Tupac Shakur

Long Beach Rapper Joey Fatts Releases 'Choppa' with ASAP Rocky and Danny Brown

If we are to take what rappers rap about even somewhat seriously, then rising Long Beach artist Joey Fatts is, like he says, "Michael Vick with clips." That's easily one of the most violent football references we've heard an emcee spit all year, and judging by the block-battering sound of Fatts' new ... More >>

Top Five Most Shocking Grammy Moments of All Time

This weekend is the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. Viewed by many as music's biggest night, the telecast has been home to lifelong icons finally getting their due, musical phenomenons explode and some of the most shocking moments in broadcast television history. As great as the former are, it's the unpr ... More >>

Here Is the Mixtape I Made For the Guys Who Keep Breaking Into My Car

By: Shea SerranoThree, maybe four times in the last month, my car has been broken into. I suppose at least a portion of that is my fault, both macro and micro. Macro: I mean, if I'd have maybe paid more attention in school, I'd probably make more money than I do today, which means I wouldn't have ... More >>

James Rivas and His Sad Puppy Eyes Held in Brutal Attack on Rossmoor Jogger

As longtime Navel Gazers know, this blog routinely devotes a Friday post to the Ugliest Police Mugshot of the Week. Well, today, we bring you instead the Saddest Puppy Dog Eyes Police Mugshot of the Week.The "honor" goes to 18-year-old James Rivas, who was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder T ... More >>

Datsik Firepower Tour - Yost Theater - Monday October 22, 2012 [with VIDEO]

Datsik Firepower Tour October 22, 2012 Yost Theater Last night Canadian dubstep prodigy Datsik brought his Firepower Records Tour to the Yost Theater in downtown Santa Ana. Datsik, better known as Troy Beetles, has already signed famed dubstep producers like Delta Heavy, Terravita, Bare Noize, XKor ... 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 >>

Top 10 Black Artists Who Should Go Country

[Editor's note: Country Time is a new biweekly column for our sister music blog in Seattle, celebrating that city's favorite musical genre: mainstream country.]  By: Mike SeelySee Also:*Kanye West and 50 Cent's 9/11/07 Album Showdown Revisited*Five Artists (Besides Lil Wayne) Who Think New York ... More >>

After New Report Details Police Killings of Blacks, Rapper Provocatively Asks 'Do We Need to Start a Riot?'

Twenty years after social unrest gripped the city of Los Angeles, a new report on 2012 security force killings of Blacks in the United States has one rapper, Jasiri X, asking if no justice is done, "Do We Need to Start a Riot?" in a song and video released this week. The lyrics are provocative to be ... More >>

Yeezy Engineer Confirms the Making of 'Watch the Throne 2'

It looks like rap's favorite tag-team Kanye West and Jay-z are about to HAM on us again. Thanks to some flippant confirmation (which we're more than happy to lick up) from Yeezy's long-time producer Mike Dean, the Internet buzz surrounding a sequel of the duo's Watch the Throne album is making us al ... More >>

DJ Scotty Boy - Yost Theater - 5/5/12

See also: DJ Scotty Boy Takes Us on a Tour of His Favorite OC Spots On Cinco de Mayo, party people pound Mexican beer and tequila shots, and sport around town in sombreros. For those that survived the BBQs and pub crawls, a night out at the club was the best way to keep the party going. We headed t ... More >>

Kai: Street Artist Painted Kanye West and Eminem How They Act -- Like Medieval Kings

Much like rock stars and supermodels, hip hop and street art have a long history that spans decades. And never before has the relationship between street art and hip hop had more of a literal representation than with the soon-to-be-unveiled "Now Royalty" collection by Los Angeles-based street artist ... More >>

Stagecoach Festival 2012: Top Five Performances

The 2012 edition of Stagecoach brought world-class country music talent with headliners Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert and Jason Aldean. The weekend dubbed "week three of Coachella" did not disappoint. Indio saw the crowd morph from hipsters to over 50,000 screaming and dancing c ... More >>

The Best Of Coachella: Sunday, April 22, 2012

See also: Our Complete Coachella CoverageBy the third day of Coachella's second weekend -- the sixth and final day of this year's festival -- folks had more or less learned to ignore the dust and the heat. Here are our intrepid writers' favorite things about the final hours of the 2012 event.

