Subject: Jay-Z

• Spin City DJ Competition

  Last night at Spin City (held at Sutra, that place is sooo beautiful), another 2 hopeful DJs made it a little bit closer to the Winter Music Fest in Miami. And I got just a little bit closer to destroying my liver. The competition, which consisted of 20 minute sets, started off with Peter J spinning an enjoyable set sprinkled with Interpol and Jay Z. It was more enjoyable to watch the Tila Tequila wannabe on stage gyrating tragically off beat. Second was DJ Dizzy whose fans showed support by

  November 19, 2007

• Steve Aoki at Detroit Bar Dec. 28

  Steve Aoki celebrates another smooth transition. A lot of people talk shit about Steve Aoki (a.k.a. Kid Millionaire), especially in OC. He's just a trustafarian, some say (pops founded the Benihana restaurant chain). His DJ skills are wack and his selections mediocre, others claim. He's a marketing whore and the epitome of hipster-dance-scene douchebaggery, yet more others accuse. But Aoki is making things happen, playing out several times a week worldwide, running an indie label (Dim Mak) wi

  December 27, 2007

• Jay-Z/Mary J. Blige Ask Fans to Build Set List for Tour

  Really rich rapper Jay-Z and R&B diva Mary J. Blige are slated to play the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine April 18 as part of their Heart of the City Tour. If you purchase tickets via the exclusive fan pre-sale that begins Feb. 25, you can make song suggestions to the duo and thereby have a say in what you'll see onstage. It's sort of like democracy, but with more self-aggrandizing lyrics. The pre-sale is open to the public; but the catch is you have to join the free Jay-Z Fan Commun

  February 20, 2008

• Rappers or Republicans?

  In May, we posited that southern hip hop and Fox News share much in common. Possessing both an anti-intellectual streak and a populist one, they’re beloved by red-staters and hated on by the coastal elites, be they liberals, hipsters, Ghostface or Nas. The piece concluded: If you're still not convinced that Southern rap and Fox News are one and the same, consider the countless Southern rap odes to big cars and the wasteful misuse of fossil fuel, an indulgence the global-warming deniers on Fox

  August 5, 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

• Hitsville: The Year in Music, by the Numbers

  You don't need a half-wit music critic to tell you it's been a remarkable year for America, one historians will be discussing and researching for centuries to come. War, financial collapse, politics, technology: All have been dinner-table topics for many Americans. Racial barriers in 2008 were demolished by a Midwestern black man, and gender barriers were hurdled by an Arkansan and an Alaskan.Democracy has a few awesome new dance moves rolling into the Obama presidency, and it'll be a feast f

  December 18, 2008

• TONIGHT: Tyler Weinrich at Chain Reaction

  Publicity photos are more powerful than you might think--I had never heard of Sacramento's Tyler Weinrich before today. and I probably would have never bothered to check out his music, at least at this point in time, if not for that amazing picture. More to the point, I'm intrigued by all the tantalizing questions that photo conjures up. Is it sincere? It can't be, right? It has to be ironic. (Right?)So, naturally, I launched an investigation to find out the truth, and was even more confused by

  June 3, 2009

• Lady Sovereign Drops 'So Human'

  Drops? You like that? I'm hip with the kids.Anyway, 5'1'' female British emcee released her new single, "So Human," today. The track is available for download here.Or you hear it for free here.The tune samples the Cure's "Close to Me," and while I'm on the fence about hip-hop butchering some of my favorite songs, I'm way into the S-O-V and the Cure, so it's a match made in heaven.I got a copy of Lady Sovereign's debut, Public Warning, and let it sit on my desk for about six months because the hy

  February 3, 2009

• Listen to the Band: Dusty Angel and the Have Nots

   Don't be alarmed folks. Despite his crazed outward demeanor on stage, or in the photo to your left, Dusty Angel is really just a nice, approachable guy. In fact, if you are a musician and happen to peddle your sonic wares in the belly of Downtown Long Beach, then chances are you actually have approached him, or been approached by him. Aside from fronting the fireball of eclectic energy known as the Have Nots, Angel is also a show promoter for the Blue Cafe. But aside from that, his rhyme s

  February 5, 2009

• [CD Review] Shortwave Set, 'Replica Sun Machine' (Wall of Sound)

  March 26, 2009

• Album Review: The Shortwave Set, 'Replica Sun Machine'

  I review the sophomore release from The Shortwave Set in the Weekly this week, but seeing as how the album's been out for like, forever, overseas, and it's out today in the states, why wait to read it? Read it here, now! The future is now! But actually the past! Think about it. The Shortwave SetReplica Sun Machine(Wall of Sound)Danger Mouse first caught international acclaim in 2004 with The Grey Album, a then-controversial, now-legendary, blatantly illegal blend of Jay-Z's The Black Album and T

  March 24, 2009

• Quik's Groove: DJ Quik Live with Orchestra

  March 12, 2009

• [Trendzilla] The Twin Towers of Fashion

  March 12, 2009

• Play On, Playah

  February 12, 2009

• Heart of 
Orange County

  April 17, 2008

• Billion Dollar Babies

  Rappers' billfold braggadocio is getting ridiculous

  January 31, 2008

• Hits!

  The Noize Music

  December 20, 2007

• Hits!

