T-Pain

On Lil Wayne and Future and Hip-hop Authenticity

Rap game ouroboros

Sorry, But Kanye Is the GOAT

Kanye West is the greatest hip-hop artist of all time. He's made the best albums and changed the game the most, and his music is the most likely to endure. One thing before we get going: This isn't one of those arguments meant to piss people off or "start a conversation." We really mean it. And, c ... More >>

Lil Wayne, Future, and the Ouroboros of Defensive Trendhumpery

If you pay attention to the Rap Internet, you are probably up to your elbows in people slinging the term "Appropriation" around, mostly in the context of the Harlem Shake meme. Even more loosely, people have been talking about what the idea of "ownership" in hip-hop actually, like, means these days. ... More >>

Maybe You Should Give British Rap A Chance?

About fifteen million years ago on the Internet (a/k/a at the beginning of January of this year), my friend Skinny Friedman issued an errant tweet claiming something to the effect of, "Grime is going to be big in 2013." Though he was joking (I think?), that got me thinking. I can see where he's comi ... More >>

Get Trippy Mane: Your Flawless Christmas Light Touring Soundtrack

Now that Christmas is over and the presents are all unwrapped, you have no excuse but to switch off the computer, get up, wrestle on a cardigan and a sweater vest, grab your smart phone, and hit the streets. Vacate. Go. Get out, and look at some Christmas lights. Because, look, your hood didn't risk ... More >>

Andy Samberg is Newest SNL Cast-Member to Leave

First, Kristen Wiig. Now... Andy Samberg?According to the New York Times, after seven full seasons and almost a hundred Digital Shorts of his own creation, Andy Samberg has confirmed that he will no longer appear on Saturday Night Live, leaving behind him a legacy that is comparable to som ... More >>

Dirty Money Honeys: Dawn Richard And Kalenna Get Off The Bad Boy Train

When Last Train To Paris, the sole album by the hip-hop/R&B trio Diddy-Dirty Money, landed in stores 16 months ago, it would've been fair to assume it was the end of something, not the beginning. The mogul formerly known as the artist formerly known as Puff Daddy had been more of a professional cele ... More >>

A Beginner's Guide To Funkmaster Flex's Instagram Account

Those familiar with Funkmaster Flex, Hot 97's nighttime DJ and the one man Jay-Z and Kanye West trusted to break Watch the Throne lead single "Otis," know that on top his love for boom bap and muscle cars, Flex is something of a tech dork, fiending for the newest tablets and phones, blogging at infl ... More >>

Oddsmaker: Do Beyoncé And André 3000 Have Enough Swagu To Beat Kanye And His Dozens Of Friends At The Grammys?

​The Grammys created the awkwardly named Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category ten years ago, around the time Ja Rule's various "thug love" duets were dominating the airwaves. The award recognized a growing sector of popular music that didn't quite fit into the preexisting rap, R&B or pop song ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Flo Rida's Accidental Posthumous Tribute To Etta James

The late Etta James remained an active recording artist right up to the end, releasing her final album, The Dreamer, just two months before her death on January 20. But she hadn't been on a Billboard singles chart since the '70s, when a cover of Erma Franklin's "Piece of My Heart" from her 1978 come ... More >>

100 & Single: Can Katy Perry Turn The States' Post-Christmas No. 1 Race Into Something UKrazy?

​Thanks to her husband, Katy Perry considers herself as an honorary Brit. But as the most frequent current inhabitant of the Billboard charts, she must wish we were all anglophiles. If only America had a Christmas No. 1 competition as rabid and media-fueled as Old Blighty's! Katy would have t ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Playing Armchair A&R With The Singles From 2011's Biggest And Best Albums

​The two big formats that have long ruled over popular music are the single and the album. They have a great duality between them: the song and the collection; the sliver and the whole; the appetizer and the main course. Albums are the full-length format long considered pop music's ultimate a ... More >>

Radio Hits One: VH1 Takes On The '00s Pop Canon

VH1 spent last week counting down what the channel, and its panel of celebrities and "experts," consider The 100 Greatest Songs of The '00s. They certainly haven't been the first to assemble such a list—Rolling Stone and Pitchfork and every blog under the sun had their say about two years ago, ... More >>

Q&A: Diplo On The Joys Of Dancehall, Kanye West, Social Work, Owning A Label, And Twitter

"For me, Twitter is like my diary. I hope someone saves it so I don't have to write it all again when I'm 75." ​Where do we even start with someone like Diplo? Wes Pentz is a DJ at his core, but he's also a producer (having worked with Lil Jon, Kanye West, and most notoriously M.I.A.), the fo ... More >>

Live: Telephoned, Nick Catchdubs, And Eli Escobar Inaugurate The Ace Hotel's New Switchboard Party

