Pete Rock

The Ultimate List of Free Summer Concerts in NYC, 2013

Get ready to plug this in your bookmarks, iCals, sticky notes, and religious shrines, because the ultimate guide to free summer concerts in New York City is here! Seriously, scroll down and don't be stingy - share with your friends. Concerts aren't fun without friends. Just ask the lucky gal above e ... More >>

Ill Bill Gets "Grimey" on New Solo Album

After five years former Non-Phixion member Ill Bill has finally released his latest solo album, The Grimey Awards. The record looks to continue his gritty New York boom-bap vision that help defined the city's alternative rap underground in the late '90s. We spoke to Bill about the people in his life ... More >>

The Trouble With Lupe Fiasco Goes Beyond Pete Rock And Touching "T.R.O.Y."

It was all good for Lupe Fiasco just two albums ago. By 2008, the Chicago MC, co-signed by Jay-Z and brought on the Glow In The Dark Tour by Kanye West, had released two critically acclaimed albums, Food & Liquor and The Cool, and built on a reputation as a nimble lyricist with a political bent forg ... More >>

Q&A: DJ Spinna On Perception Records, New York Soul In The '70s, And Why A Tribe Called Quest Sampled "Submission" Better Than Anyone

"If you want to get a grasp on what was happening musically in the early '70s in New York City, especially in the soul arena, Perception Records is one of the prime labels to be checked out." So says respected DJ, producer and record collector DJ Spinna, who handily happens to have compiled the best ... More >>

Roy Ayers

Heavy D, R.I.P.

​Mount Vernon-raised rapper Heavy D passed away yesterday. The artist, born Dwight Errington Myers, was found having problems breathing outside his home in Beverly Hills; he was taken to the emergency department of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and died later in the afternoon. For many, Heavy D ... 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 >>

Q&A: araabMUZIK On His Influences, His Name, And Filling His Records With Crazy Beats

​Innovation keeps culture moving forward. Some hungry kid will always figure out how to put a new spin on things his predecessors have already done. Just ask araabMUZIK. He's still young, but his production track record is strong—he's worked on tracks by Tragedy Khadafi, 50 Cent and Vad ... More >>

Brand Nubian+Nice and Smooth+Pete Rock

Live: Blitz The Ambassador Reps For His Homelands At Lincoln Center

Andree Lamoth​ Blitz the Ambassador and Spoek Mathambo w/Mshini Wam Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center Sunday, August 7 Better than: An evening spinning old soul records. "Don't forget that I'm from Ghana, yo. D'you know how far that is?" Samuel Bazawule, the Brooklyn-based MC better known as ... More >>

The Five Best Moments On Yo! MTV Raps

MTV turns 30 on Monday. To celebrate, we're running a bunch of pieces on the channel, its legacy, and its future. ​ Debuting during the golden year of '88, Yo! MTV Raps revolutionized TV coverage of hip-hop music. Of course, hip-hop videos existed long before Yo! launched—Grandmaster Fl ... More >>

Live: The 4Knots Party Continues With Dan Deacon And Yeasayer (And The Spice Girls, Too)

Willie Davis​4Knots Music Festival: Dan Deacon, Yeasayer (DJ sets) Saturday, June 16 4Knots Indoor Lounge Better than: Going home and passing out. In my coverage of the 4Knots main stage, my "critical bias," as named at the bottom of these write-ups, has been fairly obvious—almost so o ... More >>

Claimin' I'm A Criminal: Reports From Tuesday Night's Melee At The Pete Rock/Smif-N-Wessun Show

via YouTube​Sirens are forever wailing around town, but the sirens I heard as I walked down Houston Street Tuesday night sounded extra-menacing. And judging by the sheer number of squad cars flying past me, and the intensity with which they ran red lights and drove against traffic up Orchard S ... More >>

Blue Note Records' Ten Best Sample Sources

Blue Note's cover art: Also an inspiration. (Original on the left, homage on the right.)​Hip-hop artists have never been shy about sampling songs from the vaults of the Blue Note jazz label, and few have pilfered with as much creativity and gusto as A Tribe Called Quest's one-time de facto lea ... 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 >>

SXSW Cheat Sheet 2011

An assortment of local bands heading to Texas for beer, BBQ, and maximum blogability

Hip-Hop's Top Ten Greatest Sneaker Songs

Kid Cudi, going all out for Converse.​Sneakers have long been hip-hop's footwear of choice. The links between the artists making the music and the companies behind the kicks are now totally intermingled, from top-end exclusive lines like Jay-Z's limited-to-five-pairs all-black Air Force 1s (de ... More >>

Week In Review: The Love and the Wizardry

We are all Jay-Z's children,. Photo by Jori Klein.​In the week we told you why you can't hate Kanye West and love My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy at the same time, we made similarly bold claims about Girl Talk--ten worst moments on that record, right here--and the Beatles, who along with a c ... More >>

Live: Nas, Cee Lo, Pete Rock, And Diplo Command An Open Bar Beneath The Manhattan Bridge At Heineken's Behest

Nas, imploring everyone to Tweet #heineken. Pics by Puja, more below.​Nas/Cee Lo/Pete Rock/Diplo/J Cole Some Random Warehouse Saturday, November 13 Better Than: The same show sponsored by almost anyone else. "How can you not have a good time when this is free?" shouted hip-hop artist Bua as ... More >>

Nas, Diplo, Pete Rock, Cee-Lo and More Playing Secret NYC Show For Free

Nas​The Heineken Inspire Encore show on Saturday, November 13 will feature an all-star lineup including Nas, Diplo, Pete Rock, Cee-Lo, Roxy Cottontail and a special guest. The location is so far secret and will be announced the morning of the event via text message. Best of all, it's free!

