A quiet future classic from two of LA's finest.
The Rap Up: Week of September 30 | September 30, 2016 |
The Top 50 Albums of 2014 (All) | December 12, 2014 |
Fall Mixtape: Jimmy Ness | December 8, 2014 |
Jimmy Ness bites the eel by the dozen Rather than opt for songs emotive of grey scale weather, blocked-guttering and shrinking daylight hours, I’ve compiled this fall mixtape as a snapshot of music I’m currently digging. The track-list reveals 2014 was the year I delved bellbottom-knee deep into funk’s luminescent depths. Prince, Zapp, Luther Vandross, Lakeside, […]
America’z Most Complete Artist: A Guide to DJ Quik | October 16, 2014 |
Redman’s Pacific Waters | October 1, 2014 |
Max Bell uses a joint roller. Did Redman smoke the club out your honor? He pleads five Philly blunts filled with top shelf left coast greenery. Over the breezy, g-funk bounce of the inimitable DJ Quik’s “Spur of the Moment” (Trauma) Redman reminds you that he can rap over anything with ease and punch lines more […]
Summer Mixtape: Max Bell | July 3, 2014 |
Max Bell once played basketball with Nate Dogg. Last week, a friend and recent L.A. transplant told me 2Pac and Dr. Dre songs left still bodies staring at the deserted dance floor of a Westside lounge. Outsiders equate lack of motion to tracks from the accepted West Coast rap suzerain with treason. And yet, this reaction […]
360 Degrees to Make the Cypher Complete: Rating The 2012 BET Cyphers | October 11, 2012 |
Singing Demon’s Carols with DJ Quik & Kurupt | September 20, 2012 |
DJ Quik will be remembered for being one of the funkiest men in music history. Less memorialized will be his capacity for comic evil. His rhymes are pure gangsta corrosion. And if you know anything about Quik’s backgroud: the jail stint for pistol whipping his sister, the Blood ties, the Death Row beatdown years, these […]