Erykah Badu’s Birthday With Dave Chappelle, the Cannabinoids and more The Bomb Factory, Dallas Friday, February 26, 2016 By the end of Erykah Badu’s epic 45th birthday extravaganza at The Bomb Factory on Friday night, the Queen of Neo-Soul was surrounded by dozens of people on stage. Members of her…
When you come to work at Donny Domino’s DOJO45, you’re going to do more than just work on making music. That’s one of the producer and engineer’s most important philosophies about his recording studio. “Whether you came to record music, make beats or have a conversation, you should be better…
Sam Lao remembers when she had the Dallas music scene in the palm of her hands in 2013. From the day she released her debut EP West Pantego, the rapper and singer has been riding a 15-month wave of critical acclaim. She opened for famed English singer Jessie Ware and played Homegrown…
Kid Cudi The Bomb Factory, Dallas Friday, February 19, 2016 The polarization that surrounds Kid Cudi these days is genuinely curious. Yes, his latest albums have veered sharply from the sonics of his highly-praised early material but this behavior, depending on how well you know his discography, was largely predictable. On…
Cody Hernandez was beginning to wonder what he had to do to get his music heard. He’d been posting music to his Soundcloud page for over a year, but none of it had gotten much attention. Until last week, when his latest song, “Side of You,” got spotlighted by a…
Kanye West is a creative genius. Nobody is doubting that. He is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime-caliber artist whose contributions to the music and fashion worlds are innovative. So it’s completely appropriate that people are excited about the releases of his seventh studio album titled Waves (as of now) and latest fashion…
When Cold Cris isn’t on tour with Erykah Badu these days, he can usually be found at a local hip-hop event supporting a new generation of acts. He’s a well-known figure in the scene and many know him as an OG, but it’s hard to believe anyone really knows his…
G-Eazy With A$AP Ferg The Bomb Factory, Dallas Sunday, January 31, 2016 Trying to comprehend the magnitude of G-Eazy’s fan base is a tough task. They are an enormous, ravenous horde. Well before doors opened at The Bomb Factory on Sunday afternoon this dedicated bunch filed in a line that…
Six Shooter is a recurring feature where we highlight six new releases by North Texas-based musicians, with some extra ammo to spare. New year, new music and, as it’s always been, everything Erykah Badu touched turned to gold in January. But don’t worry, in this month’s edition of the Best…
Last week Oak Cliff native Lil Twist released the long-delayed mixtape The Golden Child 2. If anyone, it made Twist really happy. For nearly a decade now the 23-year-old has been signed to Lil Wayne’s Young Money Entertainment record label but he has released very little music in that time…
22-year-old Torey Smith is constantly on the verge of being out of control. In his words, he’s your local trap star, a goon, a gangster. He’s always turnt up. He’s no-holds-barred and, depending on what mood you catch him in, you’ll get the good or the really bad. You never…
These days, the gang always gets back together. In recent years it’s been trendy and big business for large national acts to reunite after just a few years of calling it quits. In 2016, we’ve already seen LCD Soundsystem and Guns N’ Roses announce reunions from faux breakups. On top…
There are two reasons to keep an eye on the artists listed here. One, they’re established acts in the city who have been putting in work for years and have a well-founded reputation but had a relatively and purposely quiet 2015. Or two, they’ve been bubbling in Dallas’ youthful underground…
Six Shooter is a recurring feature where we highlight six new releases by North Texas-based musicians, with some extra ammo to spare. It should come as no surprise that as 2015 came to an end, North Texas artists continued recent trends and closed out the last month of the year…
Rick Ross The Bomb Factory, Dallas Saturday, December 26, 2015 If you start to dissect Rick Ross’ career, there’s a lot of room for debate about his place in hip-hop. The conversation generally centers around authenticity. You know, whether or not he was a correctional officer in a past life…
If you were busy last week taking care of that last-minute shopping, traveling to Grandma’s house or just decided to take a break from the Internet for the sake of some family time for Christmas, there’s a chance you missed the wealth of releases the city’s local talent put out…
Combing through the area’s best music in 2015 is a big job — there’s a lot of it — and that task gets even bigger when you toss in the videos accompanying some of the best music. North Texas is rich with musical talent and with video directors helping to…
Last week XXL announced on Twitter they are beginning the hunt for their 2016 Freshmen Class and, as they intended, the tweet spawned a laundry list of hundreds of unknown rappers being plugged by their fans. This is typically how it goes for the publication’s annual list of the top…
Mason “Bric” LaDue is not the guy you see in the hip-hop industry if you’re on the outside looking in. He’s not a rapper nor is he a promoter. At different times in his life, he could’ve been both but he’s much more behind the scenes than that. It’s the…
Erykah Badu and Drake go way back. Certainly further than Badu’s remix of “Hotline Bling,” and further too than a certain heart-to-heart over tea that’s become infamous in hip-hop lore. But for all the attention this powerhouse pair’s friendship has garnered in the past couple years, it’s gotten all the…
Six Shooter is a recurring feature where we highlight six new releases by North Texas-based musicians, with some extra ammo to spare. There’s definitely no shortage of new music being released every month by North Texas artists. As was the case the month before, in November we were treated to…
Eventually everything rewarding or worth partaking in grows out of control. It’s just a sad truth. In the early 2000s, Black Friday was a simple day of discounts to kickstart the holiday shopping season. Then it really began to become a thing as big department and box stores exploited for…
