Max Bell carried the cross so you could play Candy Crush 2012’s Control System was an inspired and unforeseen coup. Ab-Soul brought inquisition and introspection, paranoia and conspiracy theories by the oz. There were hits of DMT, witty wordplay, and pineal gland prodding.  It was the Carson native’s claim to the title of ‘Best Behind […]

Doc Zeus knows the woopty-woop. Creative burnout is the most common pitfall facing young rappers transitioning from blog fame to the unyielding lights of major label stardom. The combination of dwindling-to-non-existent resources for artist development, a democratization of DYI self-recording processes and the Internet’s revolutionary free distribution model spawned a glut of thirsty, talented, unsigned […]

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 […]

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 […]

A rule of thumb: when you cringe at the cheesiness of a rap song at the 20 second mark, but are chanting along at the one minute mark, it is a certified hit. This figures to be the one for Quincy. The hook appeals to the molly mangled, the freaks will get up out their […]

Now with ZIP File.  Download: Passion of the Weiss Top 50 Hip Hop Songs, 2012: Part II (#50-26) (Left-Click) Passion of the Weiss Top 50 Hip Hop Songs, 2012: Part I (#25-1 ) (Left-Click) Previously: Passion of the Weiss Top Hip Hop Songs — 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 Novelty Bonus – “Hot Cheetos […]

Previously: Passion of the Weiss Top 50 Hip Hop Songs, 2012 (#50-26) Passion of the Weiss Top Hip Hop Songs — 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 25. Azealia Banks – “1991” As much as Azealia Banks’s Twitter is the worst thing on the internet and the blogosphere’s obsession with her Twitter is the second […]

Slava P is the blog game, Aleksandr Petrovsky See Ab-Soul rap over a flipped” Last of a Dying Breed” beat and use polysyllabic words to say nothing at all. See Ab-Soul use elementary lyrical-miracles to maintain his rank as the second-least charismatic rapper on TDE with “Only 1.” See Ab’s Soul. I’m not saying that […]

Deen prefers his Kool-Aid unsweetened. Allow me to be slightly presumptuous and assume that you, the reader, have been reading my  posts here. Maybe you may have detected some level of ambivalence in regards to everyone’s new darlings – the Top Dawg Entertainment guys. I’ve read a bunch of complimentary shit about these guys in […]

Jimmy Ness for Prime Minister of Ur, 2012. Ab-Soul stunts with the ancient gods and turns his on Mesopotamian swag. Each TDE member is releasing a new song this week and he follows Jay Rock’s “YOLA” with raps about aliens, pyramids, and conspiracies. If you’re not part of the hip-hop star-gazer society or you don’t […]