The Rap Up returns with new ones from Captain Murphy, DJ Quik, Juicy J, and more.
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Max Bell finds the revulsion invigorating. Another year. Another BET awards. Another round of ciphers. I give you my thoughts off the top of the dome. But really though, off the top of the dome. Seriously, I didn’t write this, look at it, think about it, and then try to make it sound better or […]
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 […]