Wiz Khalifa

Juicy J - Irving Plaza - 5/15/13

Better Than: DJ Paul's barbecue sauce (just kidding). These days, it seems that Juicy J's renaissance is having a renaissance. With his group Three 6 Mafia stagnating, the man born Jordan Michael Houston took a single rap line--"You say no to drugs, Juicy J can't"--and turned it into a mantra, a ve ... More >>

Live: At Westway, Three 6 Mafia Turn a Former Strip Club Into a Fight Club

Three 6 Mafia Westway Thursday, September 6 Better than: Waiting in line outside of Supreme. There was a problem. Three 6 Mafia couldn't get to the stage; 50 people blocked their way, a fire hazard if there ever was one. A man got on the microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, please clear a path. Ple ... 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 >>

Seven Must-Dos For The Modern Young Weed Rapper

Wiz Khalifa is in love with weed. The Pittsburgh-raised rapper has established himself as a hip-hop superstar by making songs that are largely hooked around getting high. While it's not all that a unique pastime—the likes of Snoop Dogg and Cypress Hill ushered in the first great rush of weed r ... More >>

FLIGHT SCHOOL

Wiz Khalifa helps Jones Beach get young, wild, and free

Live: Curren$y And Styles P Bring The Jet Life To Webster Hall

Direct Flight Tour: Curren$y w/Styles P, Smoke DZA, Fiend 4 Da Money, Corner Boy P, Trademark Da Skydiver, Young Roddy Webster Hall Thursday, May 31 Better than: Staying on the ground. Last night, the New York stop on the Direct Flight Tour—with the Jets Styles P and Curren$y, as well as a ... More >>

Chris Brown Dedicates Video To MCA, Misses The Point (Yet Again)

Today the perpetually troubled R&B brat Chris Brown released the video for "Till I Die," a collaboration with Wiz Khalifa and Big Sean that waxes semi-poetic about the joys of getting fucked up and eating shrimp-laden pasta. (Is that a sex metaphor? Please say no.) The song itself sounds like a reve ... More >>

Jones Beach Theater And PNC Bank Arts Center Schedules Announced: Drake, Wiz Khalifa, Kelly Clarkson, And More

Ah, the summer, the time of year when one can enjoy a concert in the glorious out of doors. This morning Live Nation announced the full lineups for its two local amphitheaters—the PNC Bank Arts Center in bucolic Holmdel, N.J. and the Jones Beach Theater, out on the South Shore of Nassau County ... More >>

Hip-Hop's 25 Best Weed Songs

In honor of today being 4/20—every smoker's favorite day of the year—SOTC has compiled the 25 Best Rap Songs relating to weed. Though some may be more about bud than others, all are guaranteed to make your high all the more enjoyable. Be forewarned, though... this list doesn't have any h ... 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 >>

Radio Hits One: Hot 100 Peaks Only Tell Half The Story For Cee Lo, Britney Spears, And Other Year-End Winners

One of the most frustrating things about discussing the Billboard singles charts is how a song's peak position—the highest spot it occupied on a chart during its run—is almost universally regarded as the permanent measurement of its success or popularity. Any song that reaches No. 1 is e ... More >>

Underwhelmed And Overstimulated, The Finale: Jay-Z And Kanye West Fiddle While The Underground Gets Wasted

Smell that money burning. ​This concludes Sound of the City's year-end roundtable, a conversation about pop music in 2011 between Tom Ewing, Eric Harvey, Maura Johnston, Nick Murray, and Katherine St. Asaph. Read it all again. Thanks for the handoff, Nick, and thanks to Katherine, Tom and esp ... More >>

Ke$ha Works Both Sides Of The Pop Aisle

​This morning brought the release of "Sleazy 2.0 (Get Sleazier)," the all-star remix of Ke$ha's Dr. Luke/Bangladesh banger about men who are a bit too impressed with their wealth "Sleazy"; the new version contains the quietly gut-punching verse that Andre 3000 added to the original remix, as w ... More >>

Will Bon Iver Be The Arcade Fire Of 2012? And Other Pre-Grammy Nomination Show Questions

Tonight's Grammy nomination concert, airing at 10 p.m. on CBS, will not only jam-pack a bunch of performances by the likes of Lady Gaga and Jason Aldean into its 60 minutes, it'll also let us know which artists will be prostrating themselves in front of the globe and thanking their families and God ... More >>

Mobb Deep

Radio Hits One: T-Pain Escapes Lead Single Purgatory

The Revolver cover.​On Thursday Jive Records announced that T-Pain's fourth album rEVOLVEr would be out on December 6. That same day, the rappa ternt sanga's single "5 O'Clock" reached a new Hot 100 peak of No. 25 . The timing wasn't exactly coincidental. The track, on which T-Pain is supporte ... More >>

COUNTRY RAP

Yelawolf just wants to party at Irving Plaza

The American Music Awards Nominations: Hey, Did You Know Adele Sold A Lot Of Albums This Year?