  Rhino Records
  

  November 22, 2007

• Letters

  “Why can’t polygamists be more like Mike Carona? He only has one wife (and a mistress and a couple of girlfriends)”
  
  

  November 22, 2007

• Hova-rated

  Jay-Z’s American Gangster Proves He Ain’t All That—and Never Was

  November 8, 2007

• CD Review

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

  September 13, 2007

• Up From the Underground

  November 27, 2003

• Snap to It

  WEB EXCLUSIVE!: Comeback kids, rhymin Limeys and songs about partying defined Hip-Hop Nation in 2006

  December 28, 2006

• Indie Vs. Major: Who's Got the Flavor

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

  December 28, 2006

• Thug-Adonis Veneer

  May 18, 2006

• Get Out!

  May 11, 2006

• Oh, Dread

  June 30, 2005

• This Week In Nightlife

  June 9, 2005

• Eight Days

  February 17, 2005

• Hell in a Shoebox

  February 17, 2005

• Live Previews

  February 17, 2005

• Virgin Megastore

  January 13, 2005

• Eight Days

  November 18, 2004

• College Admissions

  Take the Kanye West aptitude test

  June 24, 2004

• Squiggly Wiggly

  May 20, 2004

• Bling Blasters

  August 14, 2003

• Trio Dreams

  March 27, 2003

• Crazy Horse gone loco

  February 27, 2003

• Kike on the Mic!

  November 21, 2002

• Big Pimpin!

  September 19, 2002

• To Do Tonight - 6/11

  Thursday Night Cheese & Wine Tasting, 5:30 p.m.Get an informal education on wine and cheese while enjoying a flight of the evenings' tasty offerings. Three tasting flights of two wines and three cheeses are offered each week for $15 per flight, and are described to you at tableside by friendly and knowledgeable staff. Reservations are recommended.Laguna Culinary Arts, 845 Laguna Canyon Rd., Laguna Beach, CA; 949-494-4006Salsa Suave, 11 a.m.Salsa dance class especially for those over 65. Gra

  June 11, 2009

• Incoming: Jay-Z at Honda Center in Anaheim

  Take that, non-smoking laws!Jay-Z has recently declared Auto-Tune dead via his (kind of awesome) new single "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune);" possibly a weird sentiment given his close association to noted Auto-Tune proponent Kanye West, but hey, it's Hova, man. You can't tell that guy what to do. He doesn't know how to sleep, he's gotta eat, stay on his toes. He's got a lot of beef, so logically, he preys on his foes.

  July 6, 2009

• Electro-hop Duo LMFAO Prepare for an Arena Show in Anaheim, Bitch

  August 6, 2009

• What You Missed: Black Eyed Peas, Powerhouse, That OTHER Dog Beach

  Keith MayNot a crook.​What'd you do this weekend? Was it as short as ours? Thought so. Photographer Keith May continued his exploration of Orange County this weekend. This time he brings us that "OTHER" dog beach--it has no name, no leash rules, no cops and is relatively unknown. This dog beach sits at the mouth of the Santa Ana River at the border between Newport and Huntington Beaches. Dogs surf and frolic as their owners watch. There's even some casual dog surfing instructions most Sundays.

  August 10, 2009

• Six Albums That Came Out on 9/11

  September 11, 2001 was a lot of things, but it was also a Tuesday, meaning that it was the day new CDs were out in stores (the iTunes Store was still a year and a half away from existence--how did we survive back then?). And not just any records, but quite a few fairly significant ones. Here are six.​Bob Dylan, "Love and Theft"Dylan's 31st studio album, but the second of three late-career masterpieces released in the late '90s and early '00s (sandwiched between 1997's Time Out of Mind and 2006

  September 11, 2009

• [CD Review] Jay-Z, 'The Blueprint 3' (Roc Nation)

  September 17, 2009

• Black Keys Hip Hop Project: Good Thing or Great Thing?

  James Carney​We may be a day or so behind on this one, but in a quest to find some ever-elusive liner note credits for Black Key's Thickfreakness album, we stumbled onto something a hundred times better. Up until now, things were staying pretty quiet on the whole "rap-rock" front, at least for the summer. Turns out BlakRoc, a musical collaboration between the Keys and some of hip hop's living legends has been brewing since June. The record comes out Nov. 27. Needless to say, we dropped the lin

  September 17, 2009

• Last Night: Powerhouse at Honda Center

  ​Last Night: Powerhouse 2009 at the Honda Center featuring Jay-Z, Black Eyed Peas, Pitbull, Lil' John, Flo Rida, Sean Paul, LMFAO, Kid Cudi, Far East Movement, New Boyz and Ya Boy.Better Than: A long, shitty drive to San Manuel Casino.Download: Pssh, like you really need ME to tell you what to download. Striding through a police-patrolled crosswalk in a sea of skinny jeans, fluorescent tees and accessorized millennial swagger, hallmarks of hip hop's new generation were unavoidable at Powerhous

  August 9, 2009

• Release the Sounds: 50 Cent, 'Before I Self-Destruct'

  ​The cover of this album kinda says it all. 50 Cent's empire is crumbling. Some would say it's been a long process beginning around about 2007. You can almost time it with the public's growing disinterest in the record industry's profits.  Since the less-than-stellar release of his last album Curtis, most of 50's mystic and gangster appeal is relegated back to the glory days of his first couple albums. At least with his latest effort, Before I Self Destruct (out today, Nov. 17, on In

  November 17, 2009

• Showgazing: KeysNKrates at Commonwealth Lounge

  ​There's two ways you can describe a vibrant, ground-breaking band. You can try piecing together the components of their sound, or you just talk about the way they make you feel. The first option is complicated and often involves a pile of stumbling adjectives, niche comparisons and a lot of suffixes like "-y" and "-esque." The second option, the one that comes from your gut and leads to phrases like "totally fucking awesome," works best for KeysNKrates.  This Canadian three-piece tr

  November 20, 2009