Email Author Ben Westhoff

Awards

• 2007 - National Association of Black Journalists Awards

  "Ace of Spaides"

• 2006 - National Association of Black Journalists Awards, published September 14, 2005

  "Rap vs. Rapture"

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2007 Stories by Ben Westhoff

• Wu-Tang Clan

  published December 13, 2007

  Wu-Tang Clan's fifth album, 8 Diagrams, comes at a time of group strife. Raekwon has called Wu ringleader and beatmaker RZA a "hip-hop... More >>

• Band of Horses

  published November 8, 2007

  Band of Horses frontman Ben Bridwell writes lyrics that are drenched in utopian platitudes ("Lucky ones are we all, till it is over") and... More >>

• Lance (Big Mouth) Bass

  published October 25, 2007

  'N Sync was so popular around the turn of the millennium that even I—jaded, posturing music critic—bought the band's second album,... More >>

• Beirut

  published October 11, 2007

  Twenty-one-year-old Beirut frontman Zach Condon is too young to have any stories of his own, so he imagines other folks'—usually folks... More >>

• Spinner's Relm

  published October 4, 2007

  Mike Relm—a bespectacled Asian DJ who wears a suit and tie while he spins—is single-handedly introducing turntablism to parts of... More >>

• Chamillionaire

  published October 4, 2007

  When did mainstream rap become more relevant than its underground counterpart? Talib Kweli and El-P released self-congratulatory pap this year... More >>

• Kanye West

  published September 20, 2007

  Kanye is the most exciting man in rap because he puts out quality, popular albums. Forget the artless 50 Cent and Akon—Kanye tries... More >>

• Talib Kweli

  published September 6, 2007

  "Conscious rap" needs to be eliminated from hip-hop's vernacular—or at the very least, Talib Kweli's name should be stricken from its... More >>

• Ladybug Transistor

  published August 16, 2007

  In April, Brooklyn indie-rock outfit The Ladybug Transistor lost their drummer, San Fadyl, when he suffered asthma-related complications at his... More >>

• Anthony Hamilton

  published May 10, 2007

  Things have never been easy for platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated, neo-soul crooner Anthony Hamilton. Before briefly touching superstardom with... More >>