Raekwon

Rakim's Most Random and Confounding Appearances

This Thursday night, the man who set the standard for greatness in rap, Rakim, takes the stage for a show with Wu-Tang member Raekwon at Stage 48. It's a rare event that fans get to see Rakim as, even in this era of 24/7 social media, he's remained one of the few artists in hip-hop to maintain an au ... More >>

The 25 Best OutKast Songs of All Time

Here's a hard truth that needs to be told and heard and understood: OutKast aren't getting back together. They just aren't. Stankonia, their last proper release as a bonafide duo, was 13 years ago. Andre is going to be Jimi Hendrix. Big Boi is making music with Phantogram and Wavves. They've moved o ... More >>

Skyzoo On Bed-Stuy's Breakfast Options And Supermarkets, Spike Lee, And Not Getting Signed By Jay-Z

Editor's note: In Tweets is Watching, Phillip Mlynar will ask local artists questions based solely on the contents of their Twitter timeline. Skyzoo is a Bed-Stuy-raised rapper whose new album, A Dream Deferred, will be released at the start of October via the Brooklyn institution Duck Down. He ha ... More >>

The Brown Bag Allstars Remember Their Days Behind Fat Beats' Counter

When the West Village record store Fat Beats closed its doors in 2010, the New York City hip-hop scene lost an iconic part of its landscape. But for the rapper/DJ/producer collective Brown Bag AllStars, the store's demise smarted harder than most—they worked there. It's a time in their lives t ... More >>

Live: Joe Budden Tears Down S.O.B.'s While Tearing Up

Joe Budden S.O.B.'s Tuesday, September 4 Better than: The second-best sex ever, apparently. Joe Budden's lyrics are a minefield of emotions, bringing skeletons out of the closets and into the streets; there are times he's put the TMI in traumatic. Moments after getting jumped by Raekwon and Metho ... More >>

Meet The A$AP Mob: Talking To Ant, Ferg, J. Scott, Nast, Twelvy, And Yams

No city in the world can assemble a musical motley crew of disorderly young gents like New York, although simply forming a quartet isn't enough. Wu Tang Clan, Boot Camp Clik, The Diplomats—we're talking wolf pack numbers. The A$AP Mob's A$AP Rocky has been getting worldwide attention this ye ... More >>

The 18 Best Rapper Movies

Since the days of Wild Style and Krush Groove, rappers have put their music on hold and delved into the film world. A bunch of these efforts were pretty bad—remember Ice-T in Leprechaun in the Hood—while others were so bad they were good. Cam crying in Killa Season or KRS fleeing the sce ... More >>

10 Curren$y Songs That Prove He's More Than Just A Weed Rapper

After a couple of failed attempts at riding under someone else's banner (No Limit, Cash Money), Curren$y ventured out on his own and struck gold, amassing hundreds of thousands of loyal followers and lighting (pardon the pun) the way for rappers like Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller to carve out their own ... More >>

Curren$y's High Productivity

What's the secret behind the rapper's immense output?

Limp Bizkit Lean Into The Backlash On Gold Cobra

​It's been a little over a decade since Limp Bizkit's Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water became the fastest-selling rock album of all time, a record that's at this point unlikely to be broken. Generally speaking, being a cultural phenomenon on that scale for even a fleeting mome ... 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 >>

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 >>

Download: XXL Freshmen Class Member Fred the Godson's "Headbanger"

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent. Bronx rhymebeast Fred The Godson is the only rapper representing the five boroughs on the cover of the XXL "Freshmen Of The Year" issue--and he's a hell of an ambassador. His rhyme style, a silky update ... More >>

50 Cent's Greatest Hits Of Late 2010 And 2011: A Surprisingly Long List

Anything to keep him off Twitter​Don't look now, but 50 Cent is off in his little corner making compelling music again. Actually, you had better look now -- he only does this once a year or so, in between failed commercial projects. (Although here's a secret almost no one knows: His last such ... More >>

Justin Bieber, Twitter Casanova

The Most Popular Boy in the World rules the only voting bloc that matters: pre-teen girls

Kanye West Wins One For the Douchebags

Our poll winner and his runner-up James Murphy turn their private flaws into public triumphs

R&B Serenity Now: R. Kelly, Ne-Yo, and Others Keep the Quiet-Storm Flame Alive

Live: Kanye West At Bowery Ballroom, Ranting, Seething, And Enthralling

Q&A: Rapper 9th Prince On His Older Brother RZA And The Early Days Of The Wu-Tang Clan

​The Wu-Tang Clan is hip-hop's most enduring family. Thanks to seemingly unbreakable bonds both artistic and familial, the now eight-strong crew of rappers is still together, despite frequent -- and usually shoddily sourced -- media claims that they're about to implode due to rampant bickering ... More >>

