Slick Rick

Young Guru Ushers in the Era of the Engineer, Prefers De La to Tribe

You know Young Guru as the super-engineer knob-twiddler behind hits from Jay-Z, Rick Ross and Drake, but last week he steeped out from behind the boards to deliver a lecture at N.Y.U.'s Clive Davis School of Recorded Music as part of his Era of the Engineer tour. In tandem with Grammy U, the session ... More >>

The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Weekend, 3/29/13

Please get out and do something. Your roommates are worried about you.

Ralph McDaniels Celebrates 30 Years of Video Music Box

New York is not only the birthplace of hip-hop culture, but the home of the first television program to broadcast rap videos. Video visionary Ralph McDaniels launched "Video Music Box" 30 years ago and now, three decades and a global phenomenon later, the hip-hop nation is ready to celebrate. Among ... More >>

Let's Talk About Sex, Baby (and HIV and AIDS Awareness)

It was just over two decades ago that seminal rap group Salt-N-Pepa helped usher a discussion of HIV and AIDS awareness into the hip-hop community with their single "Let's Talk About Sex" and its reworking "Let's Talk About AIDS." Continuing that tradition of outreach, last weekend Pepa was on-hand ... More >>

The Top 5.33 Hip-Hop Songs Of The Week

The "b word" has been a staple of hip-hop for decades, although there's some linguistic shading as far as its use: women that aren't particularly awesome are called "bitches"; really awesome women are "bad bitches"; respected dignitaries like moms are "ladies" and "females"—unless they're the ... More >>

Live: The Cops Shut Down Fool's Gold Day Off; DJ A-Trak Throws Out More T-Shirts

Check out our slideshow from the party. Fool's Gold Day Off: French Montana, Danny Brown, Brothers Macklovitch, Just Blaze, Flosstradamus, Flatbush Zombies, Nick Catchdubs, Ricky Blaze, Party Supplies, #BEEN #TRILL, Telephoned, and more City Winery Monday, September 3 Better than: Rain. Last yea ... More >>

Large Professor, Bigger Than Life

The legend continues with Professor @ Large

Q&A: Hot Sugar On Associative Music, Working With The Roots, And Sampling A Rat Who Played Keyboard

"There are two pigeons right there, so if I threw some bread and scared them off, I could turn that flutter sound into a Mannie Fresh snare roll." With that, Hot Sugar claps his hands and, as if on command, the two pigeons stop their strut through Tompkins Square Park to flap and flutter off. For a ... More >>

SOTC's March Madness: The Quintessential New York Musician Tournament

Sound of the City's monthlong tournament to determine the quintessential New York City musician (since 1955, the year of the Village Voice's founding) is taking over our site all March. The full schedule and results (as of March 23) below; you can also follow along with our bracket.

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 >>

Ten Great Neighborhood-Specific Brooklyn Rap Anthems

​This Saturday, the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival will conclude with shows by Brownsville's mighty M.O.P., who will perform their rambunctious brand of rap down under the Brooklyn Bridge, and, er, noted Queens representer Q-Tip. Rappers from Brooklyn have never been shy about proclaiming their her ... More >>

Top Five Young, Hometown-Obsessed New York City Rappers

Roc Marciano, leading the charge​Last year a small, underground pocket of NYC-based hip-hop found its voice again. With Roc Marciano's unimpeachable Marcberg album as the catalyst, a crew of loosely associated artists shook off that tired cliché about our city's commercial-outsider status and ... More >>

2010: The Year In Music Photos

​The year in music, circa 2010, started at the Cake Shop, with a shred-down to the New Year courtesy of Siren Festival MVP-to-be Marissa Paternoster and her band Screaming Females. After a tour through the NYE fetes of the Lower East Side and Williamsburg, that night ended amidst a marathon sh ... More >>

My 10 Favorite Concerts Of 2010, Starring Jay-Z, Pavement, And Michael Bolton

Stephen Malkmus, at the first of Pavement's 50 shows here. Pics by Rob unless noted otherwise.​The 100-plus shows I saw this year spanned from the Cake Shop to Radio City Music Hall, from Williamsburg block parties to Michael Bolton's house in Connecticut, the events that occurred therein all ... More >>

