MC Hammer

EMP 2013: A Shadow of Its Former Self

Better Than: Watching two full days of rock docs. 
 At the 12th annual EMP Pop Conference at Tisch School of the Arts on Friday afternoon, Princeton professor Alexandra Vazquez was presenting on Superstorm Sandy, remaining structures of colonialism, and Cuban-American salsa singer La Lupe, also k ... More >>

Other Heinous Rick Ross Lyrics

This week the 400 pound chicken wing dumpster with a beard known as Rick Ross stepped in fresh shit when someone with a sense of decency finally heard the words he raps on "U.O.E.N.O." and exposed them to light. In the song Ross drugs a woman's champagne and has his way with her while "she ain't eve ... More >>

Bronx Rapper Tim Dog, RIP

Yesterday, famously antagonistic Bronx-born rap artist Timothy "Tim Dog" Blair died of a diabetic seizure at the age of 46. One of the most boisterously brash voices ever heard on a rap record, Tim Dog was the epitome of the hulking hip-hop bully archetype. Debuting in 1987 as the featured guest op ... More >>

Which NFL Playoff City Has the Best Musical History: Boston, SF, Baltimore or Atlanta?

Why We Still Love Cypress Hill

Tonight, west coast hip-hop favorites Cypress Hill return to the Best Buy theater. With over two decades of nationwide touring, they've developed a reputation as one of the most anticipated and consistent live shows in the genre. Even after departing from their longtime label Sony in 2008, the group ... More >>

The Most Bizarre Music-Based Halloween Costumes of 2012

It's the Halloween season once again, and weather permitting (guess what ... IT'S NOT PERMITTING) soon the streets will be flooded with people of all ages in costumes, ready to party. This year, there's a surprising number of costume options for the discerning music fan, so we decided to investigate ... More >>

Live: Gonjasufi Presses On in The Midst of Technical Chaos

Better Than: Watching the corny parts of the "Watch the Throne" tour. Hip-hop has always flirted with spirituality. The S.p.o.o.k.s. and Wu-Tang embraced a Buddhist vision; M.C. Hammer, God's Property, and P.M. Dawn charted with Christian themes; and the 5% Nation attracted many gifted creators of ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Bruce Springsteen And Mick Jagger Stop Making Pop Hits, Start Inspiring Them

It's been a busy year for Bruce Springsteen. In March, he released Wrecking Ball, his seventeenth studio album and tenth release to top the Billboard 200, and after packing in arenas across America throughout the spring, he took the E Street Band to Europe. His name is also in a top-40 entry on the ... More >>

The Other America: Revisiting Lawrence Kasdan’s Grand Canyon

100 & Single: Of Monkees, Michael, and "Maria"—The History Of The Chart-Dominating, Lifestyle-Accessory Album

Cassandra (Tia Carrere): You've heard it? Wayne (Mike Myers): Exqueeze me? Have I seen this one before? Frampton Comes Alive?! Everybody in the world has Frampton Comes Alive. If you lived in the suburbs you were issued it. It came in the mail with samples of Tide. —Wayne's World 2 (1993) Fo ... More >>

Following Private Patti Smith Concert for Developers, a Flash Mob Is Planned at the Chelsea Hotel in Support of Tenants [Updated]

Last night Patti Smith was at the beleaguered Chelsea Hotel, playing what appears to have been a new-hotel-management-planned event to which tenants were not invited, but the architect and others were. New hotel management, for the record, is King & Grove, "a new lifestyle hotel brand defined by mod ... More >>

From The Archives: Colson Whitehead On The Digable Planets, 1993

​Before he was writing novels about zombies, elevator inspectors and summers on Long Island, the man behind 2010's best literary twitter account worked on staff at the Voice, writing mostly about television but often about books and music as well. To coincided with the release of his new Zone ... More >>

Check Out These Photos From The Gathering of the Juggalos 2011

​ Once again, Camille Dodero has decided to subject herself to the glorious festival that is the Gathering of the Juggalos, where she's joined by Charlie Sheen, Screech, MC Hammer, Bobby Brown, and more. She'll be posting on the event as the weekend continues, but here are some photos from the ... More >>

