Subject: Lil' Wayne

• Holy crap, we're on Perez Hilton!

  No, really. It all started with Ben Westhoff's hysterical SATIRE piece on Zac Efron and Lil Wayne. Yes, satire. Y'all think this sort of collaboration would happen in real life?! With lyrics like these: Efron sings the chorus—“Everybody all for one, a real summer has just begun! Let’s rock and roll and just let go, feel the rhythm of the drums. We’re gonna have fun in the sun!”—while Wayne raps: “I’m a dog, you’re all a bunch of fleas on my dick. Driving a Jag, er, like my

  December 18, 2007

• “The Efron Scandal” Gets Internet's Panties in a Bunch

  Wayne and Zac: brothers from other mothers, fo' sheezy. Have you read Ben Westhoff's “The Efron Scandal” feature yet in this week's OC Weekly? Dozens of thousands of 'net surfers have (enough—30,000 and counting—to crash our site, temporarily). Among those readers are those who work for very popular hip-hop magazine XXL, snarky pop-culture rag Radar, snarkier music blog Idolator, high-traffic rap blog nahright.com (can't find the link now, sorry), A Socialite's Life gossip spot, gossip

  December 18, 2007

• More "Efron Scandal” Fallout

  "Yo, Wayne, I need a dope rhyme for 'fellatio.' Help a brotha out." The satirical story about prolific Southern rapper Lil Wayne collaborating with High School Musical star Zac Efron has inspired one sensitive soul to pen this heartfelt piece of fanfiction on his blog. All that's left now is for Weezie and Zac to do the very damn thing writer Ben Westhoff conjured in his fevered imagination. Can you say “multi-platinum sales”? Now here's that scintillating exchange: Zac: Oh my God, d

  December 20, 2007

• Lil Wayne in Big Trouble

  Police near Yuma, Arizona have arrested Southern rap star Lil Wayne for possession of “dangerous” drugs, narcotics and drug paraphernalia, TMZ is reporting. This incident follows a 2007 arrest in Idaho, also for drug possession. If Wayne (real name Dwayne Carter Jr.) had kept in the responsible company of Zac Efron, this mess probably would've never happened. In other news, somebody has absconded with Lil Wayne's chin.

  January 23, 2008

• InDELible: An Interview with Del the Funky Homosapien

  Del, in his more bizarre days. [We didn’t have space in the paper to run this feature by Ben Westhoff, but we think it’s worth posting on Heard Mentality in advance of West Coast underground-rap luminary Del’s appearance Wed. Feb. 20 at the Vault 350.] Richmond, California emcee Del The Funky Homosapien was a weird rapper long before Lil Wayne, Andre 3000 and Kool Keith made it, well, kool. He’s not quite so bizarre these days, and that’s a shame. The release of his fifth solo albu

  February 19, 2008

• Worst Press Release Ever?

  OC Weekly freelancer Ben Westhoff has a blog post detailing what could possibly be the worst press release ever—and it's for Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III, only one of the most anticipated albums of 2008. Check out Ben's dissection of the press release's awfulness and then look for his review of Tha Carter III in the Weekly on stands/online June 19. Here's the video for "Lollipop," of which you're probably already sick, but it has a weirdly alien aura and is pretty downcast for a major-label si

  June 13, 2008

• The Year in Music: 2008's Top Ten Pop Songs

  BY ANNIE ZALESKIPop music often gets a bad rap for being disposable or vapid, and in many cases that's true. (Katy Perry, Danity Kane and the Pussycat Dolls, step right up!) But every year, a few irresistible bits of innovative ear candy rocket up the charts and seep into our subconscious. The following ten singles saturated the Top 40 -- or what passes for hit-oriented radio in this topsy-turvy musical climate -- while proving that accessibility doesn't necessarily preclude creativity.

  December 17, 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

• Letters

  A year to remember

  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

• Absorbing 'Death Magnetic,' Metallica's Latest Badass Opus, Entirely in Video-Game Form

  September 25, 2008

• [CD Review] T.I., 'Paper Trail' (Atlantic)

  October 9, 2008

• [Summer Guide] Notable Music Releases for Those Who Still Buy Albums

  June 4, 2009

• Rhythm and Blue Balls: A Case Against Current R&B, A.K.A. 'Rap and Bullshit'

  January 1, 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

• Ice Cube's Powerhouse Show at Honda Center Will Show If He's Still Got Game

  June 19, 2008

• [CD Review] Lil Wayne, 'Tha Carter III' (Young Money/Cash Money/Universal)

  June 19, 2008

• Why Southern Hip-Hop Is the Same as FOX News

  May 1, 2008

• Murs' Paid Dues Fest, With Sage Fancis and Dilated Peoples, Gives Indie Hip-Hop a Major Platform

  March 20, 2008

• [CD Review] Rick Ross, Trilla (Def Jam/Slip-n-Slide/Poe Boy Entertainment)

  March 20, 2008

• Saved by Lord Byron and Lil Wayne

  Sole and the Skyrider Band find poetry in the darkness

  January 10, 2008

• Letters

  'Save the music, y'all'

  January 3, 2008

• Has It Been a Year Already?

  2007: A year to remember

  December 27, 2007

• Letters

  'All credibility has just gone down the drain'

  December 20, 2007

• Career Killah

  Is Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface as Dumb as He Sometimes Acts?

  November 15, 2007

• CD Review

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

  September 13, 2007

• Fo' Sizzle!

  Summer concerts/festivals to heat the beat

  June 7, 2007

• [Sound Guy] Long Beach's Greater California Warms Things Up

  April 16, 2009

• Live Previews

  August 19, 2004

• Live(ish) from Coachella: Sunday Morning Coming Down

  I'm in the Motel 6, a.k.a. the COMMAND CENTER, but my WiFi expired (24 hours) so I'm iPhoning it in. Pay another $2.99? Heck no! Let's talk about Saturday for a bit, no?- TV on the Radio were real good. I saw them a few years ago and was kind of "eh" on it, though I always dug their recorded material. This was lightyears from that. Makes me wish I had seen them at the Glass House on Tuesday.- Fleet Foxes, on the side stage (the "outdoor theatre," if you will) got totally DROWNED THE FUCK OUT by

  April 19, 2009

• Lil Wayne

  August 13, 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

• TONIGHT: Jamie Foxx at the Grove of Anaheim

  Jamie Foxx, leave something for the rest of us. He can act, he can tell jokes, he can sing the hooks of smash-hit Kanye West tunes, and now he's got his own solo career going, too. His third studio album, Intuition (not to be confused with the Jewel song of the same name, not that anyone would), came out late last December, and hit #3 on the Billboard 200 despite some middling reviews.Sure, it would be easy to make Eddie Murphy/"Party All the Time" jokes if he wasn't working with legit hip-hop s

  July 2, 2009

• Slideshows: Lil Wayne and Soulja Boy at the Honda Center, OC Pride: Picnic in the Park

  Chris VictorioLil Wayne's all "whoa, dudes."​We saw some stuff over the weekend. While some may argue whether or not it was better than midget wrestling at the Galaxy, it was still pretty swell. Well, maybe it's not right to say "we" saw stuff over the weekend--these were both Chris Victorio specials. First there was the show Friday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, with Lil Wayne (pictured) and our new friend Soulja Boy doing their things. Those pics are here. On a rather different note,

  August 17, 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