Subject: 50 Cent

• U Shoulda Seen Him On Billboard!

  Abstract Workshop's flagship rapper Jud Nester debuts magic track "U Shoulda Seen Her On Myspace" at #4 (!) on this week's Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Singles Sales chart way above other new singles by Young Jeezy (#17) and Eminem/50 Cent/Lloyd Banks/Cashis (#26) and Fat Joe (#36)! Plus Jud comes in at #15 on Hot 100 Singles between the Arctic Monkeys and Diddy and at #84 on Hot R&B Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. Lots of congratulations to Jud and Abstract for pulling this off. When I tal

  November 16, 2006

• Will Rappers Cost Obama the Election?

  Please, Plies, come out in support of Sarah Palin Young Jeezy's brief flirtation with John McCain on the set of Saturday Night Live aside, it's clear rappers favor Barack Obama by a wide margin in this election. (Check out this survey, for starters.) Though emcee after emcee has supported Obama with endorsement tracks, the big-ups at this point are likely doing more harm than good. Witness the negative media reaction to Ludacris's Hillary/McCain/Bush-bashing "Politics as Usual" cut, which cause

  September 29, 2008

• LowBallVideoChatter: Mediocre Chinese Hip-Hop

  I'm not sure what I think about this Chinese hip-hop video from an act called T.H.P., other than the fact that it's depressing how they take the worst elements of the worst contemporary American hip-hop videos and duplicate them, as if all those Jay-Z and 50 Cent clips were pieces of highly conceptual art. What I REALLY wanna know is: what would Chairman Mao think?  

  December 10, 2008

• Celebrity Fave-Raves Edition

  The year in music

  December 27, 2007

• Busted Rhymes: The Top 10 Most Preposterous Rap Songs of 2008

  By Ben Westhoff Hip-hop A-listers including Rick Ross, Akon and Plies were caught grossly exaggerating their gangster credentials this year. (Turns out they were painfully law-abiding. The horror!) But even if your favorite rapper wasn't caught in a lie, you can bet he or she put out a hilariously absurd record or two in 2008. Here are the most preposterous rap songs of 2008. RICK ROSS, FEATURING T-PAIN "The Boss" (Def Jam) Though Rick Ross claimed on his debut album, Port of Miami, to know

  December 29, 2008

• 50 Cent, Fall Out Boy, to Headline Bamboozle Left

  We talked about the Bamboozle Left lineup a couple of weeks ago, but something seemed to be missing--namely, headliners. It's a situation that's been remedied through an announcement via Live Nation today: We've got Fall Out Boy (pictured) on Saturday, April 4, and 50 Cent on Sunday, April 5. FOB makes perfect sense, natch, and fits in right with the rest of the lineup (The Used, The Get Up Kids, The Bled, etc.). Plus, they're headlining the east coast version, too (along with No Doubt--hey, why

  February 3, 2009

• Taking Back Sunday, Deftones, Added to Bamboozle Left

  We told you earlier in the week about headliners 50 Cent and Fall Out Boy being added to the Bambooze Left lineup, and now, guess what: there's even more bands!You can "Tell All Your Friends" (ahaha, get it?) that Taking Back Sunday will be playing on Sunday, April 5. So will the Deftones. You remembers then, right? I know some kids who I went to junior high with that would be pretty psyched right now!Tickets are on sale this Saturday, Feb. 7, at noon.

  February 5, 2009

• Unknown bands battle to break out at Bamboozle Left

  This weekend, while your band is hot boxing in the drummers van, it might be worth while to put down the bong and see what more enterprising young rockers are doing. Chain Reaction in Anaheim is giving local acts a chance to take the main stage at the 2009 Bamboozle Left Festival. This Sunday, seven bands are gearing up to compete in the Bamboozle "Break Contest", which, as you can probably guess, basically amounts to an average high school battle of the bands....times a thousand. Over the next

  February 28, 2009

• The Vandals, Asher Roth, More Added to Bamboozle Left

  With less than a month to go before Bamboozle Left, a whole mess of new acts have been announced for the two day festival, set for April 4 and 5 at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine. Pleasantly, a couple of the acts are even from Orange County--like punk legends the Vandals (on April 5) and Irvine's The Jakes (April 4). Splendid!Also added: white boy rapper Asher Roth (pictured, whose Asleep in the Bread Aisle album is scheduled to be released next month and will feature collaborations

