Teflon

The Louis Vuitton Waffle Maker

Artist Andrew Lewicki hacked a generic model to make this very funny Teflon-coated joke: the Louis Vuitton Waffle Maker. We're so used to branded foods and commercial collaborations, this almost doesn't seem absurd (but it should).

Seven Speaker-Shattering Busta Rhymes Guest Verses

Busta Rhymes will headline this year's 2012 Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival with a performance down under the borough's namesake bridge on Saturday. With a stash of rap anthems that includes "Pass The Courvoisier," "Woo-Ha!! (Got You All In Check)," and "Hands Where My Eyes Can See," the big man's set is ... More >>

A Little Bit of Heaven

Chicken Waffle Wings All Over the Web

The result (left) and the process (right) Thanks to San Francisco correspondent @tracyjane and Upper West Side bon vivant Justin Kennington for clueing us in to this snack food newly invented by the website Dude Foods. Looks like a pretty nifty idea, except maybe you don't want your Teflon waffle ... 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 >>

Pig Goes Pop: The Pros and Cons

​There have long been food-themed toys - such as the Easy-Bake Oven, which allowed kids to bake tiny cakes using only a light bulb, and Victorian tea sets that encouraged them to stage afternoon parties with their dolls and Power Rangers. These toys permitted children to mimic adult food ritu ... More >>

The Fame Cookie: 2011 Grammy Awards Live Blog

It's the return of the most talked-about Grammy Awards live blog--a collection of quips, blips, and arguably insightful observations that dares to match the actual Grammy telecast in terms of pure spectacle and Justin Bieber mentions. Please join our hosts Tom Breihan and Ryan Dombal below, and keep ... More >>

Arcade Fire Sell Nearly Half A Million Records in 2010, Will Perform at the Grammys

​"The whole chart thing is kind of like sports," said an unimpressed Merge label chief Laura Ballance, back when Arcade Fire hit #1 on the Billboard charts. That may well be true. But if selling records is like sports, Arcade Fire are weirdly good at it, considering they're a bunch of spindly ... More >>

Zach Baron's Top 10 Albums of 2010

Guess who? Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​Alright, let's do this, before I change my mind. With apologies to The-Dream, Sleigh Bells, Ted Leo, Kylesa, Swans, Zola Jesus, Marnie Stern, and all other vestiges of my punk rock past, and especially you Nicki Minaj, who missed both of my lists this year. ... More >>

Was 2010 The Best Year For Music Ever? LCD Soundsystem and Nostalgia's Creeping Scourge

Welcome to Sound of the City's year-in-review rock-critic roundtable, an amiable ongoing conversation between five prominent Voice critics: Rob Harvilla, Zach Baron, Sean Fennessey, Maura Johnston, and Rich Juzwiak. We'll be here all week! James Murphy, pulling no punches.​Dear fellow illumin ... More >>

Was 2010 The Best Year For Music Ever? House Music vs. Hashtag Rap

Welcome to Sound of the City's year-in-review rock-critic roundtable, an amiable ongoing conversation between five prominent Voice critics: Rob Harvilla, Zach Baron, Sean Fennessey, Maura Johnston, and Rich Juzwiak. We'll be here all week! The most important artist of 2010.​Hi everybody! To ... More >>

The Many Disturbing Faces of a Shirtless Rick Ross

​More than anyone else, producer Lex Luger has had rap's summer on lock. His two booming, window-rattling tracks on Rick Ross's Teflon Don--"MC Hammer" and "B.M.F. (Blowin' Money Fast)"--have been inescapable, from cars to picnics to other rappers, who have repeatedly borrowed both beats. Some ... More >>

Last Night: Diddy Dirty Money and Rick Ross Beat Back the Rain at Governors Island

​Power 105 Power Live, Featuring Rick Ross and Diddy Governors Island Sunday, August 22 The weather on Sunday in advance of Power 105's Power Live concert at Governors Island was fitting, considering its star attraction. There was a thick, slowing dampness in New York City yesterday--not so m ... More >>

Young Jeezy Is Still Dissing Rick Ross, Sort Of

​Rick Ross' disconcerting habit of pretending he is other still-living people continues to get him in trouble, both with those people and other people who know those people. Young Jeezy has taken issue with Ross' Black Mafia Family shout-out/misappropriation "B.M.F. (Blowin' Money Fast)" -- th ... More >>

Watch Erykah Badu and Rick Ross Assassinate Someone in the "Window Seat Part II/Turn Me Away (Get MuNNy)" Video

Is there an odder couple in rap currently than Miami fantasist Rick Ross and the neo-soul nudist Erykah Badu? Their work together so far--"Maybach Music III," off Ross's Teflon Don, and this new "Window Seat" remix--has zeroed in on perhaps the one thing these two disparate characters have in comm ... More >>

So Just How Homophobic Is Rap In 2010?

