Wale (Rapper)

Statik Selektah on the Troll Power of Putting Mac Miller and Sean Price on the Same Song

Editor's note: In "Tweets Is Watching," Phillip Mlynar asks local artists questions based solely on the contents of their Twitter timeline. Statik Selaktah promises his upcoming album, Extended Play, will "remind you of the hip-hop you grew up on, but it's like the new fresh version of that." To hi ... More >>

Pusha T & Fabolous - B.B. King's - 4/29/13

Better Than: Past Fabolous performances. "This life is so exciting!" chanted Pusha T and Fabolous in unison on B.B. King's stage while a crowd of ecstatically proud New Yorkers watched two of their native sons (yup Pusha was born in the Bronx). Last night the two only shared the stage for one song, ... More >>

Five Rappers Fans Love That Critics Can't Stand

By Marcus Arman Not all rappers need critical adoration to achieve commercial success. Some use negative reviews as motivation, others dismiss them as hate, and a few of them probably don't know what constitutes a review. But it's commendable anytime an artist reaches some level of success. In fact ... More >>

Maybach Music Group's Rockie Fresh on Why He Chose Rick Ross Over Diddy and the Violence In His Hometown of Chicago

Even though he wasn't born until the decade after Back to the Future came out, Rockie Fresh still rocks a DeLorean in his videos and even sports a pair of Nike Air Mags AKA the Marty McFlys. Fitting considering he acts much more maturely than his 21 years of age would have you believe. His rhymes a ... More >>

The Nine Best Concerts In New York This Week

These are the best concerts in New York this week, in no particular order.

D.C.’s Finest

Get cozy with Maybach Music’s resident poet

The Maybach Difference: How Wale, Meek Mill, and Rick Ross Overcame Early Failure To Find Success

With all the limitations facing today's music industry, it's rare that any artist gets a second chance. This is especially true in the ever-changing world of hip-hop where if an artist, especially on a major label, doesn't immediately finding an audience, they're soon shuffled back into the over-sat ... More >>

The Ten Best Concerts in New York This Weekend, 12/14/12

Here are the best concerts to check out around the city this weekend, in no particular order.

Vice City

Rick Ross and his Maybach Music crew take Manhattan

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 >>

Live: Busta Rhymes Pauses Conversation With Bun B To Perform At Angie Martinez's BBQ

Angie Martinez's Backyard BBQ The Garden At Studio Square Saturday, August 18 Better than: Getting lost coming home from Queens. CBS sitcoms, Tom Wolfe and Republicans alike have all painted New York City as a noisy, grimy nightmare, a melting pot of sex and kvetching, guns and soupy hot dogs, wh ... More >>

Let's Imagine What DJ Khaled's Kiss The Ring Will Sound Like

Despite every living rapper seemingly being just a phone call away, Miami radio personality/record executive/professional shouter DJ Khaled has never once put out a good album. He's been 0-for-5 (yes, DJ Khaled has released five albums), and Kiss the Ring, his sixth record, is on the horizon. Khal ... More >>

Live: Rick Ross And His Crew Pack The Backyard At Alife

Alife Backyard Sessions: Maybach Music Group's Self Made 2 with Rick Ross, Stalley, Wale, O Alife Tuesday, June 26 Better than: Listening to Funkmaster Flex jock Ross in the pre-performance interview. Rick Ross and Co. might seem too big for the narrow streets of the Lower East Side—and espe ... More >>

Live: Nicki Minaj Takes Off From Summer Jam, Nas And Lauryn Hill Climb Aboard

Hot 97 Summer Jam: Nicki Minaj, Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, J. Cole, Wale, Meek Mill, DJ Khaled, Waka Flocka, Trey Songz, Maino, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, French Montana, Mavado, Tyga, Slaughterhouse (and Nas and Lauryn Hill) MetLife Stadium Sunday, June 3 Better than: Seeing a Nicki Minaj concert. In an er ... 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 >>

Radio Hits One: Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj, And Young Money Bring Crew Love Back To Rap Radio

If you've listened to much urban radio lately, or even a little, you may have noticed that Lil Wayne and his Young Money Entertainment labelmates, particularly Drake and Nicki MInaj, are quite popular. You may have also noticed the same thing in 2011. And in 2010. And 2009. But perhaps nothing under ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, And Other Urban Radio Staples Turn To Clappers

Lately, when I turn on a hip-hop station, I feel like I'm being applauded, and I don't always feel like returning the favor. I'm not referring just to the default use of handclaps (sampled or, more likely, emulated by drum machines) as snare drums in beats, which has been a common practice and has b ... More >>

Live: Stalley's New Mixtape Gets Lost In The Clutter At The Beats By Dre Store

Stalley (Savage Journey To The American Dream listening session) Beats By Dr. Dre store Monday, March 12 Better than: Buying a pair of $400 headphones. Welcome to the Rick Ross and Stalley bobblehead show, in town for one night only. That, effectively, went down last night at Soho's Beats By Dr. D ... More >>

Five Reasons Why XXL's Freshman Class Issue Is Going To Be A Yearly Ritual For A While

As traditions go, XXL's annual "Freshman Class" issue is neither all that time-honored or worthwhile. The magazine's been putting rappers it calls freshmen on its cover since 2008, but hasn't exactly been kingmaking or future forecasting in doing so: 2008's list featured Crooked I and Joell Ortiz, h ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Drake, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, And The Era Of The Hit Bonus Track