GOOD Friday: Kanye West Begrudgingly Drops "Christian Dior Denim Flow," Preps for SNL

​Kanye West was not himself this week. Online, at least, where West has enjoyed repeated recent successes, he was frustrated and felt betrayed by the leak of an unauthorized, unfinished track called "Lost in the World." "It would have seemed like since I give free music every week even the low ... More >>

GOOD Friday: Kanye West feat. RZA, Jay-Z, Pusha T, Swizz Beatz & CyHi Da Prynce, "So Appalled"

​For the second consecutive GOOD Friday, Kanye West delivered something of an epic, with the new "So Appalled" and last week's "Lord Lord Lord" totaling over fourteen minutes of rap music between the two, and featuring Swizz Beatz, Mos Def, Raekwon, Charlie Wilson, RZA, Jay-Z, Pusha T, and CyH ... More >>

Download: Roc Marciano, "Raw Deal"

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent. ​The long-in-the-works debut album from Long Island rapper Roc Marciano, Marcberg (out now via Fat Beats), is the ultimate subway listen--a mix of murky Walkman-ready boom-thwap, the subterranean fee ... More >>

Jim Jarmusch's Showtunes

On ATP 2010, musicians as actors, Tom Waits's threats, and what planet ODB was on

Live: Diddy Holds Forth on Biggie, Mary (The Biblical One), and His Own Ambition at 92Y Tribeca

​Shout-out to all the Scorpios in the house. Pics by Ken Goodman.​The question: "What's your favorite non-hip-hop pursuit?" Diddy's answer, after a meaningful, somewhat bewildered pause: "happiness."

All Tomorrow's Parties NY 2010 Additions: Shellac and the Greenhornes, A Cincinnati-Born Trio Who Coincidentally Includes Two of the Raconteurs

Today brings more confirmations for the three-day line-up of the Jim Jarmusch-curated All Tomorrow's Parties New York. Adding to the stellar list of Explosions in the Sky, Raekwon, Sonic Youth, the Breeders, Fucked Up, Girls, and the Stooges doing Raw Power are Shellac (credited in the press relea ... More >>

A Guide to Party Expo, Brooklyn's Newest Wu-Tang-Approved DIY Venue

Party Expo, late January. Photo via Superchief​Brooklyn Vegan brings word of a new Brooklyn venue, Party Expo, which is seemingly going public with a Japanther show this Wednesday--$5, limited to 75 tickets, no alcohol, either for sale or BYOB. So what is this place, exactly? Well. Their first ... More >>

Pazz & Jop Bonus #1: The Wonderful World Of Needle

​So Pazz & Jop 2009 is finally up, with lots of fine essays (dig Chuck Eddy's especially), comments, and statistical ephemera to sift through. Congratulations are in order to Jay-Z, Animal Collective, and Voice house stats guru/savior Glenn McDonald, because without him none of this would've b ... More >>

Jay-Z, Also a Rapper! For Snoop Dogg, Anyway: "I Wanna Rock (The Kings Remix)"

Jay-Z may or may not be old-school double-dark-chocolate-chunk black, or a sell out, or seventy-three inches of all-black everything, but he's definitely still a rapper, at least when he bothers to come down from the mountain and grace somebody like Snoop Dogg with a guest verse. The "The Kings G- ... More >>

Go Ham or Die Trying: Pill's Calm Path to Mixtape Stardom

Alphabet Aerobics

Though not the greatest rapper alive, Hip Hop Harry is certainly the furriest

The Summer-Jam Report: Fabolous and Ne-Yo's "Make Me Better"

Bring Da Ruckus

Still don't nothing move but the money in thrilling Wu-Tang reunion-show doc

A Not-Going-to-SXSW Playlist

SXSW Preview Hoedown

The Sheep Take a Buffalo Stance

Critics' polls have evolved and arguably withered lately, but at least we didn't vote for Timbuk 3

Boot Camp Clik: Definant Consistency

The Wire vs. Coke-Rap

The Bamboozle Festival and the Emo Takeover

Preview: Ghostface Killah's New Album Fishscale

Not His Forte

Linkin Park emcee goes solo, not much else

Busta Rhymes' Bodyguard Murdered at Video Shoot

Got Your Sex Raps Here

Nevertheless, Nas still sounds like a man who's thinking even when he'd rather not be

Bildungshiphop

What Tarantino missed (and Jarmusch got) about the Wu

Throw Your Hands in the Air

Music

Perpetual Brownout

Hip-Hoperation: Mindcrime

I Want My B-E-T

Let Us Now Praise Famous Gangstas (and Their Videos)

Consumer Guide

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