ("Sometimes I get the usage of puns and double en- tundras mixed up. I know sometimes one thing can be both. Rap God issues!!! LOL!!! ... More >>

Will Bon Iver Be The Arcade Fire Of 2012? And Other Pre-Grammy Nomination Show Questions

Tonight's Grammy nomination concert, airing at 10 p.m. on CBS, will not only jam-pack a bunch of performances by the likes of Lady Gaga and Jason Aldean into its 60 minutes, it'll also let us know which artists will be prostrating themselves in front of the globe and thanking their families and God ... More >>

A List Of Things That One Should Get If One Pays $1500 To See Jay-Z And Kanye West

"I thought you said you'd take me to McDonald's" ​Saturday night, after reading a flurry of tweets from Jay-Z and Kanye West's show at the Izod Center, I bought tickets to nosebleed seats for last night's Watch The Throne show at the Garden. It was worth it, though—especially since yeste ... More >>

Live: Jay-Z and Kanye Bring The Throne To The Decidedly Un-Regal Izod Center

Jay-Z/Kanye West Izod Center Saturday, November 5 Better than: New Jersey's usual offerings. "I hear the show is a big fucking deal! I hear you disappearing and things, running around the fucking venue, coming in from behind the people, singing those hit tunes... Dudes is wiggling their foot from ... More >>

fun.

THE KING’S TWO BODIES

Jay-Z and Kanye conquer Jersey

Jay-Z And Kanye West Will Be At Madison Square Garden Next Month

​Jay-Z and Kanye West will follow up their Izod Center performances as The Throne with two shows at Madison Square Garden, November 7 and 8. Tickets go on sale to those people who have an in with Citibank on Wednesday at 10 a.m., and the rest of the world can get tickets on Friday at 10 a.m. ( ... More >>

Here Is Video Of Kanye West Standing With The People (But Not Talking) At Occupy Wall Street Yesterday

​The news that Kanye West stopped by Occupy Wall Street yesterday had the Internet atwitter for a chunk of the afternoon. Now, there's video documentation of Kanye standing around Zuccotti Park and letting Russell Simmons do the talking for him (he "didn't want to do any media at all"), explai ... More >>

Kanye West Shows Up At Occupy Wall Street Long Enough For The Internet To Freak Out About It

Liveblogging the news that Kanye West was going to bring all his power to Occupy Wall Street, first broken to the world in a tweet from Russell Simmons, after the fact: 3:45 p.m.: Runnin' Scared's Rosie Gray informs me that Kanye is at OWS. 3:46 p.m.: Let the retweeting commence. 3:47 p.m.: Let ... More >>

Jay-Z And Kanye West Spared No Expense To Watch Watch The Throne

​That Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch The Throne didn't leak until about half an hour before its iTunes release is a noteworthy story in this age of Rapidshare and Megaupload being as stuffed with digital versions of new releases as iTunes and Amazon. And it turns out that the business decisions ... More >>

The "Otis" Video Debuts Tomorrow Night; Get Ready For Lots Of Smoke And Broing Down

The press release announcing tomorrow night's debut of the "Otis" video (on MTV, MTV2, mtvU, BET and Centric, at 8:56 p.m. ET) has a bit of a boxing-ring flair to it; Watch The Throne, the Jay-Z and Kanye West collaboration that the track comes from, gets dubbed "the Undisputed Number One Album in ... More >>

Ten Trends That Watch The Throne Could Kickstart

​It's way too early to have a critical judgment on Watch The Throne; didn't you read the rules? But since Kanye West and Jay-Z's colossal collaboration plopped into the raging waters of Internet opinion early Monday morning, I've been watching for ripples. Here are ten new things that Watch Th ... More >>

The Watch The Throne Trailer: Twenty Seconds Of Footage That Will Tell You Pretty Much Nothing At All

​ After lots of speculation, and singles, and events you weren't invited to, Jay-Z and Kanye West's collaborative album Watch The Throne comes out Monday, with a tour following later this year. For some reason, someone (maybe Live Nation? maybe Roc Nation? maybe a superfan with too much time o ... More >>

Those Jay-Z/Kanye West Concerts At The Izod Center Have Been Pushed Back To November

​Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch The Throne Tour has been shuffled around a bit, and the two concerts at the Izod Center originally scheduled for the end of September are now taking place at the Meadowlands' arena on November 5 and 6. The presale starts at 10 a.m. on August 2 (yes, that's today!) ... More >>

Live: People Gather To Watch Jay-Z And Kanye's Throne, See The Stars

​ The Throne (Watch The Throne listening session) Hayden Planetarium Monday, August 1 Better than: any listening session I've ever been to. Album listening parties have almost always existed as excuses to drink on the record company's dwindling dime, the music itself largely ignored; backgro ... More >>