Best of Coachella: Saturday, April 21, 2012

See also: Our complete Coachella coverage See also: *Our complete Coachella coverage*James' Tim Booth on Coachella vs. LollapaloozaSaturday at Coachella meant tributes, tributes, tributes. From Levon Helms to Biggie, everyone got a shout-out. In between all that, some nasty partying and a little r ... More >>

Coachella: Sahara Tent Sets Moved Up 20 Minutes; Nero Complains

There were a couple of interesting changes to Coachella's set times for Weekend 2. (Compare Weekend 1's schedule here.) First, set times for outdoor stage headliners Miike Snow (Saturday) and Florence and the Machine (Sunday) had no end point marked. More noticeably, however, was the change in the S ... More >>

Avicii: "In Buddhism it means the lowest level of hell"

See also:*Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac's Hologram*Top Ten Awkward Coachella Dance Move GIFs*Coachella: Five Signs You're An Aging Hipster*Radiohead at Coachella: No Alarms and No SurprisesAt 22, Swedish producer and DJ Tim Bergling, better known as Avicii, has done more in the electronic dance music ... More >>

Coachella Parties: People Raging Alone?

See also:*Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac's Hologram*Top Ten Awkward Coachella Dance Move GIFs*Coachella: Five Signs You're An Aging Hipster*Radiohead at Coachella: No Alarms and No SurprisesYou'd think all the free swag at the invite-only Coachella parties would inspire people to rage harder, but no. ... More >>

DJ Quik On Eazy-E: "I'm Living the Way I Am Because I Knew Eric Wright"

Kevin Scanlon​DJ Quik (aka David Blake) started making great music in the early '90s, and has been pumping out hits ever since. But Quik's been controversial over the years and has gone through his share of highs and lows. Now, though, he seems more confident in his skill than ever, which only ... More >>

Escape From Wonderland at the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino

​Escape From WonderlandOctober 29, 2011NOS Events Center If you came to the NOS Events Center looking for just another rave, you were in for a surprise. Insomniac's Inaugural self proclaimed "twisted sister," Escape From Wonderland, had carnival rides, haunted mazes and five massive stages featuri ... More >>

A Sober Lil Wayne: Brilliant or No?

Here are some solid arguments for and against a clean-living rapper

Five Suspects in the Rebecca Black Death Threat Case

​As reported yesterday, YouTube pestilence and "Friday" singer Rebecca Black received death threats in March, leading to an ongoing investigation by the Anaheim PD. We're not sure what's more pathetic--threatening an 8th grader, or a detective having to waste time hunting down anyone who takes Bl ... More >>

Five Lame Causes Embraced By Musicians

​ Last week, Queen guitarist Brian May interrupted a performance of his musical We Will Rock You to denounce the Welsh government's plan to reduce its badger population. Audience members were not only puzzled by May's lousy timing, but his passionate support of the badger, a sort of white trash w ... More >>

[UPDATED] Nate Dogg Passes Away at 41

Nate Dogg, 1969-2011.​UPDATE, MARCH 16, 8:24 P.M.: According to TMZ, the family of Nate Dogg believes his cause of death was complications from previous strokes he had suffered. Nate Dogg's friend and manager, Rod McGrew, tells TMZ not only was the death unexpected, but that the musician had "cogn ... More >>

Free Ticket Tuesday: Too $hort at the Grove

​Just in case you didn't know that Too $hort had a dollar sign in his name waaaaaay before Ke$ha was even a zygote in her Auto Tuning producer's eye, we're giving away a LOT of tickets to Too $hort's concert at the Grove of Anaheim on Saturday, December 11. The rapper formerly known as Todd Anth ... More >>

DJ Quik Turning His Back on Hip-Hop?

