Mos Def

The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Weekend, 3/15/13

Here are the 10 best concerts to check out around the city this weekend, in no particular order.

Beck's Sheet-Music Gambit And Six Other Alternatives To Just Putting Out A Boring Old Record

This week neo-pop superstar Beck announced the release of Song Reader, a new "album" in the form of sheet music. The finished product offers nothing to listen to; just 20 sheets of notation collected in a "lavishly produced hardcover carrying case," according to the publishing outfit McSweeney's, wh ... More >>

Perla: Italian With a Midwestern Accent

Gabriel Stulman expands his Greenwich Village empire

Hip-Hop's Top Ten Aretha Franklin Samples

​Rap royalty loves the Queen of Soul. Or, at least, some very prestigious hip-hop types have found the intimate grooves of Aretha Franklin's discography to be fine and fertile fodder for their sampling kicks. So with Franklin preparing to warble her way through a couple of back-to-back shows a ... More >>

Amy Winehouse's Top Ten Hip-Hop Collaborations

​Rappers loved Amy Winehouse. The British warbler might not have collaborated with rap chaps to the extent that Mary J Blige has, but when she passed away earlier this year she did so leaving behind a discernible trail of hip-hop goodies. And the songs suggest there was a genuine bond and shar ... More >>

HEART AND SOUL

Local boy Mos Def plays for his community

Q&A: "White People Rapping Poorly" Mastermind Connor Toole On What Makes Terrible White Rappers So Amusing

Asher Roth, one of the good guys​Today, the Internet is filled with more depravity and embarrassing footage than anyone could have ever thought possible. Fortunately for us, people like Connor Toole are seeking out the best of the best (or worst of the worst), and posting these .gifs or YouTub ... More >>

Odd Future Will Be Back In New York City on February 15 at Santos Party House

​Uh oh. When last we saw teenage L.A. scandal rap collective Odd Future, it was in the basement of Webster Hall, where the entire evil axis of New York rap critics gathered to watch frontdemon Tyler the Creator take emphatic hits off an asthma inhaler. (Once he got his breath back, he told us ... More >>

On Odd Future, Rape and Murder, And Why We Sometimes Like the Things That Repel Us

Odd Future and Mos Def in New York, circa two days ago. Photo by Brook Bobbins.​By now you've heard about Odd Future, the polarizing Los Angeles rap collective that got a lot of New York-based critics and labels pretty excited the other night in the basement of Webster Hall. And if you've list ... More >>

GOOD Friday: Kanye West Preps for "Runaway" Video Release, Drops "Don't Look Down"

At 8 p.m. ET the Kanye West-directed 35-minute music video, starring Selita Ebanks and narrated by Nicki Minaj, will debut concurrently on MTV, MTV2, BET, MTV.com, BET.com and VH1.com. (The video above showcases the opening scene.) Leading up the premiere, West again came through on his promise of ... More >>

Gorillaz Afterparty Tomorrow Night A Rare Chance To Beat Lou Reed At Ping-Pong

​So Gorillaz are playing Madison Square Garden tomorrow night, a no doubt tasteful and demure evening of audio-visual whatsits allegedly featuring cameos by Bobby Womack, Mos Def, Lou Reed, and so forth. If you're short on cash or patience, though, the RSVP-only afterparty runs 10 p.m. to 4 a. ... More >>

Gorillaz Debut New Single "Doncamatic (All Played Out)," Play Madison Square Garden (With Mos Def And Lou Reed!) Friday

​It's a pretty intense week for visual excess at Madison Square Garden, beginning tonight and tomorrow with Roger Waters doing The Wall in all its stadium-rock glory (with another date Nov. 6) and continuing Friday with Gorillaz, everyone's favorite cartoon band, rolling in with several member ... More >>

K'Naan

GOOD Friday: Kanye West Comes Late With "Lord Lord Lord"

​Kanye West just keeps coming through, in a variety of styles and moods, on different days and with a wide range of friends. On this most recent GOOD Friday, West delivered the track somewhere close to 5 a.m. Blame it on Swizz Beatz, who is featured on "Lord Lord Lord," along with Mos Def, Rae ... More >>

Live: Rating Rock the Bells Sets From Slick Rick, Wu-Tang Clan, Lauryn Hill, A Tribe Called Quest, Snoop Dogg, and More

Oh, hey Q-Tip. All photos by Rebecca Smeyne.​On a sweltering Saturday, the seventh annual hip-hop nerd convention Rock The Bells took over Governor's Island. It's a place where people know to "throw a one in the air" for Guru before DJ Premier even asked, a place where you can overhear a convo ... More >>

The Hip-Hop/Jazz Crossover Strategy Guide

Revive Da Live brings in both crowds . . . very, very carefully

Jay-Z's 'Empire' Strikes Back at Last

His first #1 song is his first Pazz & Jop chart-topper as well. Go Yankees.

