Tupac Shakur

Does the Harlem Shake Mean We'll Never Escape Viral Dance Memes?

I don't mean to get too weepy here, so soon after Valentine's Day, but I think this is true, and important: You never forget your first viral-video dance meme. I'm sorry, "Harlem Shake" partisans, but it's true. Whether it was "Call Me Maybe," all the way back in 2012, or "Gangnam Style," all the wa ... More >>

The Top Five Musical Resurrections of 2012

Top Five Musical Resurrections of 2012

2012 saw some big-name comebacks, emotional reunions, and just plain weird occurrences, proving that America's thirst for nostalgia has still not been quenched. Have recent years been the worst for this, or have I just forgotten about the last decade already? Could something as joyous as the resurre ... More >>

Get To Know Your 2012 DOMA Nominees: The Atomic Tanlines

Leading up to our November 10 showcase, we'll be getting you familiar with some of our Dallas Observer Music Awards nominees, either via past features we've done on them, or new ones. You can vote for your favorite acts, venues and more right here. Denton foursome the Atomic Tanlines stole the show ... More >>

Be Like Mike

Preview: Greg Ginn & the Royal We at Pastime Tavern

Friday, May 4, at Pastime Tavern

The Thyme Bomb, and Other Drinks Worth Sitting for at the People's Last Stand

Bartender Omar, as pictured on the People's Last Stand Facebook page.​Editor's note: Whitney Filloon, a trained pastry chef, is also a trained drinker. She'll occasionally write for City of Ate about cocktails and general booziness. "Tastes like pickles." My shaven-head drinking companion wr ... More >>

Five Music Shows We Wish MTV Still Aired

​At the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards, Justin Timberlake got on the mic and pleaded with MTV to "play more videos!" Timberlake's sentiment was hardly a new one. The station switched from heavily playing music videos to being a reality TV-based network in the early 2000s -- shortly after the old for ... More >>

Before Celebrating Tupac's 40th Birthday in Atlanta Tonight, Erykah Badu Talks Inspiration

Tupac Shakur​Today would have been iconic rap artist Tupac Shakur's 40th birthday. He was just 25 years old when he was shot and killed in Las Vegas in September of 1996. To celebrate the rapper -- a fixture of the early '90s and one of the most talented emcees to ever live -- a group of artists w ... More >>

This Week In Dallas Music History: Leap Frogging Through History With The Toadies

The beginning of history as we know it​In this edition of This Week In Dallas Music History, we look back at an infographic we here at the Observer published to chart the career arc of The Toadies, following the release of their seminal record Rubberneck and through the production of their at-the- ... More >>

Freddie Gibbs, Big K.R.I.T., A.Dd+

Saturday, April 2, at Trees

Today In Music News: Bow Wow Learns Valuable Lesson, Rules Of The Roadies And 2Pac Lives!

Your daily dose of national music news for Friday, May 14, 2010...Bow Wow has learned the rules of social politics:  deny, deny deny...  and blame it on Chris Brown. Looks like roadies live by the same rules as blog commenters...2Pac continues his reign as the hardest working dead man aliv ... More >>

Today In Music News: Reznor May Be Back To Work, Eminem Gets Uplifting And Tupac's Mom Gets Arrested

Your daily dose of national music news for Wednesday, April 28, 2010...Trent Reznor might be, maybe affiliated with a new project How To Destroy Angels.  Maybe.Eminem gets all up "uplifting" with his first single off his new album. Tupac's mom has been arrested for felony drug possession.

Today In Music News: T.I. Wants To Better Tupac, Blur Are Givers And Z-Trip Is A Gamer

Your daily dose of national music news for Monday, April 19, 2010...T.I. thinks he will be better than 2Pac.  It's always nice to see a young man full of pride by wanting to out do another post-prison album.Blur give away their Record Store Day song away for free.Z-Trip knows what "the show mu ... More >>

P.O.S., Astronautalis, Dessa

Saturday, February 27, at Hailey's Club, Denton

Dallas is in the Super Bowl! Okay, How About AT the Super Bowl?

