| A Pyrex Scholar: An Interview with UK Producer The Purist | March 12, 2015 |
He's produced for Action Bronson, Roc Marciano, Danny Brown, Cas, and more.
| Nahright Hype: Hempstead’s Hus Kingpin | November 7, 2014 |
Harold Stallworth called all across town to borrow a four-pound. Hus Kingpin is a poor man’s Roc Marciano. But in a year where Roc has managed to keep an uncharacteristically low profile, poverty is relative. Hus’s latest project, Nahright Hype, is just that: a whopping 27-track mixtape sanctioned by the time-honored hip-hop blog of the […]
| Summer Mixtape: Brad Beatson | July 4, 2014 |
Brad Beatson turns down only for freedom. In the summer, I’m looking to push play on a playlist and let it ride. It’s too beautiful out. And I know it’s inevitable that some drunken fingertips will hijack the music at some point to play what they want to. So this is my grand attempt at […]
| Spring Mix – Has-Lo | May 28, 2014 |
Has-Lo is hordeable, sportable, and totally affordable Spring is my favorite time of year. It’s not as hot as summer. Not as brutally cold as winter. Full of anticipation. Everything spreads out in front of us, waiting to be experienced. Once it got warm, you know school is coming to a close for the year. […]
| Spring Mix – Harold Stallworth | May 13, 2014 |
Harold Stallworth will always roots for the villain. This year’s spring has been absurdly slow in arriving to Washington D.C., but better late than polar vortex. Bidding farewell to old man winter is a bittersweet occasion, seeing as how my dearest strains of music and fashion were born out of blistering winds and torrential snowfall. […]
| Spring Mix: Dewey Decibel | May 5, 2014 |
Dewey Decibel is an emcee/visual artist from Philadelphia who has a deep love for breakfast foods and brunettes. This is a mixtape that reminds me of the ones I used to make for myself when I was in High School. I would dub cassette tapes with all of my favorite hip hop tracks jammed together […]
| 10 Years Later, The UN’s Debut is Still The Golden Grail | April 28, 2014 |
Max Bell is an advocate for Russian head wear The UN came in with the best. Comprised of Roc Marciano (fresh from his brief tenure as a member of Busta Rhymes’ Flipmode Squad) and three of his childhood friends from Long Island — Laku, Divine, and Godfree – the group first appeared on Pete Rock’s […]
| Alchemist, Prodigy & Roc Marciano In Heaven’s Home | March 6, 2014 |
Alchemist is always moving several steps ahead. Whenever I interview him, there are least two future projects locked and loaded and ready for war. When I interviewed him for the Step Brothers album, the Chemist was already talking about his gospel record. He didn’t elaborate much and I didn’t ask specifics because sometimes you want […]
| Roc Marciano & Step Brothers Play the Odds | January 20, 2014 |
Harold Stallworth is like the hip-hop version of Nicky Tarantino. Roc Marciano’s guest features can be unremarkable. His style is a bit too esoteric to gel with D-list underground acts. Even most of his collaborations with like-minded up-and-comer Action Bronson have suffered from a somewhat reluctant chemistry, like haphazardly splicing scenes from The Mack and […]
| Roc Marciano: The Pimpire Strikes Back | November 8, 2013 |
Max Bell murdered Jar-Bar Binks. There isn’t one Star Wars reference on Roc Marciano’s The Pimpire Strikes Back. It’s not a blatant disregard for source material so much as it is honest and telling revisionism. In other words, a young Marciano probably wasn’t rushing off to see George Lucas’ The Empire Strikes Back. Instead, he […]