Welcome to Damon Dash's DD172, New York's Last Line of Defense Against "Wack World"

The Under 100 office, not to be confused with this new DD172 thing. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​Under 100, the DIY showspace run out of rap mogul Dame Dash's basement, may have disappeared into a December maelstrom of unwanted publicity, never to be spoken of again. But DD172--the suspiciously si ... More >>

The Wild and Wonderful Story of Under 100, the DIY Show Space in Dame Dash's Basement

Sleigh Bells perform at Under 100 in front of an extremely focused Ryan Schreiber. Photo by Rez Avissar/Pitchfork. Used by permission.​Greg Finch is the 20-year-old Pitchfork.tv intern who, along with Less Artists More Condos' Ariel Panero, runs Under 100, the DIY show space located in former ... More >>

The Roots Reunited with the Dirty Projectors to Back Mos Def and Talib Kweli on Jimmy Fallon's Show Last Week

Well, two Dirty Projectors, anyway. The Roots and Jimmy Fallon conscripted Amber Coffman and Haley Dekle last Wednesday to back Mos Def and Talib Kweli on "History," from Mos' most recent album. Always happy to see this show try something different. (And to reunite such potent creative partners.) ... More >>

Eminem Can Still Rap, World. (So Can Black Thought.)

Every year, the BET Hip-Hop Awards--the 2009 edition of which aired last night--round up three or four different rapper cyphers, taped off-site and with somewhat counterintuitive gangs of MCs going in with what are ostensibly freestyles. Last year, Jadakiss, Fabolous, Juelz Santana, and Ace Hood t ... More >>

Tonight They're Gonna Rock You Tonight: Zap Mama, Cake, and Some Golden-Age Hip-Hop

Starting today, intrepid Voice intern Michael Downes will offer a daily, highly biased digest of that evening's best NYC shows -- and the whole weekend's slate on Friday, which today is, mercifully, if you were not aware. Enjoy. FRIDAY Zaire-born Marie Daulne fronts Zap Mama at Joe's Pub. Foun ... More >>

IN GOOD HANDS

Afrobeat's most famous son knows his own power

REAL NUDE

Vanessa Beecroft teams up with Kanye again

Another Free iTunes Single of the Week: K'naan's "Bang Bang (feat. Adam Levine)"

James MinchinHere's your future Last week's prediction: From the UK? Sorry, but aesthetics matter, no matter where you are on the globe. No coincidence that the Somalia-born K'naan learned to speak English off the phonetics on Rakim and Nas albums; talent will travel, before during and after thing ... More >>

HAIL, HAIL, ROCK AND ROLL

Chuck Berry's still the only King of Rock

Cadillac Records Turns the Label's History into Another Downer Soap Opera

STRUT TO THE MUSIC

Alter your fashion sense for a good cause

Michel Gondry Celebrates the Bygone Days of VHS

Caught on tape: the best of do-it-yourself indie culture in Be Kind Rewind

Breaking! Kids Coming of Age at Sundance 2008!

Familiar themes still flood the festival zone, but a couple of gems manage to shine through

Live: DIY Shows vs. Industry Parties

Scritti Politti: Better Than Nas

An Act of Momentary Utopia

2003

Close-Up on Bedford-Stuyvesant

Early Riser

Designer Christine Su quickly builds a fan base

Pull Your Socks Up

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

Machine Age

Brit R&B Transplants Show off Chops, Miss Kaffeeklatsch

The Benz or the Backpack?

Caught between underground should and overground can

False Grooves

Tribes and Tribulations

American Ink

Why Poetry? Why Now?

Music

Shake Your Moneymaker

Drink Six Shots

Pazz & Jop Preview

The King of Coonology

Spike Lee Mounts His Revenge on Black Hollywood

Taking the Rap

City Clubs Ban Hip-Hop Radicals

Beats Below the Street

Consumer Guide