Superstar pals and Young Money labelmates Lil Wayne and Drake released two of the biggest albums of 2011—Tha Carter IV and Take Care—and both are still spinning off hits well into 2012. But a look at the singles charts reveals something odd: the biggest current hits off both albums aren' ... More >>

Q&A: 2 Chainz On Giving Back, Being Independent, And Fitting Work Into Every Hour Of His Day

​What's in a name? The storied quote would imply that a rapper by any other name is still just as [fill in the blank], but 2 Chainz, the Playaz Circle member who was better known as Tity Boi until fairly recently, might have a different perspective. Since switching nom de plumes, the Georgia ... More >>

Wale+Meek Mill

Live: Pill Arrives In New York, Only To Wonder Where New York Is

Pill w/Jon Connor, AP, Nina B, Kasanova S.O.B.'s Thursday, November 17 Better than: Subway delays. Like, who enjoys that? Two years ago, on the strength of the bubble-cooking anthem "Trap Goin' Ham," Pill was inescapable during CMJ week, a pop-up at every show. XXL picked him as one of its top 10 ... More >>

Download Tanya Morgan's Breezy, Brazil-Inspired "Whatever That's Mine"

​After 2009's landmark Brooklynati (immortalized on YIMBY's Best Local Music of 2009 Mixtape and a slew of excellent solo releases, Tanya Morgan, New York's greatest living heirs to De La Soul is Dead, have finally returned. Their nine-track EP ARMY Edition (out November 22) comes in a "a tran ... More >>

Live: Wale Brings Lots And Lots Of Friends To The Highline Ballroom

Wale Highline Ballroom Wednesday, November 2 Better than: watching next week, when the show will air on MySpace. The line had packed itself six-deep, turning the long sidewalk from the Highline Ballroom to Ninth Avenue into a traffic jam of Wale fans. Or maybe just fans of events. Or maybe sheep. ... More >>

Live: J. Cole Outlines His Game Plan For Cole World

​J. Cole (album preview) Roc The Mic Studios Wednesday, August 17 Better than: Waiting until September 27. Despite the stringent security measures implemented at the splashy preview of Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch The Throne earlier this month, a middling blogger managed to leak snippets of ... More >>

Live: Gang Gang Dance And Lunice Work Up A Sweat At P.S. 1

​ Gang Gang Dance (DJ Set) w/ Lunice, Miracles Club, Laurel Halo P.S. 1 Saturday, July 23 Better than: Your average art-museum function. Most show reviews you've been reading over the last week have probably begun with, or at least nodded towards, the extreme heat we've been working through ... More >>

Live: Rick Ross Lives Out His Dreams At Summer Jam

​Hot 97 Summer Jam New Meadowlands Stadium Sunday, June 5 Better than: Sitting at home and moping like 50 Cent. Rick Ross closed out Summer Jam. Just so there's no revisionist history here, let's remember how incredible that statement is. Three years ago, Ross was the punching bag of hip-h ... More >>

Live: Theophilus London Performs A Wedding Onstage At New Astor Place Joint Dominion NY

"Kiss the fuckin' bride, man!" Pics by Chris.​Theophilus London/DJ Complex Dominion NY Tuesday, January 25 Better Than: A regular Tuesday night elsewhere. Not enough new venues are opening up in New York these days, so tonight's grand opening of Dominion NY near Astor Place is a happening, a ... 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 >>

Freddie Gibbs Would Like His Money Now

The Internet's hottest rapper is about to find out if that means anything

The Top Ten Rap Supergroups That Never Happened

Over the weekend, the rapper Sean Price took to Twitter to propose a collaboration album between his own Brooklyn-based Boot Camp Clik hip-hop crew and Staten Island's mighty Wu-Tang Clan. The idea has been received rapturously. But then again, theoretical hip-hop supergroups usually are. Rap's hi ... More >>

Q&A: California Rapper Fashawn on Remaking Illmatic, Nas's 1994 East Coast Classic

"All the shit Nas was experiencing as a 21-year-old in 1994, I'm experiencing that shit now as a 21-year-old in 2010." ​In 1994, a 21-year-old Queensbridge resident calling himself Nas made a svelte, ten-track album that he titled Illmatic. Over beats concocted by a dream team of New York pro ... More >>

Joell Ortiz vs. Gentrification

Of Brooklyn, yes, but also of the NYC hip-hop on which he still aims to make his name

Is Wale A Homophobe?

Wale and the world's most famous lesbian, together​D.C. rapper Wale has awkwardly extricated himself from a scheduled appearance at a Memorial Day DC Black Pride event, part of a weekend described by Washington's Metro Weekly as a "gay pride day festival" for black gay, lesbian, bi, and trans ... More >>

Why M.I.A. Thinks Lady Gaga Is Biting Her Style

Because of a Wale song called "Chillin." Listen to it (above) and realize--as Ryan Dombal pointed out more than a year ago--that M.I.A. has a pretty solid case here. The context? An interview the singer just gave to NME--which, given the fact that it's been typed out of a magazine and onto ONTD, ... More >>

TRADING LACES

Stock up on sneakers and hip-hop

THROWBACKS AND BACKPACKS

Rap gets its own Lollapalooza

RISING UP

Wale’s about to hit the big time