GOOD Friday: Kanye West, Jay-Z and Friends Celebrate Curtis Mayfield on "The Joy"

​This week Kanye West was exposed to the whole internet, just like he warned us about. Oh, and he finished his album. Then to cap it all off, he released "The Joy," a slow, magical entry in the GOOD Friday series. The track is straightforward, built on mood and sincerity, with little outward f ... More >>

The Freedom Party, One Step Beyond, Jackpot, And Love Tempo Headline Your Weekend In Nightlife

​Start your Friday off with a little Happy Hour. The Lower East Side's Panda hosts the appropriately named Pregame to ease you into your night out (or, in our case, ease you back home to a backlog of Boardwalk Empire) with a mix of disco, hip-hop, and funk. DJs Project Matt and Jimmy 2 Times h ... More >>

RAPPER’S DELIGHT

CMJ kicks off with a hip-hop reunion

CMJ 2010 Announces 700 More Artists: Phoenix, GZA, Francis and the Lights, Screaming Females, Franz Nicolay, and More

Our hero, Screaming Females frontlady Marissa Paternoster, at Siren. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​The second round of artists announcements is out, and it's the big one--count on newly installed acts Phoenix, GZA, Screaming Females, Extra Lens, Francis and the Lights, et al, to be your headliners, ... More >>

Electric Zoo, Fat Beats, And The Parked Food Truck Festival Headline Your (Long!) Weekend In Nightlife

​Ah, Labor Day weekend. Your last chance to wear white pants and white sandals (though my best friend tells me they're awful all year round). As for your weekend partying, skip the beach -- summer isn't over until the 22nd, so you still have time. Instead, welcome back NYC's nightlife and stay ... More >>

Fat Beats Will Host One Last Week of Performances From Just Blaze, DJ Premier, A-Trak, and More Before Closing on Saturday

​The much adored, lightly patronized NYC rap mecca that is Fat Beats will close on Saturday, following the lead of HMV, Tower, the Virgin Megastore, and pretty much every other non-iTunes record shop on the planet. "The closing of Fat Beats is just like one of my friends passing away," said DJ ... More >>

Week in Review: What Your Kids Will Learn

Not again! Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​In the week we mostly spent anticipating tomorrow's Siren Festival, we talked at length with headliner Ted Leo, celebrated at a pre-party with Monotonix, and looked back at nine years worth of past triumphs. See you there, hopefully?

Live: De La Soul, Pete Rock and CL Smooth, And DJ Premier Wax Gloriously Nostalgic At The Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival

De La Soul's Posdnuos, sweating it out. Photo by Palika.​Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival Brooklyn Bridge Park Saturday, July 10 Fully equipped with chicken skewers and beer, a DJ tent, live street-art exhibitions, custom-made jewelry, and graffiti-styled T-shirts and hats for sale, the 2010 Brookly ... More >>

The Hip-Hop/Jazz Crossover Strategy Guide

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

HOLIDAY RAPPING

Talib Kweli gives you his label's stars

Thanksgiving Playlist 2009: 100-Plus Songs Better Than Your Grandma's Lumpy Squash

Two years ago, William Bowers compiled this playlist. Any further additions? This holiday's abstract mandate can be sorta barren for us patriotically-challenged atheist vegetarians who maintain cosmic equidistance from our bloodkin. The term for it is even weird: "Thanksgiving" is a syntactical c ... More >>

THROWBACK TO THE FUTURE

Duo Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek are back again

Interview: Raekwon on Only Built for Cuban Linx II, Auto-Tune, J Dilla, and the Future of Rap

"You've got some fans that wanna stick up for me and say, 'Rae's still got it!' And you got some that say, 'Nah he'll never beat that album!'" ​ In the 5000 or so days since Raekwon released Only Built for Cuban Linx, long considered one of the greatest of all solo Wu-Tang albums, the Chef h ... More >>

Pete Rock's NY's Finest

An East Coast legend hits harder with horns than Uzis

Provincializm #16: Thank-Rock Playlist

The Dirty Heartbeat of the Golden Age

Reminiscing on the SP-1200, the machine that defined New York hip-hop

SXSW Preview Hoedown

Outdoor Concerts & Music Festivals

MF Doom: Worst Rapper Ever?

French Rappers Pretend to Be Rappers

Heads, Future and Past

Finally a chance to catch up on all those new bands. Well, maybe not bands exactly . . .

Brooklyn Conspiracy Theorists Gather Up Venomous Scraps

Music

Monster Mash-up

Beef Not Bacon

One Time, at Band Camp

Music

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