Jay-Z And Kanye West Reign From On High With "Otis"

​Jay-Z and Kanye West are not like us mere mortals. These are celestial bodies, ones who can sample seminal Otis Redding tracks ("Try a Little Tenderness") and not worry for a second about clearance. Hell, Hova isn't even worried about cops anymore, bragging "I got five passports, I'm never go ... More >>

The Video Music Awards' Nominations Play To The Internet (Again)

​Last night MTV announced the nominees for this year's installment of their annual pseudo-event extravaganza, the 2011 Video Music Awards, and once again, the nominees for Video Of The Year have three pop picks ("Rolling In The Deep," "Firework," "Grenade"), one sop to the olds in the crowd wh ... More >>

Big Sean Heads Into the Spotlight

With an assist from Kanye, the rapper is Finally Famous

If You Leaked Kanye West's "Mama's Boy," You'd Better Watch Your Back

​The leak earlier this week of Kanye West's "Mama's Boy" (known first to the Internet as "Mama's Boyfriend") has, as you might expect, greatly displeased the moody MC and those people with interests in the business of his music. Last night Kanye's label Island Def Jam released a statement sayi ... More >>

Live: Kid Cudi Is The Nightcap At Terminal 5

Bacardi "Like It Live" With Kid Cudi Terminal 5 Monday, June 13 Better than: Sleeping. Just kidding! The thought behind Bacardi's "Like It Live" marketing campaign is simple: if people "like" something on Facebook, they must love it in real life. So as soon as you put a bunch of "like"-able thing ... More >>

Nas And Kanye West Leak Tracks, Lead The Pack (Again)

"Queensbridge, y'all ready to see Nasty Nas?" Thus begins Nas' "Nasty," a return to form that justifies the answer to that question always being "Yes, duh!" With rugged, street-level bars about the finer things in life and being better than other rappers that recall his legendary post-Jay-Z battle ... More >>

Live: Kanye West's Big And Loud And Secret Show

Kanye West w/Pusha T, CyHi Da Prince, Mr. Hudson, Big Sean, and Kid Cudi Skylight One Hanson Thursday, June 9 Better than: Not being let in. Thunder shook Brooklyn, drops of rain fell, and over a thousand people took refuge in Skylight One Hanson, inside the old Williamsburg Savings Bank, for a m ... More >>

Beyoncé's "Party" Is Cool, Collected, And Andre 3000-Assisted

​Beyoncé's 4 has been slowly revealing itself to the world in advance of its June 28 release date, and the latest track to leak is "Party," a sumptuous Kanye West and Consequence production with a wistful, syllable-bending assist from André 3000. "Party" flips the expectations put forth by ... More >>

The Curious 21st-Century Decline Of Hype Williams

On Friday, a link to three-minute making-of video for a scrapped, Hype Williams-helmed clip of "XXXO" appeared on M.I.A.'s twitter. The footage shows M.I.A and a small group of dancers (including Beyoncé choreographer Jonté) painted head-to-toe and gyrating to the song's hissing, whirling beat. Th ... More >>

FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT

Ad-Rock brings the hot sauce to MOMA

"American Idol": Stefano Langone Won't Get Any Closer To Winning

Michael Becker/FOX​So this was Stefano Langone's week to disappear. I can't say it's a surprise; he'd been on the chopping block for a while, bouncing in and out of the bottom three and generally coming across as someone who was not long for this show. It's still a bit messed up the way the sh ... More >>

Kanye West Is Performing At MoMA Next Month

​Kanye West has been announced as the entertainment for the Museum of Modern Art's Party in the Garden, a benefit for various operating costs of the museum that includes the upkeep of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden, on May 10. (The garden will also serve as the venue for West's ... More >>

Guess The Extraterrestrial Pop Star!

Katy Perry used "E.T." as the perfect opportunity to dress up in flowy-costumes and to float through space, before falling in love with a nice robot boy before they walk off into the sunset. There're kaleidoscope-effects, Kanye West, and cuts to National Geographic-style clips of animals going at i ... More >>

Justin Vernon Announces New Bon Iver Album

​If you had asked us after 2007's For Emma, Forever Ago, or even after 2009's auto-tune adorned EP, Blood Bank, we probably would have told you Bon Iver would be crazy to put out an album during the summer. Justin Vernon had made a name for himself by capitalizing on heartbreak, exorcizing awa ... More >>

Download Fear of God, the New Mixtape From the Clipse's Pusha T

​One of the happiest of the many stories to get lost in the maelstrom that was Kanye West's 2010 was the rehabilitation of Pusha T, perhaps the single most critically beloved and commercially unsuccessful rapper of the last five years. The Clipse, his duo with his brother Malice, had sat on th ... More >>

BORN TO DANCE

Lady Gaga brings along the Scissor Sisters