Screech Is a Juggalo

Juggal-uh-ohs will never dieYesterday, Charlie Sheen took to Twitter to confirm that the Access Hollywood creature would be hosting one night of this year's 12th annual Gathering of the Juggalos. Soonafter Sheen's four-million followers learned that Sheen is Down with the Clown, Psychopathic Records ... More >>

Big Sean Heads Into the Spotlight

With an assist from Kanye, the rapper is Finally Famous

WTForever21 Blogger Resumes Site After Dispute With Forever 21

​Earlier this month we wrote of Rachel Kane, the blogger behind Forever 21 satire site WTForever21.com, which, being a satire site, makes fun of Forever 21. Forever 21, being without a sense of humor in general or particular, did not like this, and threatened her with a cease and desist and po ... 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 >>

Q&A: Pusha T: "Instant Gratification Versus Slow Grind? I'll Take The Former."

​90% of his friends are behind bars. His oldest brother is a recovering drug addict. His other brother has long since repented. All that and Pusha still wants to, well, push. "That's what happens when you Michael and they treat you like Tito," he raps on the hook for "I Still Wanna." For the f ... More >>

Live: Araabmuzik Harasses His MPC at Brooklyn Bowl

Araabmuzik Brooklyn Bowl Tuesday, April 5 Better than: Bowling. In the past few months, I've read a handful of articles and reviews suggesting that watching a DJ is boring. In one sense this is true, as watching the moves a DJ is making is almost always secondary to dancing to the records that D ... More >>

See Jay-Z and Cornel West Talk About Rap Music at the New York Public Library on November 15

​Yesterday, we brought you a brief but compelling excerpt from Decoded, the autobiography-slash-annotated-lyric-sheet of a book Jay-Z will be releasing through Spiegel & Grau on November 16th. Now comes word that one day prior, on Monday, November 15th, Shawn Carter will be at the New York Pub ... More >>

Waka Flocka Flame Is Yelling at You for a Reason

Why Flockaveli is hard to listen to and even harder to not listen to

Glee's Ten Most Cringe-Worthy Rap Moments

​The phenomenally successful Glee kicked off its second season earlier this week, with Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' home-town anthem "Empire State Of Mind" showcased in the opening song spot. But while entire episodes of the show have been effectively hooked around the music of pop icons Madonna, La ... More >>

Presenting The Top 19 Most Ridiculous Lines on Das Racist's Sit Down, Man

​Even casual observers of this blog know of our great esteem for Das Racist, and our great excitement at the release yesterday of their latest mixtape, Sit Down, Man, featuring guests from Diplo to El-P, Boi-1da to Devo Springsteen. Samples include "People Are Strange" and "Return to Innocence ... More >>

The Many Disturbing Faces of a Shirtless Rick Ross

​More than anyone else, producer Lex Luger has had rap's summer on lock. His two booming, window-rattling tracks on Rick Ross's Teflon Don--"MC Hammer" and "B.M.F. (Blowin' Money Fast)"--have been inescapable, from cars to picnics to other rappers, who have repeatedly borrowed both beats. Some ... More >>

So Just How Homophobic Is Rap In 2010?

​The familiar conceit of this past Sunday's New York Times Magazine article "Sissy Bounce: New Orleans's Gender-Bending Rap," goes something like this: There are some gay rappers in New Orleans. Rap's usually really homophobic. That's crazy, huh? Contrasting the apparently enlightened attitude ... More >>

Rick Ross Momentarily Thinks He's Eminem, Is Quickly Disabused

Rap fans are now (perhaps overly) familiar with the plastic nature of reality as it appears to Miami rapper Rick Ross. So while Ross spent yesterday afternoon and evening gleefully proclaiming he had his fourth #1 record, it didn't necessarily mean anything but that he wanted it to be his fourth ... More >>

Who Does Rick Ross Think He Is, Exactly?