GOOD Friday: Kanye West, Pusha T and Friends Misbehave on "Take One for the Team"

​It's oddly appropriate, though almost certainly not intentional, that the week rumors started to spread about naked photos of Kanye West, he releases his raunchiest GOOD Friday track yet. Of course, he pretty much told us this was going to happen. "I sent this girl a picture of my dick," he a ... More >>

Live: Biz Markie Regales A Bunch Of Ad-Agency People, And Why Not

The maddest man of all. Pics by Chris, more below.​Ad Week is over, but you'd never know it from the glut of agency parties happening constantly around town. If it's a weeknight and you're looking for something to do, just talk to your closest ad buddy, because chances are they can break you i ... More >>

Noémie Lafrance’s Melt Ends the Summer, DanceNow Heralds the Fall

Gooey doings under the Manhattan Bridge, plus a choreography sampler at DTW

Your Guide to the 11th Annual Gathering of the Juggalos, Which Begins Tomorrow

The 11th Annual Gathering of the Juggalos begins tomorrow. There are over 100 performers booked for this event. They all lead up to one thing. . . the headlining onslaught of Insane Clown Posse. There is already an entire Internet full of jokes here. You do not need me. Instead, let us simply co ... More >>

Snoop Dogg, A Tribe Called Quest, DJ Premier, And, Yes, Lauryn Hill Added To Rock The Bells Lineup

​Well, this has been somewhat of a confusing rollout. The news: Snoop (doing Doggystyle in its entirety), Tribe (doing Midnight Marauders), and DJ Premier (doing a Gang Starr tribute that'll probably be the highlight of the whole thing) have been added to the bill (already loaded with Wu Tang, ... More >>

Oof: Turns Out Lauryn Hill Is Not Headlining Rock The Bells This Summer

So Urb caused a sizable kerfuffle yesterday afternoon by breaking the news that the stupendously volatile Lauryn Hill would headline the annual hip-hop nostalgia tour Rock the Bells by performing 1998's classic The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in its entirety, triggering equal amounts joy and fear. ... More >>

Take Donald Glover, Aziz Ansari, and Das Racist's Joke Rap Seriously

A new generation of MCs grapple with how funny they're allowed to be

CMJ: Gang Gang Dance at Webster Hall; Cool Kids at the Gramercy

'Uncle' Ralph McDaniels, A Hip-Hop Pioneer, Still Inside the Box

Celebrating 25 years of his trailblazing rap-video show

Busta Rhymes, Reanimated

The Dirty Heartbeat of the Golden Age

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

Delicious Vinyl

Gorgeous crate-digger mag Wax Poetics teaches us to value the artifact as much as the art

DJ Quik Sells Out?

Hot 97's Summer Jam: A Preview

The American Idol Finale: A Running Diary

CityParks Summer Concerts: Performers So Old School They Used To Gang Bang With the Flintstones

The 2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees: A Report Card

Pole Position

Talking strippers, lies, and aging with the daisy-fied Juggaknots

Live: The Emo-Rap Machine Rolls On

Don't Stop

Two unlikely DJs, Womanmaker and Fancypants, spin hip-hop at the unlikeliest venue

Caught on Tape

Eminem's racist rant says little that hasn't been said by black rappers before him

Your Pictionary Pick

Going Down to Rosedale, Take My Karaoke Mic by My Side

When I Reminisce

Hip-hop Movies Mythologize the Age of Innocence

Hail Fellow Well Set

Sweep of Faith

Detained Muslim Faced Mosque Raid, INS Secrecy

Down and Alt

Throw Your Hands in the Air

Perpetual Brownout

Me and the Devil Blues

Night Crawler

Worming Your Way Through the Underground

Humans, Posthumans, and a Detergent Ad

How Doo Doo Doo Doo Heartbreaker

Corn Doggy Dogg

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