Hip-Hop vet says he wants to transcend the genre that made him famous

Steve Aoki, ?uestlove, Kid Sister Collaborate with Artists on Hennessy Bottle Designs

​Hennessy V.S calls it "Blending of Art," which basically has 10 artists and hip-hop artists collaborating on bottle designs. Personally, it's about time Hennessy acknowledged all the free advertising their product has been getting from hip-hop artists since 2Pac. 

The Good, The Bad, The Stereotypical, and the Strange About Eating a Burrito in Toronto

​A gig as the master of ceremonies for the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies annual convention took me to Canada last week--specifically, Toronto. Dave raved about the West Indian food there, and I've long known Toronto offers one of the world's great multicultural mixes--but I was resigned ... More >>

Jason Quinn of The Lime Truck, Part One

Photo by Christopher VictorioJason Quinn and Daniel Shemtob​When I say that The Lime Truck is the youngest of OC's new age food trucks, I mean it. It's as green to the scene as their bright lime paint job. As you read this post, the truck would've been on the road roughly a month. The two guys beh ... More >>

BREAKING: Michael Jackson Not Really Dead!

Yep, it was only a matter of time: Now you can add Michael Jackson to the ranks among Elvis (still eating), Tupac (still rapping), JFK (?) and Hitler (vacationing in South America). I mean, really, check out this video from LiveLeak.com of Jackson supposedly walking out of a Los Angeles coroner's ... More >>

Last Night: Snoop Dogg, Warren G, The Twins at the Glass House

BY RYAN RITCHIELast Night: Snoop Dogg at the Glass House in Pomona, Dec. 26, 2008.Wanna know if you're old? Go see Snoop Dogg and ask yourself which category of fans you fall in to. You're either in a) the group of shaggy-haired teenagers who wouldn't mind if he played "Sensual Seduction" twice, or ... More >>

The Top 10 Reissues of 2008

It's time to rank the best of what went around and came around again. BILLY JOEL The Stranger (Columbia/Legacy) As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man's deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell - and, occasionally, rock. "Scenes ... More >>

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 de ... More >>

Johnnie Cochran is Back to Right Another Alleged Injustice...Check That, It's His Law Firm

Years after the glove didn't fit and we had to acquit, countless Larry King Live appearances and actor Phil Morris' career zenith with the Seinfeld Jackie Chiles parody, Johnnie Cochran Jr. is coming back to Orange County to right an alleged racial injustice. OK, so Mr. Cochran departed for tha ... More >>

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 wit ... More >>

Why Southern Hip-Hop Is the Same as FOX News

Numbers by Paint

Banyan Splatter the Aural Canvas with a Profusion of Surprising Hues

A Week in the Nightlife

Nerdy garage rock, wiseguy jazz, Binges that purge, Goodfoot turns 9 and Holy Fuck!

Confusion Is Good

Ima Robot mess with gender, subvert expectations

Blasto de Mayo

Seven ultra-violent Mexican songs to put you in a bueno spirit

Get Out!

June 29 - July 6: Handjobdrugscum

Chaos Brings Order

Music saved the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E.

Doggy Fizzle

SNOOP DOGG, HOUSE OF BLUES, ANAHEIM, SUNDAY, OCT. 12

Infomercial Junkies

A hundred knives for, like, a hundred bucks and other gift ideas

Heavenly Pairings

Tykwer does Kieslowski

Way 2 Fonky

DJ Quikunderexposed and loving it!

What Would Elvis Do?

Jesus saves The King

Pigs! Pigs! Pigs! They're Porkin It up!

And 26 other observations about the Orange County Fair

A Short History of Angry HiStory

Not Angry No More

Warren G chills

Invasion of the Angry White Rappers!

How to distinguish the wannabes