Telephoned, mixing it up. Pics by Peter Steusloff.​Telephoned Ace Hotel Tuesday, February 8 Better Than: That "mash-up" DJ my friend who just discovered that DJs play songs he likes is trying to tell me about as I type this. Ugh. It's been less than a week since our last visit, and we've alr ... More >>

The 20 Worst Songs of 2010, #5: Artists for Haiti, "We Are The World 25 For Haiti"

F2K10 is a countdown of the 20 worst songs of 2010. Track our progress here. ​In 2010, when pop musicians are struggling to have half the visibility of the latest news-cycle-spawned entrant into Google Trends, it's hard not to see charity endeavors as ego extensions. Recall "Just Stand Up!," ... More >>

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

The 20 Worst Songs of 2010, #16: Lil Wayne, "Paradice"

F2K10 is a countdown of the 20 worst songs of 2010. Track our progress here. ​Lil Wayne's rock album was as "eagerly anticipated" as tax season, a divorce court hearing, or the icy embrace of death itself. Watching the gifted rhymer aimlessly dick around with a guitar was like watching Picass ... More >>

Review: Sarah Palin's Alaska is "Special," Just Like Her Family

http://tlc.discovery.com/​The average American Sunday of many is something like: brunch, nap, football. This Sunday, however, might look a bit different, because now Sarah Palin might cross your channel-flipping path, hunting wild animals to kill in cold blood while she balances life as an Ala ... More >>

Lil Wayne's Wild Weekend: Courtside in New Orleans, On Stage in Las Vegas, Red Carpet in Miami

Lil Wayne was released from prison last week, as you might have heard. He spent some time alone before rejoining his friends, first on Friday night in New Orleans, where he sat courtside to watch LeBron James and Dwayne Wade's Miami Heat take on his hometown Hornets. Saturday he took the stage in L ... More >>

The 10 Best Posse Cuts of 2010 (So Far)

​Posse cuts are like friendlier versions of the WWE's Royal Rumble -- a platform designed to showcase all of the stars in the game, both up-and-coming and certified. Think back to the Main Source's 1991 "Live At The Barbecue," featuring Akinyele, Joe Fatal, and the debut of a rapper named Nas, ... More >>

Bow Wow Strikes It Rich in Ghetto Fabulous Lottery Ticket

A People's History of Summer Jam 2010

Drake debuts, Trey Songz gyrates, and DJ Khaled wins at the hip-hop event of the year

Operation Ivy League: On Vampire Weekend's Vastly Bewildering Contra

It's definitely weirder, and definitely better.

An Evening With the Brain Trust Behind 'Auto-Tune the News'

Did R. Kelly Inadvertently Confess to Having Sex with a 14-Year-Old?

R. Kelly's latest mixtape is The "Demo" Tape, a free, very unlicensed suite of riffs on tracks by T-Pain, Jeremih, Lil Wayne, and more. It's a funny, ouroboric project: Kelly remakes songs by a generation of rappers-turned-singers who in turn make music directly inspired by R. Kelly. At the center ... More >>

Summer Guide: Amadou & Mariam's A Global Affair

Damon Albarn lends this "blind couple from Mali" a dash of Britpop

Notes on the Biz (What's Left of It)

On metal, genre-based critical bias, layoffs, industry hysteria, and the Loudness Wars

Janelle, Erykah, and Santogold Are the Afro-Techno Revolution

While Beyoncé just struggles to keep up

The Top 20 (and Far Beyond)

Big year for metal, hip-hop, and Paul Simon/pigfucker reconciliation

Labelle Update Their Sound on Back to Now, But Not Too Much

Rap's 2008, Beyond Lil Wayne

Praising outstanding new hip-hop records sadly subsumed by Weezymania

Grading the iTunes Hits: Metro Station, Pussycat Dolls, Miley Cyrus

Picking Apart Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III, Part 1

Donna Summer's Crayons

The (other) queen is back, multi-octave bazooka and all

Grading the iTunes Hits, Again

Wednesday

Things I Like About Rick Ross's Trilla

Status Ain't Hood Interviews Bun B

Flo Rida, Lil Boosie, and the New Mechanics of Rap Stardom

Sensitive-Whiteboy Robo-Soul Will Own 2008

Tom Petty's Super Bowl Halftime Show: Thoroughly OK

Rick Ross Buries the All-Star Remix

Last Night: The VH1 Hip Hop Honors

Ten Favorite Moments on Kanye West's Graduation

The VMAs: A Running Diary

Kanye West's Graduation: A Preview

Status Ain't Hood's Quarterly Report: The Summer's Best Albums

Live: Hot 97's Summer Jam

Music

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