A Tribe Called Quest

The Top Five Post-Break-Up Rap Debuts

With the release this week of rapper Big Boi's sophomore album Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors, we're reminded of how truly great his 2010 solo debut Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty truly was. It's rare that a rapper hits a home-run when making their first effort as a solo artist fol ... More >>

10 Jazz Albums to Listen to Before You Die

Because there are multiple decades of jazz, it's almost impossible to pick the top 10 albums of all time; the hip cats with their canes and cool shades will throw their used saxophone reeds in my direction and call me a young whippersnapper.  The debate is so polemic that I might as well write ... More >>

House of Campaign - Five Rap Songs Looking For Your Vote

See Also: *Going for the Gold: Five 2012 Rap Songs To Inspire Our Olympic Team *Get It Together: 6 West Coast Posse Cuts For Your 4th of July Cookout *Did MTV Really Snub Waka Flocka Flame's Rapping Rooster? With the new Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis movie The Campaign opening tomorrow (oh ... More >>

Mike Doughty at the Coach House, April 12, 2012

Mike Doughty The Coach House April 12, 2012For a guy that's been to hell and back, Mike Doughty has a funny way of showing the gravity of what he's been through. The man who used to front the New York-based Soul Coughing brought his Book Of Drugs tour to The Coach House last night, as he promised in ... More >>

3hree Things: A Box Full Of Cassettes And Shame

Watch out for 3hree Things every Tuesday, where Riley Breckenridge, drummer of Orange County's favorite local alt-rock band Thrice, gives his take on life in Southern California as an OC native.​I'm not gonna lie. I didn't spend my formative years as a music listener (late-80's/earl ... More >>

Album-Inspired Nail Art Is The New Band Tee

​You've got all the band merch--the tees, the shoelaces, even the beer cozy. But we say you haven't shown true dedication until you've, well, nailed it. MTV Style has put together a rad roundup of nail art inspired by famous album covers. The painstaking details are impressive. One artist shrinks ... More >>

Happy Birthday J Dilla! Commemorate With A Must-Hear Soundtrack

​Had he not passed away on Feb. 10, 2006, beloved hip-hop producer J Dilla would have turned 38 years young today. Not the household name of say a Dr. Dre, Timbaland or Jermaine Dupri, the man born James Dewitt Yancey was -- and remains -- an underground hip-hop icon thanks to his work with De La ... More >>

Penguin Prison on Cashing Checks With Lana Del Rey, Being in a Boy Band and Occupy Wall Street

​Whether singing in his local gospel choir, recording jingles or rocking at downtown clubs in his native New York City, music has played a major part of Chris Glover's life. In 2009, Glover adopted the moniker Penguin Prison, which he says came from "a joke rap song and there was a line about goin ... More >>

Legendary Vibraphone Player Roy Ayers On Being One Of The Most Sampled Artist in Hip-Hop

Roy Ayers​A music veteran whose legacy stretches from jazz to hip-hop, Roy Ayers is a legendary vibraphonist who, after a career in jazz, shifted to funk, R&B and even a bit of disco. His résumé includes collaborations with Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, the soundtrack to the Jack Hill ... More >>

A Handy Guide to Cuban Hip-Hop: Krudas Cubensi, Obsesión, Anónimo Consejo, El Aldeano, Hermanos de Causa

​ When the femcee duo Krudas Cubensi was in Santa Ana a few months ago for a show, I personally reiterated to them my long-held opinion that Cuban hip-hop was the best in the world. Later on, they delivered a scintillating performance that only served to solidify that belief. Fortunately, if ... More >>

R.I.P., Legendary Soul Musician Eugene McDaniels

​Songwriter, artist and producer Gene McDaniels passed away today, his friend Ann Ruckert announced on her blog.  McDaniels was famous for his 1961 hit "A Hundred Pounds of Clay," which reached No. 3 in the charts in 1961.  He also recorded "Tower of Strength," "Chip Chip" and "Point o ... More >>

Songs About Girls From A(lison) to Z(ebulon), Part 1

​Music geeks, rejoice! Here's the ultimate list for you--a song with a girl's name in the title for each letter of the alphabet. We dug up everything from custy Beach Boys songs to deep cuts by the Smashing Pumpkins (who, by the way, have an inordinate amount of songs titled with girls' names, odd ... More >>

Members of the Tribe

Michael Rapaport observes the vibe and checks out the scenario

'Cars 2' and Others Are Summer's Season Openers

[SUMMER GUIDE] Superheroes, sequels and TWO Conans!

Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest

Groups like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin have demonstrated the volatility of creative partnerships with their dramatic break-ups. They each defined a decade of American music before disbanding and are now remembered as part of a developing rock canon. Hip-hop has had a shorter history than rock, but ... More >>

Seven Rap Songs about Eating Well

Buff Love aka The Human Beat Box​Last week, the USDA introduced a new symbol for healthy eating to replace the decades-old food pyramid long considered ineffectual. The new graphic, called "MyPlate," replaces the pyramid with a plate-shaped pie chart demonstrating the importance of making fruits a ... More >>

20 Years Later: A Video Retrospective of 1991

​It may be hard to believe, but it has now been 20 years since 1991. "The Year That Punk Broke" may not have completely lived up to the eponymous documentary title, but it remains a watershed year in musical history, and not solely for the grunge-/alternative-rock breakthrough that defined the tim ... More >>

What You Missed: Red Bull Flugtag, Posse on Broadway, Bad Brains, Rock the Bells

Christopher Victorio/OC Weekly​What'd you do this weekend? Or, more importantly, what'd you miss this weekend? We headed out to Long Beach's Rainbow Harbor to see people hurl themselves into the ocean in an attempt to fly for Red Bull Flugtag. Later that night, we hopped over to Downtown Santa Ana ... More >>

Rock the Bells Festival at NOS Over the Weekend

Doug Neill/OC WeeklySnoop Dogg​Check out our Rock the Bells slideshow here!Rock the Bells Festival August 21, 2010 NOS Event Center Scorching heat, swarming crowds, parking gridlock, inefficient management, and borderline incompetent staffing didn't stop Southern California from "rocking th ... More >>

An Open Letter to NYC: These Five California Songs Show You How to Make a Track Your Own

We love "Empire State of Mind," too, New Yorkers. But ease up on bringing her out everywhere. Ask your buddy California for some song advice.​Tonight, the season premiere of Rescue Me airs on FX. If you watch the network, you've seen the promos that intersperse shots of star Denis Leary* fighting ... More >>

Wee Man In Mariachi Divas Video

[Mental Notes] Also, Avenged Sevenfold drummer's cause of death, Rock the Bells has Lauryn Hill

Rock The Bells: Lauryn Hill and Snoop Dogg, A Tribe Called Quest Added To Lineup

​[via MTV] Why, Urb Was Right After All: When they announced that Lauryn Hill was going to be performing The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in its entirety last month, then were proven wrong when the lineup was announced and there was no Fugees lead singer in sight.  Instead, only Wu-Tang ... More >>

[Sound Guy] Everything Sort of Old Is Kind of New Again

New Detroit Bar DJ Night a Lot Like Old Detroit Bar DJ Night

​Busywork, the old no-cover weekly Wednesday dance night at Detroit Bar, has been replaced by Pistol, the new no-cover weekly Wednesday dance night at Detroit Bar. The similarities don't end there.

Incoming: The Pharcyde Coming to the Grove of Anaheim

LA's The Pharcyde (pictured) have been inactive for most of this decade, their last studio album being 2004's Humboldt Beginnings. Yet if you haven't guessed already, they've reunited for a few recent shows--last year at the Rock the Bells Festival series in Chicago, earlier in 2009 at the Good Vibr ... More >>

Posthumous J Dilla record out in June

A 25-track disc comprised of beats made by the late J Dilla is "dropping" (that's hip-hop for "being released") June 2 on Nature Sounds. Dilla was a much-heralded producer who gained fame in the late '80s with the group Slum Village. Many credit him for helping to place Detroit on the hip-hop map, b ... More >>

[CD Review] Q-Tip, 'The Renaissance' (Universal Motown)

Listen to the Band: The Lost Art

The Lost Art Since the release of his second album "Escape From Lala Land" on July 25, Technicalli artist The Lost Art has been making hip hop heads world wide wake up and take notice of his skills behind the mic. Boasting roots from the golden age of hip hop, Art has a knack for meshing together c ... More >>

[Sprawl of Sound] A Night at the Red Bull Music Academy in Newport Beach's Tentation Ultra Lounge

Accidents Will Rappin'

How Sparrow Love Crew became the indie rocker's Jurassic 5

Cool Hand Lupe

Hip-hop's lovable eccentric never ceases to amuse

Detroit Bass Baller

Ghetto-Tech Guru DJ Starski’s Hard-Cop Life

Soul Survivors

Todays hip-hop owes a huge debt to De La Souland the tab keeps growing

Album Covers Of The Year 2006

To their credit, Pitchfork compiled a more-or-less well done 25 worst album covers of the year list, but they're remiss in not recognizing the power of a well done album cover. Rather than complain, we're taking matters into our own hands and making a list of our own. If RIAA doomsayers are to be be ... More >>

Indie Vs. Major: Who's Got the Flavor

Urban music in 2006 was typified by what it wasnt as much as what it was

Boombaps

KRS-One

Abstract Art

Abstract Workshop spent eight years bringing hip-hop to OC: Now they're bring their own music to the world

Don't Need a Cassette

Breakestras live mix tape

Rich Man, Po Boy

In 10 years, Memphis has become the center of Orange County's hipperati universe

Whos a Black Sheep?

Nightlife and more
Sept. 22 - Sept. 29

Beats Rhymes Life

A Tribe Called Quest: not another Urban Dance Squad!

Eight Days

Live Previews

Get Everywhere

The Willowzs positively possibly true tales

The Great Hip-Hop Hope

Beneath the underground with the Abstract Workshop collective

Organic Culture

Cal State Fullertons Sol of Hip-Hop

A Walrus Shrugged

AWOL One, the rapper laureate of La Habra

Glowstick Smackdown

Its Narnia vs. Oracle 3 in a big, bug-eyed rave war!