Lil' Wayne

Every Simile on Lil Wayne's I Am Not a Human Being II

Lil Wayne has just released his tenth studio album, I Am Not a Human Being II. It's been 18 years since his first album: True Story as one half of The B.G.'z. In that time, he's been a lesser-known member of an embattled southern hip-hop group, a scrawny kid, a mixtape hero, the greatest rapper aliv ... More >>

FRESH TO DEATH

Mannie Fresh goes behind 
the board at santos

Hot 100 Roundup: Jerrod Niemann Gets Happy, Passion Pit Tells A Sad Story, Karmin Remains Annoying, And More

This week the new entries in the Hot 100 attain a near-perfect balance: Two good to great records (Passion Pit and Jerrod Niemann), two terrible ones (Karmin and Macklemore), and a bunch of mediocre stuff in the middle. Over the course of a year, the quality of the Hot 100 usually settles into a nor ... More >>

The Top 5.33 Hip-Hop Songs Of The Week

The "b word" has been a staple of hip-hop for decades, although there's some linguistic shading as far as its use: women that aren't particularly awesome are called "bitches"; really awesome women are "bad bitches"; respected dignitaries like moms are "ladies" and "females"—unless they're the ... More >>

Q&A: Tech N9ne On Lil Wayne, The Doors, And Getting Drunk On Hip-Hop Squares

Midwestern rap weirdo Tech N9ne had an unexpected guest spot on Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV last year ("Interlude" with Andre 3000), but the 40-year-old Kansas City motormouth's most memorable track has to be "Areola," his 2009 not-at-all-joking breast anthem that comes with its own anatomy lesson ("D ... More >>

David Banner

Tyga

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 >>

SAY MY NAME

2 Chainz makes his NYC debut

53 More Great Songs From 2011

Earlier today, Maura offered a list of the 47 songs on her "2011 Awesomeness" Spotify playlist; to complement that, here are the 53 songs from my less cleverly named playlist, "2011." As is the usually the case with these mega-lists, I compiled mine a bit haphazardly, throwing together a substantial ... More >>

Sound Of The City's 2011 NBA Preview: Each Team, Paired With An Album From The Past Year

Think of the orange car as a clue. ​The resurrected NBA season kicks off (thankfully, finally) on Sunday. To celebrate, we've paired each team with a notable album from the past year; the list, with tweet-sized justifications, is below. (NB, although the NBA-savvy of you might have already fig ... More >>

Underwhelmed And Overstimulated, Part The Sixth: Was 2011 The Best Year For Women In Music Ever?

​Sound of the City's year-end roundtable, with contributions from Tom Ewing, Eric Harvey, Maura Johnston, Nick Murray, and Katherine St. Asaph, continues. Follow along here. Hi again everyone, Sure, there was lots of great music put out by women this year—my Pazz and Jop top tens will ... More >>

Lupe Fiasco

Q&A: Lloyd On Defying Genre, Warming Up, And One-Minute Periods Of Swearing Amnesty

John Ricard​Yesterday the Atlanta-born singer Lloyd released his fourth album King Of Hearts, a collection that explores love and lust, giddiness and heartbreak, and other opposing sides of the romantic coin—the first track you hear on the album is the expletive-filled summer jam "Dedica ... More >>

Five Questions To Ask At Ben Westhoff's Dirty South Reading

​Tonight, Voice contributor and hip-hop sommelier Ben Westhoff will read from Dirty South, his look at the populist rise of rap music from the southern states, at Williamsburg's Book Thug Nation. The book focuses on the bigger names to have emerged from the south, with chapters based around Bi ... More >>

Live: Rick Ross Lives Out His Dreams At Summer Jam

​Hot 97 Summer Jam New Meadowlands Stadium Sunday, June 5 Better than: Sitting at home and moping like 50 Cent. Rick Ross closed out Summer Jam. Just so there's no revisionist history here, let's remember how incredible that statement is. Three years ago, Ross was the punching bag of hip-h ... More >>

MAKE IT RAIN

What has Southern rap done to hip-hop?

Lil Wayne Gets In On Slow Jam Thursday With "How To Love"

​OK, technically it's Slow Jam Wednesday-Night-To-Thursday, what with Beyoncé debuting her brassy ballad "1 1" on last night's Idol, the Weeknd dropping "Rolling Stone" later in the evening, and this Pusha T remix of Miguel's sinuous, everything-ruling "Sure Thing" dropping this AM. But Lil W ... More >>

The Most Overlooked Tracks of 2010: Alley Boy and Young Dro, Trae, Husalah, and More

​Our look back at all things 2010 continues this week as we highlight some of the year's most overlooked tracks. In this edition: unheralded regional rap.