​The familiar conceit of this past Sunday's New York Times Magazine article "Sissy Bounce: New Orleans's Gender-Bending Rap," goes something like this: There are some gay rappers in New Orleans. Rap's usually really homophobic. That's crazy, huh? Contrasting the apparently enlightened attitude ... More >>

Rick Ross Momentarily Thinks He's Eminem, Is Quickly Disabused

Rap fans are now (perhaps overly) familiar with the plastic nature of reality as it appears to Miami rapper Rick Ross. So while Ross spent yesterday afternoon and evening gleefully proclaiming he had his fourth #1 record, it didn't necessarily mean anything but that he wanted it to be his fourth ... More >>

The World's Largest Frying Pan - Er, Six of Them

melaniehamlett.comImpersonating a strip of bacon in the World's Largest Frying Pan, Long Beach, WA​You'd think it'd be a simple thing to identify the world's largest frying pan, but there are six in the United States alone that make that audacious claim.

Who Does Rick Ross Think He Is, Exactly?

​The rapper Rick Ross, born William Leonard Roberts II, is currently being sued by the living, breathing drug boss--"Freeway" Ricky Ross--from whom he stole his stage name. On his new Teflon Don--another nickname borrowed, without consent, from John Gotti--Ross has a song called "MC Hammer," o ... More >>

This Week's Voice: Damon Dash Resurrected, Best Coast and Wavves, Wayne Coyne, Rick Ross, and More

Dame and Tallulah. Not pictured: Sienna Miller. Photo by Raquel M. Horn.​In this week's Village Voice, Ben Detrick profiles the post-Roc-a-Fella edition of Damon Dash as he haltingly embarks on a kinder, gentler comeback. Elsewhere, Sean Fennessey dissects the two halves of California's pre-em ... More >>

Rick Ross's Alternate Reality

More transcendent absurdity from Miami's most improved rapper

Rick Ross' New Teflon Don Is Streaming In Full On His MySpace

​New York rap fans have a very complicated relationship with Rick Ross, due to the Southern thing, the prison-guard thing, the he-once-released-a-song-called-"Money Make Me Come" thing. During Diddy's 92Y Tribeca talk a couple weeks back host Peter Rosenberg abruptly started praising Ross to t ... More >>

American Idiot, Sondheim on Sondheim, Promises, Promises Lack Luster

Michael Musto's Year (and Decade) in Review!

Gaga for Google and every twittle thing that made the Aughts fraught with fakery and fun

Conservatives Urged to Boycott NFL

In the annals of rightwing hubris, we haven't seen much to equal this: one of the conservatives enraged that Rush Limbaugh's ex-partners have excluded him from their plans to buy the Rams (which Limbaugh and his followers blame on liberals) has proposed that patriots counter-attack by... boycotting ... More >>

Il Divo Follows the Opaque Path of Giulio Andreotti

Paris Hilton's Romantic Secrets

The Paris Hilton Interview!

I've got questions, she's got answers, and so on and so on.

Let’s Do the Time Warp Again: Atlantic Yards as Interpretive Dance

Turkey Alert: Paris When She Fizzles

The Mystery of the Tween Demographic

Bringing smarty back, Nancy Drew returns for another generation of young consumers

Coasting to the Finish

Stoppard's Utopia trilogy is complete. But is there one evening of drama in it?

Exiles From Main Street

Spaced out: The collective costs of suburban sprawl

Quad Wrangle

Reinventing the wheel: Sports doc keeps clichés to a minimum, dignifies determined jocks

The Ladykiller

The man who screwed too much: Will Smith charms in faux-cynical V-Day romantic comedy

Unfinished Biz

Bush's bulge, poll fraud, and other rumors at the conspiracy-theory frontier

Overdetermined to Win

Menacing commercial rapper with purposeful image sells you the hyperreal you gotta feel

NY Mirror

Oh No, There Goes Tokyo: Science-Fiction Punks Rock Japan

The Long Road Home

The World’s Biggest Country Duo Risk Backlash With a Great Rock Album

Letters

An Officer and a Gentlewoman

Requiem Suite

Marc Forster’s Symphonies of Sorrow

Hungry Heart

Sports

Cheating Death

Grave condition

Tasting Menu

Disobedience Training

Mayor Taunts City and a Coalition Forms

Taking the Fifth

Theme Stores Eat Manhattan