Have you bought your copy yet? (Give it time.) ​You can have your Grammys and your Mercury Prizes and your Polaris Prizes and whatever other musical prizes honor things like "talent" and "artistry"—the most honest awards show in pop music, though, is undoubtedly the American Music Awards ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Raising The Bar For "YouTube Platinum"

Justin Bieber and Ludacris: Congratulations. A lot of people watched your video.​On August 28, MTV will throw the 2011 installment of its Video Music Awards, honoring achievements in the art form that used to make up the majority of its programming. While it's all too tempting to note the iron ... More >>

Ten Trends That Watch The Throne Could Kickstart

​It's way too early to have a critical judgment on Watch The Throne; didn't you read the rules? But since Kanye West and Jay-Z's colossal collaboration plopped into the raging waters of Internet opinion early Monday morning, I've been watching for ripples. Here are ten new things that Watch Th ... More >>

Live: Wiz Khalifa Smokes Out Central Park

Wiz Khalifa w/Big Sean, Chevy Woods Central Park Monday, July 25 Better than: Hanging out with your parents. In September 2008, Wiz Khalifa stood onstage in front of less than ten people on the Bowery, the whole of Crash Mansion abandoned after performances by Mickey Factz and Charles Hamilton. ... More >>

The Top Ten Failed First Singles Off The Game's The R.E.D. Album

​This list began as a joke, but the longer I contemplated it, the more depressing its basic concept became. Consider: not only could I easily string together ten of Game's fruitless attempts to force label executives to release The R.E.D. Album, his followup to 2008's LAX; I had to make decisi ... More >>

Big Sean Heads Into the Spotlight

With an assist from Kanye, the rapper is Finally Famous

Q&A: Big K.R.I.T. On Making People React To His Lyrics, Crate-Digging And Crafting Playstation Beats

​ It's been a big year or so for Big K.R.I.T. Shortly after signing with Def Jam last June, he was booed off the stage at the Highline Ballroom; later in 2010 the Mississipi-bred MC hit the road on the Smoker's Club Tour (with Curren$y and Mac Miller) and the Wake And Bake Tour (with Wiz Khali ... More >>

Nas And Kanye West Leak Tracks, Lead The Pack (Again)

"Queensbridge, y'all ready to see Nasty Nas?" Thus begins Nas' "Nasty," a return to form that justifies the answer to that question always being "Yes, duh!" With rugged, street-level bars about the finer things in life and being better than other rappers that recall his legendary post-Jay-Z battle ... More >>

Live: Curren$y Cruises Through Irving Plaza

Curren$y Irving Plaza Monday, June 6 Better than: "Dude, I'm so high right now." There are few ways to describe a Curren$y show without it sounding like a meeting of a cult, or an extremist political party. The place is packed, overflowing into the hallways of Irving Plaza. Giant flags proclaimin ... 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 >>

Hot 97 Announces The Seemingly Young Money-Sponsored Summer Jam '11 Lineup

​ Hot 97 has announced the lineup for Summer Jam '11, and it's (perhaps unsurprisingly) filled with Young Money acts: superstars Lil Wayne and Drake act as the de facto headliners, while a non-specific set by Young Money, the label, is on tap. Could that possibly mean an eventual cameo by Nic ... More >>

Live: Bamboozle Stimulates Every Sense (And Then Some)

So much to see, everywhere. ​The Bamboozle Meadowlands April 29-May 1, 2011 Better than: Watching scene reports scroll by on Twitter. In a lot of ways, the Bamboozle is a festival tailor-made for the current moment of constant distraction. The festival's running time over three days totals ... More >>

New World's Tallest Building Will Be Very Tall

via Gulf News​Saudi Arabia will soon be home to a mile-high building, dubbed "The Kingdom Tower." Gulf News reports that it will be erected (you can say that about a building in Saudi Arabia, right?) in the Obhur Gulf, just outside of the port city Jeddah. Kingdom Holding Company is funding th ... More >>

Why Wiz Khalifa Isn't Snoop Dogg

A big man on campus, with a mainstream profile, but the music is another matter

This Week in the Voice: Kicking Back With the Black Hebrew Israelites

​This week in the Voice, Steven Thrasher enters the wild world of Black Hebrew Israelites, or as they are more commonly referred, "those guys who yell at everybody on the street." They tell him they "are the Ambassadors of Christ," but others have differing views. One of their ex-girlfriends, ... More >>

