Mos Def

Talib Kweli

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Join in the Robert Glasper Experiment

This Week in the Voice: Rikers Violence, Out of Control

This week in the Voice, out today: Graham Rayman has obtained photos of Rikers inmates with severe knife wounds and beatings to the face, neck, and arms, writing: "Four years ago, the Voice first wrote about the violence at Rikers, which was not only condoned but also promoted by jail officials in a ... More >>

SOTC's March Madness: Rakim (6) Tangles With Black Star (11) In Our Quintessential New York Musician Tournament

​The Round of 64 for Sound of the City's own version of March Madness—in which you, the Sound of the City voting public, help determine the quintessential New York musician—continues, and you get to vote on who makes it to Round Two. We'll have some first-round results later today, but ... More >>

LIVING HISTORY

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band 
celebrates its gold anniversary

Ten Steps To Shabazz Palaces: Tracing Ishmael Butler's Path Between Digable Planets And The Present

​Back in the early '90s, Ishmael Butler came to rap prominence as Butterfly in the group Digable Planets. These days, he's taken on the moniker Palaceer Lazaro and records as the lead voice in Sub Pop's first hip-hop signing, Shabazz Palaces. It's a metamorphosis that Butler has left deliberat ... More >>

Rock The Bells NYC Lineup Updated; Erykah Badu To Perform Baduizm

Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. for the New York City stop of the Rock The Bells Festival, which will take place on September 3 at Governors Island. The lineup for the all-star hip-hop concert, during which a slew of heavyweights (Nas, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Raekwon & Ghostface) will revisit album ... More >>

Ms. Lauryn Hill And Nas To Headline Rock The Bells Festival, Which Hits NYC In September

​The Rock The Bells festival returns to the New York area with a Sept. 2 date at Governor's Island. This year's installment is headed up by a slew of full-album sets that includes run-throughs of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Illmatic (which Nas will perform with AZ, Pete Rock and DJ Premie ... More >>

Ten Hip-Hop Covers Of Rap Songs

​Last week, the Detroit-based rapper and one-time J Dilla collaborator Elzhi released Elmatic. It's the second time a rapper has re-written and re-made Nas's hallowed Illmatic, with Fashawn attempting a similar feat last year. As a listening experience, Elmatic is less than convincing, leaving ... More >>

Idle Warship

Doom & Mos Def

Damon Dash's Basement, Where Facts Go to Die

These Are Powers play in the basement. Maybe. Who knows, really. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​Truth is an ever-shifting creature in the confines of Damon Dash's infamous 172 Duane Street Tribeca loft. The venue began as Under 100, before we got the place (allegedly) shut down; shortly after that, ... More >>

WAX, ECSTATIC

Don't blink, or you'll miss Mos Def

DJ AM and James Chance, Together at Last: Downtown Calling

​We are against hagiography as a rule, but let's take a moment to list just a few members of the cast of Shan Nicolson's late '70s New York doc Downtown Calling, narrated by Debbie Harry and opening at the Austin Film Festival, next weekend: DJ AM, Wild Style's Charlie Ahearn, TV on the Radio' ... More >>

Robert Glasper Experiment

THROWBACK TO THE FUTURE

Duo Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek are back again

Jimmy Fallon and Mos Def Pander to Aging Rap Fans

More proof that Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is targeted straight at rap nerds: Mos Def and Jimmy Fallon spontaneously covering Run-DMC's "It's Tricky." Also: points to Mos Def for doing the classic shutting-down-the-white-guy-rapping thing after like nine seconds. Below, Mos and the Roots do "Ca ... More >>

News Roundup: Krist Novoselic, Drake, Black Keys, Iggy Pop

--Krist Novoselic is running for public clerk in Washington as a member of the Grunge Grange Party, a community service-driven group that was popular among farmers in the 1870s. Novoselic, who is the chairman of the Wahkiakum County Democratic Party, is not running to win, but to promote the party. ... More >>

A Brief History of the Times' Valiant Attempts to Give Fucked Up Press Without Mentioning Them by Name

Santiago FelipeAs a huge fan of the paper of record's oft-awkward attempts to cover profane bands/albums/songs without actually naming them, so as to avoid offending anybody -- my all-time favorite is still their refusal to cite Final Fantasy's He Poos Clouds by name -- you have to admire how often ... More >>

Week in Review: Boom! Woah, What Was That? You Transcend.

In the week we got ourselves a whole new look, we celebrated by staring David Lynch and Kate Moss directly in their awesome, newly expansive faces. This was a bookish week at SOTC: Brian Evenson soundtracked his novel, Last Days, Jonathan Lethem reintroduced L.J. Davis and his walls of mucus in P ... More >>

Christopher Hitchens Calls Mos Def "Mr. Definitely" on Bill Maher

One of the things most entertaining slash most infuriating about rappers straying, whether intentionally or otherwise, onto political talk shows is the inability of their hosts and fellow guests to call them by their given names. Hence a smirking Dennis Miller calling Young Jeezy both "Emphysema" ... More >>

On Big City Philadelphia's "How to Rob An Industry Hipster"

Rapper-robbing: a time-honored tradition. And rap "hipsters" are easy targets: Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco, Asher Roth, Kid Sister? Alright...This from a rapper whose official bio reads: A deal from Beanie's label State Property was on the table when fate would intervene yet again. Big City's affiliatio ... More >>

Mos Def

Mos Def Rolls at Movie Premiere

A Running Diary of Hip-Hop Superfest Rock the Bells

The exquisite joys of a sunny Sunday afternoon on the LIRR, Mos Def's basketball uniform, and De La Soul's late-'80s nostalgia

THROWBACKS AND BACKPACKS

Rap gets its own Lollapalooza

Live: Mos Def and Gil Scott-Heron at Carnegie Hall

DEF DEFYING

Mos Def speaks out

Status Ain't Hood Podcast 14

Evil Empire Strikes Back

A rap-nostalgia bonanza feels like a rock show and sounds like a resurrection

Public Space Is the Place

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble's brotherly love invades a square or circle near you

Def in a Jam

On the endlessly inventive and increasingly mishandled career of Mos Def

Us Weekly

Celebs who won't let you take their picture are bad; non-celebs who demand you do are worse.

Aging Hollywood Hack Attempts Clumsy B Movie

A Metal Band So Heavy That It Doesn't Even Make Music

Mos Def Is Boring

Mostly Harmless

Galaxy quest: Disney waters down sci-fi classic, turning radical wit into not-so-deep space

Hip-Hop Doppelgängers

Iced-out thug and boho griot keep it surreal on complementary CDs ready for iTunes

Sonic Refuges

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

A Fistful of Mighta Been

How the Miramax of Music Soundbombed

Film

The 48th Annual Obie Awards

All Over—Till Next Year

Green Again

Rev That Azz Up

Nervous Rhythms, Chopped-Up Language, Thumping Slapstick Pop

Flak On Both Sides

Moby and Merritt Vs. Hitters and Cheerleaders in a Bad Year for Nerds

Mos Testifies, Monch Eats

More Than One Way to Rawk a Funky Joint

It's Nation Time. Again.

A new vanguard of rap activists takes to the streets

Louder Than Bombs

Respect Due

Do for Self