  March 9, 2009

• 50 Cent's performance at Bamboozle Left: Some thoughts

  Like most people who saw the bill for Bamboozle Left when the new additions were announced last month, there was one name among the list of nonsensical sentence fragments (sorry, band names) that stuck out no matter who you came to see....50 Cent?WTF?! Yeah, you all thought it, don't lie. I did too.But last night, as I positioned myself a healthy distance away from the stage to see the crowd react as the DJ blasted the night air with gunshot sound effects, I have to say part of me was confused b

  April 6, 2009

• [Trendzilla] The Twin Towers of Fashion

  March 12, 2009

• Play On, Playah

  February 12, 2009

• Who Wins In the Worst Lyrics of 2008 Tournament? You Do

  December 18, 2008

• Rapper The Game Doesn't Care About Success. He Just Wants Everyone to Care About Him

  August 21, 2008

• Billion Dollar Babies

  Rappers' billfold braggadocio is getting ridiculous

  January 31, 2008

• Hits!

  Secondspin

  October 25, 2007

• CD Review

  Kanye West, Graduation (Island Def Jam/Roc-A-Fella)

  September 13, 2007

• Built to Spill

  Middle-class malaise meets inner-city despair in The Architect

  November 30, 2006

• That's Not Fair

  As the memoir boom winds down, authors are training their sights on sis and bro

  June 7, 2007

• You, Me, 50 Cent, and Everyone We Know

  January 26, 2006

• Trendzilla

  Trendy disposable stuff

  January 25, 2007

• O Say Can You . . . What?

  Home of the Brave is not what Francis Scott Key had in mind

  January 4, 2007

• Fa La La La LaAaaand Cut!

  Deck the halls with boughs of Hollywood

  December 7, 2006

• Sorry, Raters

  September 7, 2006

• Get Out!

  January 5, 2006

• Stacks the Vinyl Authority

  October 6, 2005

• Chirp Where You At

  October 6, 2005

• Music Revolution

  July 21, 2005

• KILL YOUR FANS

  July 21, 2005

• LOWBALLASSCHATTER

  June 30, 2005

• Virgin Megastore Costa Mesa

  April 7, 2005

• Our Crowd Will Pound Your Bar

  March 10, 2005

• Live Previews

  March 3, 2005

• Stacks the Vinyl Authority

  February 17, 2005

• Best Music Writing 2004

  December 30, 2004

• Its All Destiny, Guey

  April 1, 2004

• Hard Cell

  February 26, 2004

• Doggy Fizzle

  October 23, 2003

• KaZaA Kiddie Porn?

  September 25, 2003

• Randy Newman Hates You

  August 28, 2003

• Goth Not

  February 20, 2003

• [CD Review] Rick Ross, 'Deeper Than Rap' (Maybach Music Group/Poe Boy/Def Jam)

  April 30, 2009

• Top Five Little Known Facts About Soulja Boy

  ​I interviewed Soulja Boy (who I'll just go ahead and call by his real name DeAndre Way) recently, and it was pretty wild. The Atlanta-based, teen millionaire rapper wore his colossal, eponymous pendant--which he says contains a hundred Gs of diamonds--and bragged about how all the big names in hip hop have been kissing his ass lately. No idea how much his chain is worth, but the latter claim actually holds up. Though in the wake of his gimmicky 2007 YouTube smash "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" no

  August 14, 2009

• Five Regrettable Music/Video Game Moments

  ​Motörhead are currently on tour (including a stop at the House of Blues in Anaheim), they also play a role in upcoming action/adventure game Brütal Legend, out next week on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 (we got a chance to play it at Comic-Con this year, it's a fun, straight-forward beat 'em up with some cool visuals). That game, with Jack Black voicing the main character and additional vocal appearances from Rob Halford, Ozzy Osbourne, Lita Ford and Motörhead singer Lemmy will probably be a

  October 7, 2009