Mini-Doc: The Life and Fast Times of Black Hippy | August 26, 2013 |
Max Bell’s skyline is the clearest. Jay-Z’s second annual Budweiser Made In America Festival is this Labor Day weekend. Somehow Black Hippy aren’t at the top of the bill. Perhaps to rectify this (and many, many other things Jay-Z must atone for), Hov’s company Life+Times has released a short documentary (16 mins) chronicling TDE’s performances […]
MobbDeen: Thanks Kendrick — Rap is Out of Control | August 14, 2013 |
Deen is the illegitimate son of DMX. I’m going to show you muthafuckas a lotta respect and just assume that you’ve all heard the Kendrick verse that shook the world. If you haven’t, stop reading this now, go listen to that shit and re-arrange your priorities. Don’t worry. I’ll wait. Done? Good. Kendrick’s dynamo of […]
Kendrick Lamar, Soul Controller | August 12, 2013 |
From here on out, to be “controlled” should replace “renegaded” as what happens when you shouldn’t let another rapper on your song for fear of incineration. K. Dot reminding everyone that he has a parking garage with a collage of everyone he despised from the moment he turned five. He mentions Kurupt and “Calling Out […]
Schoolboy Q & Kendrick Lamar’s “Collard Greens” | August 7, 2013 |
Neon washed, kaleidoscopic visions of the floating head of Schoolboy Q in a tie-dye bucket hat: the video for “Collard Greens” is here. It’s as good as it sounds. House party and bottle popping to pool party and booty popping — this is rap video traditionalism at its highest. In the finest of fabrics, Schoolboy […]
Kendrick Lamar & Schoolboy Q & Collard Greens | June 11, 2013 |
Wise moves from title to execution. Who doesn’t like collard greens? Who doesn’t like Schoolboy Q and Kendrick? The former is fast becoming the rap game, Raoul Duke, from appearance to addled state. His flow here is slower and less tangled than Q normally deploys. But it’s no less effective. It sounds like a hunter […]
Videos: Kendrick Lamar – “Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe” | May 13, 2013 |
Amber fields of grain? Check. Meditative poses. Check. All white pantsuits. Evangelical overtones. Mike Epps baptizing K. Dot in a pool of liquor? Triple check. I don’t know how I feel about the “Death to Molly” banner at the end of this video. I understand that Kendrick is mostly drug free and believes in intense […]
Kanye and K-Dot: G.O.O.D. Kids, m.A.A.d. Leaks | April 26, 2013 |
Max Bell may have written positive words about a Drake album once. There are a number of early articles/blog posts/pieces of writing I’d like deleted, wiped from existence. Some of those pieces could’ve benefited from more time spent behind the keyboard, some might’ve needed more editing from whoever was kind enough to let me write for […]
Joshua Lerner is dropping knowledge like Galileo dropped the orange. “I try to start off with sixteen dots on the paper.” This is how Rakim explains his process of writing to Ice-T in Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap. He continues. “If it’s a sixteen bar rhyme then at least I know what I’m […]