The characters given life by Slug on Atmosphere’s new album have unenviable situations, but they’re not all “painting that shit gold” (whatever that means): Vagrants, single parents and dope-addled fiends, they all work, fuck and wallow in their misery, giving the emotional indie rap act a chance to traffic in…
With McMansions galore, a concrete-chic urban planning model and seemingly never-ending sprawl, Plano is many outsiders’ vision of hell. But to Stefan Merrill Block, it’s home, not to mention the inspiration for his debut novel, The Story of Forgetting, recently released to critical acclaim and high commercial expectations by Random…
We expect a lot from our indie-ethos, crossover pop stars nowadays, even from a duo as inspired as Gnarls Barkley, aka DJ Danger Mouse and rapper Cee-Lo. We expect guilt-free-yet-radio-worthy earworms like “Crazy,” not to mention genuine pathos, ground-breaking production and minimal amounts of filler—all of which Gnarls Barkley managed…
The press release for Alopecia claims that Why? ringleader Yoni Wolf was inspired “as much by MF Doom and Lil’ Wayne as J. Newsom and Big Dylan.” I don’t hear any of that, although the disc recalls the beat weirdness of Beck’s Mellow Gold, minus the zeitgeist-capturing spirit and clever…
A few months after the November digital release of Saul Williams’ latest album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, producer Trent Reznor was disheartened. Reznor, the frontman for Nine Inch Nails, had masterminded a seemingly genius, Radiohead-esque plan for letting listeners obtain Williams’ work: They could download it for…
Del the Funky Homosapien is an outer-space hip-hop trailblazer, helping to pioneer a weird-for-its-own-sake rap style by focusing on absurdist rhymes and sci-fi storytelling. A cousin of Ice Cube’s and a one-time member of the Da Lench Mob, the Bay Area-based Del reached a creative peak with 2000’s Deltron 3030…
Last July, thousands of folks, including the mayor of Detroit and the governor of Michigan, gathered in Motown at the NAACP’s annual convention for a symbolic funeral for the N-word. It was a response to the recurrence of the word’s popping up in the mainstream media, such as when Michael…
Golden Smog and Jayhawks alum Gary Louris has a genius for crafting heartbreaking-yet-inspiring pop songs. At his best, on Jayhawks tunes such as “Save It for a Rainy Day,” “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me,” and “It’s Up to You”—not to mention all the incredible tracks he wrote with Mark…
Irrational exuberance is so widespread in hip-hop right now that Alan Greenspan might freak out—if he understood rap lyrics. There are no two ways about it: Hip-hop sales stink. Album sales dropped 30 percent in 2007, a figure that includes digital downloads. And ringtones, which have given folks like Soulja…
With hip-hop increasingly a boys-only drug cartel, it’s not surprising that the top urban hit makers are increasingly females in the R&B genre. Like Alicia Keys on her recent chart-topper As I Am, Mary J. Blige plays things safe on her own new blockbuster CD, Growing Pains. The album functions…
Though some believe Chicago’s Lupe Fiasco is too smart for mainstream rap, that’s not exactly true. Most of the lyrics on sophomore release Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool are pretty basic, clichéd stuff, right down to the CD’s opening monologue: “They thought it was cool to tear down the projects and…
A pint-size novelty act who made preteen girls swoon with his 2000 debut, Beware of Dog, Bow Wow has somehow evolved into an elder statesman in the hip-pop genre. Now 20 years old, he has split with longtime producer Jermaine Dupri, and his sixth CD, Face Off—a collaboration with B2K’s…
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 hippie” and says the beats on the new album are too cerebral. And it’s true: While the minimalist production and movie samples evoke Enter the Wu-Tang (36…
Band of Horses frontman Ben Bridwell writes lyrics that are drenched in utopian platitudes (“Lucky ones are we all, till it is over”) and cringe-worthy pillow talk (“When you smile, the sun, it peeks through the clouds”). The group’s weakest songs are ready-made for campfire sing-alongs. Its touring bassist even…
‘N Sync was so popular around the turn of the millennium that even I—jaded, posturing music critic—bought the band’s second album, No Strings Attached. It sold over a million copies the day it was released in March 2000, and I was swallowing a lot of LSD at the time. Though…
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 living on other continents in other centuries. On “The Penalty,” he speaks from the perspective of a worker caught in a time of plague: “Yesterday fever, tomorrow St. Peter,…
When did mainstream rap become more relevant than its underground counterpart? Talib Kweli and El-P released self-congratulatory pap this year while Kanye West’s sincere, introspective effort sold a million copies in its first week. Now we’ve got Chamillionaire, whose Ultimate Victory is perhaps the most topical album ever, and although…
Mike Relm—a bespectacled Asian DJ who wears a suit and tie while he spins—is single-handedly introducing turntablism to parts of middle America. The San Franciscan is on his second stint traveling across the country with the Blue Man Group. He opens their current production, “The Rock Concert Instruction Manual,” with…
Kanye is the most exciting man in rap because he puts out quality, popular albums. Forget the artless 50 Cent and Akon—Kanye tries harder, and Graduation, which has 13 bangers and zero skits, reflects the man’s tireless work ethic. Having united backpackers and clubbers with his first two albums, this…
“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 rolls. Nobody’s quite sure what the term means: Music that doesn’t focus on rims and butts? Songs wherein the listener’s life isn’t explicitly threatened? Kweli has said he doesn’t…
In April, Brooklyn indie-rock outfit The Ladybug Transistor lost their drummer, San Fadyl, when he suffered asthma-related complications at his home in Zurich, Switzerland. Though the band’s sixth album, Can’t Wait Another Day, had been conceived before Fadyl’s passing, it’s easy to interpret this powerfully unsentimental work as a eulogy…
Things have never been easy for platinum-selling, Grammy-nominated, neo-soul crooner Anthony Hamilton. Before briefly touching superstardom with his 2003 So So Def hit Comin’ From Where I’m From, Hamilton bounced from short-lived record label to short-lived record label. Hamilton, who honed his gritty chops singing in his Charlotte, North Carolina,…