Jesse Serwer on Wiz Khalifa, Rich Juzwiak on Britney Spears, Edd Hurt on Those Darlins

Darren Ankenman In this week's issue, Jesse Serwer examines why Wiz Khalifa isn't Snoop Dogg, despite his spindly six-foot-four frame and self-estimated $10,000-a-month weed habit. "But where Doggy Style and Chronic 2001 were standard dorm-room issue during my college years a decade ago, today's f ... More >>

Love vs. Money: The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, and R&B's Future Shock

As the Weeknd says, "XO till we overdose.."​Two days ago, r&b changed again. On Sunday night, a Canadian collective called the Weeknd released their nine-song mixtape, House of Balloons, on their web site. Though they were quick to deny the direct involvement of Drake's sonic architect, Noah " ... More >>

Bonnaroo 2011 Announces Lineup, Starring Eminem, Arcade Fire, Lil Wayne, The Black Keys, And Buffalo Springfield

Star-studded lineup videos: now a thing. Yes, the Tennessee mega-festival, now in its tenth (!) year, has announced its initial lineup, the usual melange of rappers, rockers, and jam-band monoliths, this year headlined by Eminem and Arcade Fire, only one of whom won the Album of the Year Grammy 48 ... More >>

Lil Wayne Is A Packers Fan, Evidently

​It was only a matter of time before someone retooled Wiz Khalifa's Pittsburgh tribute "Black and Yellow" for the Green Bay Packers. What was probably not expected was for that person to be Lil Wayne, he of New Orleans origin. Yet, here it is: "Green and Yellow," wherein Weezy pledges allegian ... More >>

Odd Future, Wiz Khalifa, and the Internet-Rap Atomization

Lil B et al. build tiny kingdoms, and rule them

On Drake, Nicki Minaj, B.o.B., and the Art of the Debut-As-Pop-Crossover

Attack of the singing rappers

Top 25 Headlines Not As Weird As "Dave Sitek Joins Jane's Addiction"

Good luck learning all the chord changes in "Jane Says," dude​So TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek has joined Jane's Addiction, in some unspecified bassist/songwriter/possibly-non-touring-member capacity, which is super bizarre when you first hear about it, but is, upon reflection, not the stranges ... 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 >>

Was 2010 The Best Year For Music Ever? Throw Taylor Swift In A Well

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! Pay Rich Juzwiak what you owe him, Jay Leno. Twitpic by Dav ... More >>

Q&A: Yelawolf Talks Dubstep, Harmony Korine, and Trunk Muzik 0-60

Hannibal Matthews​Yelawolf began the year with the mixtape Trunk Muzik and he's wrapping up his 2010 with a major label EP, Trunk Muzik 0-60, out today. Between the internet release of his mixtape and the EP's arrival in stores, Yelawolf signed to Interscope records, toured with Wiz Khalifa, s ... More >>

Q&A: Curren$y and Producer Ski Beatz (and Damon Dash) Talk Pilot Talk, BluRoc, and Eating at Bubby's in Tribeca

Jonah Schwartz​Sir Lucious Leftfoot and Teflon Don have (justifiably) monopolized the conversation in recent weeks, but there's at least one other new hip-hop album worth clearing earspace for: Pilot Talk, a soothingly mellow alternative from the Damon Dash-backed Tribeca transplant Curren$ ... More >>

Of Montreal and Ghostface Killah Played Columbia's $100k Spring Bacchanal

All photos by Rebecca Smeyne If there's any metaphor for the price tag on elite higher education, just look to its student-run concerts. For Columbia's 250th anniversary a few years back, this alum remembers a blowout that included a no-show by Erykah Badu and one recently-hospitalized Wyclef Jean ... More >>

Ranking XXL's Freshman Class at the Highline Ballroom Last Night

​In what has become an annual tradition, the minds over at XXL magazine recently unveiled the elite class of fresh-faced rappers they dub the Freshman 10. Mostly products of Internet buzz and/or critically acclaimed mixtapes, the Freshman class issue has risen from a gimmicky excuse to put non ... More >>

Tonight! Thurston, Jimmy, Julian, or Wiz.

​Somewhat of a slow night, unless you're in for the Pixies at Hammerstein (featuring Jay Reatard!) or Sonic Youth at the Music Hall of Williamsburg (featuring, uh, Talk Normal!). Jimmy Buffett's at Madison Square Garden if you're into booze-soaked, beachy frivolity; Julian Plenti, a/k/a the Du ... More >>

Girl Talk

Girl Talk's Pop-Music Car-Wreck

Seen Acting in Concert

The Hip-Hop Cops materialize in the West Village