Lil Wayne, Mötley Crüe, Gaslight Anthem, Das Racist, And Insane Clown Posse Are Playing Bamboozle 2011

​The annual multi-day Bamboozle Festival, held every spring in a lovely parking lot or three out at the New Meadowlands Sports Complex, mingles emo punks with metal dudes and crossover-minded rappers, to often hilariously uncomfortable effect: The first day of last year's version was co-headli ... More >>

Our Countdown of the 20 Worst Songs of 2010 Starts Today

TheFABLife​Last December, our F2K series counted down the 50 lousiest songs from the morass of mediocrity that accumulated between 2000 and 2009--and it was no easy task. The 9/11 tie-ins, the mawkish charity singles, the wan covers, Owl City, the continued existence of Nicole Scherzinger ... ... More >>

N.E.R.D.

Download: Big Boi Mixtape For Dummies And The Rammellzee Tribute Elegy for a Gothic Futurist

​Between these, your BBQ playlist is covered: Big Boi's self-released offering (available here) is fairly self-explanatory and pretty stupendous; this blog-born Rammellzee mix, though, is equally essential for anyone looking to explore the dearly departed NYC hip-hop icon's back catalog beyond ... More >>

New How to Dress Well: "Decisions"

​So the next EP from the Cologne/Brooklyn-based ghost R&B collective How to Dress Well will be called Can't See My Own Face - The Eternal Love 2, a title appropriately halfway between a never-released Lil Wayne/Juelz Santana mixtape and any given The-Dream LP--which pretty much sums up what th ... More >>

Take Donald Glover, Aziz Ansari, and Das Racist's Joke Rap Seriously

A new generation of MCs grapple with how funny they're allowed to be

Big Boi Needs To Release A George-Clinton-Only Version Of His New "Fo Yo Sorrows" Video Immediately

Great song, wacky Too Short verse ("Jesse Jackson... bitch!"), cute kids, etc. etc., but sweet Jesus George Clinton is mesmerizing. Can you even imagine what living in that guy's head must be like? Dude makes Lil Wayne look like Nancy Reagan.

News Roundup: Steven Tyler Crashes to Earth, Chris Brown Sentencing Delayed, Regina Spektor On Sale

--Steven Tyler fell off the stage last night during Aerosmith's gig at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota and had to be airlifted to a nearby hospital ten songs into their set. The 61-year-old frontman was dancing to entertain the crowd after the sound system failed during "Love in an El ... More >>

News Roundup: Michael Jackson, Beastie Boys, Drake, Pixies

--As you might have predicted, Michael Jackson is experiencing a posthumous sales surge. Three albums--Number Ones, The Essential Michael Jackson, and Thriller--each sold around 100,000 copies last week. The King of Pop left behind plenty more opportunities for cash flow, including a high-tech 3-D v ... More >>

Zadie Smith's NYPL Lecture "Speaking in Tongues" Posted in Full at the NYRB

Photo by Peter Foley via WYNC Zadie Smith's NYPL talk "Speaking in Tongues, curiously excised of its references to Lil Wayne and its cute, "it gives me jokes" colloquialisms, is reprinted in full at the New York Review of Books. I wish she'd kept the line about "keeping it real." But I still thin ... More >>

Phelps Bong Pix a Matter of Widespread, Fake Concern

Michael Phelps was pictured in the News of the World using a bong, and gave a standard-issue apology for "behavior which was regrettable." The IOC

Week in Review: It's Time for Some Guiliani-Loving Madball Fans to Step Up to the Plate

Credit: Rebecca Smeyne In the week we worked in this church, paid our penance, and gave our blood, Lil Wayne and Pharrell said "Yes." To which Young Dro and Yung LA responded, simply, "Woah." And Diddy wept. TV season at Sound of the City has come (is it the cold weather?), and though The City re ... More >>

On Lil Wayne and Swizz Beatz's "Up In This Club"

Now that "A Milli" has ceded the city's car stereos and HOT 97s to "Pop Champagne" and "Arab Money," it's possible to notice once again how extensively bonkers and unlikely this track was when it hit--unbelievably tinny keyboard handclaps, a big brute force loop, repeat, like, 1000 times. Whether ... More >>

Formal Petition to Have Every Musical Performance on Television for the Next Six Months End with Lil Wayne Playing a Guitar Solo

Your Handy Guide to the World of African Music Blogs

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

The BET Awards: A Running Diary

Status Ain't Hood Podcast 41

Hot 97's Summer Jam: A Preview

Clipse: Back with Vengeance

Live: Jay-Z Makes Up with Lil Wayne, Ordains Jadakiss

Status Ain't Hood Podcast 11

Status Ain't Hood Podcast 10

An Interview With 50 Cent

The VMAs: A Running Diary

The BET Awards: A Running Diary

Lil Wayne: Still Ridiculously Great

Status Ain't Hood Interviews Lil Wayne

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

The Quarterly Report: Status's Favorite New Singles

For the Love of Money