​The rapper Rick Ross, born William Leonard Roberts II, is currently being sued by the living, breathing drug boss--"Freeway" Ricky Ross--from whom he stole his stage name. On his new Teflon Don--another nickname borrowed, without consent, from John Gotti--Ross has a song called "MC Hammer," o ... More >>

Rick Ross' New Teflon Don Is Streaming In Full On His MySpace

​New York rap fans have a very complicated relationship with Rick Ross, due to the Southern thing, the prison-guard thing, the he-once-released-a-song-called-"Money Make Me Come" thing. During Diddy's 92Y Tribeca talk a couple weeks back host Peter Rosenberg abruptly started praising Ross to t ... More >>

NYC Enforces Ban on Stores Air Conditioning Sidewalks; We Explore Other Retail "Crimes"

​The city has served nine stores $200 fines for air-conditioning sidewalks with doors wide-open, the New York Times City Room Blog reports. In 2008, the city banned the practice of luring customers in by cooling them down on the grounds that it's a gross waste of energy. And maybe that's so, b ... More >>

I Went To Michael Bolton's House In Connecticut For A Cocktail Party

Our host, in his element​Look, when you get an email with that offer, you say yes. It's just a fact. And thus do I find myself on a bus yesterday evening with 20-odd publicists, journalists (OK!, In Style, Vibe, Entertainment Weekly, etc.), and TV/radio people, a merciful lack of ironical "LOL ... More >>

Let's Just Take the Comment Section Below the New York Times' "Empire State of Mind"/World Series Piece as a Sign of Progress, America

Whatever the official sports etiquette line is in terms of fair play and sportsmanship, we can safely say the Yankees organization crossed it, did a fake line off it, and then lit it on fire last night, parading Jay-Z (in a Yankee varsity jacket), Alicia Keys (purple), and backing band (Yankee jer ... More >>

And Now Let's Play "Find Jimmy Rollins In The MC Hammer Video"

​During Game 1 of the World Series last night, Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins was graced with one of the more remarkable fun-fact infographics in TV-baseball history: "Appeared in several MC Hammer videos in the late '80s." Now that is a fun fact. Let's see if we can find him.

On Soulja Boy's "Gold Grill Shawty," Featuring OJ Da Juiceman

By the far the most hilarious teenage millionaire on planet Earth is the Atlanta-based, not-at-all-one-hit-wonder Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, whose particular variety of performative genius has inspired both EMP panels ("Soulja Boy is neither a cipher, like dance-rap wonders Tag Team or 69 Boyz before hi ... More >>

Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Avoid Fighting At Charlotte Ronson Show

photos courtesy of David Wentworth From my angle--sixth row, toward the end of the runway at Charlotte Ronson's Bryant Park show--I'm perfectly situated near the DJ booth, a blinding corridor of flashbulbs and hysteria. Samantha Ronson, the DJ, is at least half the show here; she spins country ba ... More >>

Shorty Awards Honor Marketing Miniaturists

The Shorty Awards -- not a rap thing, but a celebration by three enthusiasts to honor "the best producers of short content" on Twitter, where messages have a 140-character limit -- were held in Brooklyn last night. The awards were hosted by CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, with special appearances by Shaqui ... More >>

Photos: MC Hammer, MC Lyte at Wingate Field, 07.09.07

The Show Must Go On and On and On

Doug E. Fresh leads a delighted Brooklyn crowd down a Frosted Flake–filled memory lane

The Makeup Test

Lil Mama's 'Lip Gloss' boosts both her self-esteem and her burgeoning rap career

Fold Me Now

A practitioner of pornigami turns a kids' pastime into erotic sculpture

No Feelings

Midwestern rock critic and greatest living American writer defeat their designations

Jew Eye for the Black Guy: Odd Couple Swap Stereotypes

They're Back

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sequels?

Hunks and Has-Beens

Reality TV—Pop Thrills at 'Human Amusement Parks'

Music

Freeze-Frame

A Year (Heck—A Decade, Even) of Pop Music at the Movies

Letters

Foreman of the Board

M.O.T.