​The Cowboys won't be in Miami for Super Bowl XLIV February 7, but Dallas will be represented all over South Beach in the form of the latest and greatest in safe, sassy transportation - VAULT. I saw this thing - it's like a giant combo limousine/Hummer/armored truck - pull up to a D ... More >>

Year in Review: The Best Hip-Hop of 2009: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love da Bomb

While year-end, catch-all wrap-ups are common to every musical genre, in no other style of music do they turn into the hand-wringing, "state of the game" examinations that hip-hop seems to provoke. (I've certainly written a few.) We worry because we care, of course. But at some point, like a thirty- ... More >>

Today In Music News: Jackson's Hard Drive Is Full Of Music, Tenacious D Replaces The Beastie Boys, Steven Tyler Falls and John Hughes Dies

Your daily dose of national music news for Wednesday, April 29, 2009...Looks like Michael Jackson's estate will produce as much posthumous music as Tupac's. Hard drives containing at least 100 unreleased songs--new and old--were taken by his sister LaToya.The Outside Lands Festival booked the most ... More >>

Today In Music News: Kanye's Ready For A New Title, Ex-Panic Kids Debut New Band and Tupac Keeps The Music Coming

Your daily dose of national music news for Thursday, July 30, 2009... Kanye West says he's ready to replace Michael Jackson as the "King of Pop." Too soon? Ex-Panic at the Disco members Ryan Ross and John Walker debuted their new band Young Veins on Myspace. Somewhere, tween girls and mall pu ... More >>

Today In Music News: Aldrin Raps, Jacko Gets Another Video Game and Jeff Buckley Releases A New Song

Your daily dose of national music news for Thursday, June 25, 2009... The music world is getting some new music from an unlikely source: Astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Joining the second man on the moon? Snoop Dogg, Talib Kweli and Soulja Boy. Michael Jackson is in talks to release a video game that l ... More >>

Notorious B.I.G. Made B.L.A.N.D.

Today In Music News: Lily Allen Threatens Katy Perry; The Stooges' Ron Asheton Dies; Jay-Z Meets Radiohead

Your daily dose of national music news for Wednesday, January 7, 2009... Finally, a music feud we can all get behind: Lily Allen is still mad at Katy Perry for referring to herself as "the skinny Lily Allen." So Lily said that if Perry says one more thing about her she's going to post her phone nu ... More >>

Hitsville: The Year in Music, by the Numbers

You don't need a half-wit music critic to tell you it's been a remarkable year for America, one historians will be discussing and researching for centuries to come. War, financial collapse, politics, technology: All have been dinner-table topics for many Americans. Racial barriers in 2008 were de ... More >>

The Game

LAX (Geffen)

Review: The Roots at House of Blues

¡Ask a Mexican!

Uncomplementary colors

Burning the Yule Log

Our top DVD picks for the week of October 10

Pirates of Conspiracy

The artists of Oh6 turn assassination into comic revelry

Ol' Dirty Bastard

Osirus (Sure Shot)

Eminem

Encore (Aftermath)

Odds & Ends

Rock Lottery, rock for charity and rock GoGirls-style

Kanye West

The College Dropout (Roc-A-Fella)

Sacred Heart

Meet Kenna, "the 2Pac of rock"

Hollywood Babble-On

Ron Shelton tries to mock the L.A. cop buddy movie

Nas

God's Son (Columbia)

Big in Bahrain

Taken from 35 Marines ages 18-23

Mag Light

Today's music magazines suck up to celebs--and just plain suck

Various Artists

Constant Elevation (Astralwerks)

Out & About

Snoop Dogg

Out & About

Outkast

Cardboard tombstones

In the wake of the Ellington 100, lesser zombie boxed sets walk among us

Out Here

God help him

Vanilla Ice, hip-hop's trivia answer, wants to prove he's still cool--but was he ever?

Real McCoy or decoy?

Dallas hip-hop 1997

Dead man acting

Hollywood never realized that Tupac was always better than his movies

Events for the week

Buzz

Brave new world

Rap's new polish: sophistication or pandering?

The Dr. is out

Dre and Snoop Dogg, the boys who cried wolf, cancel yet another Dallas show