B.I.G. news in the hip-hop world: 50 Cent has a beef with someone. So, he took to Twitter to protest the latest, gravest event hurting the hip-hop community with a petition. Diddy’s exploitation of the Notorious B.I.G. [via Rap Radar/The Daily Swarm]: Enough is enough, Biggie’s name should never have become Diddy’s Black Card. Just … [Read more…]
The past few years, one word has come up constantly in conversation about today’s pop music: Balkanization. Be it another teeny-indie scene given the tag “glo-fi,” or another subset of Brooklyn bands revisiting the aural atmosphere of ’60s garage pop, the message remains loud and clear: As micro-scenes develop within pockets of our society, our … [Read more…]
Who knew that our country’s forefathers were such good rhymeslayers? Apparently, this guy [via New York Magazine]: [vimeovid id=”10969400″] Yep. The Tea Party has hit its tipping point for parody, and this time their critics really didn’t have to do anything. Political rap is all well and good, but this just isn’t good. Just hearing … [Read more…]
Free the Music is a guide to new albums, EPs and songs that are available for free online. Today’s drop is: Das Racist – Shut Up, Dude. In today’s everyones-a-blogger, link economy online community, many an Internet scribe would be content with where Brooklyn’s Das Racist was at the end of 2009. A “year as … [Read more…]
Since The Roots’ Questlove took to Twitter with a blog post that reported Gang Starr’s Guru is in a coma, the word has begun to spread around the Internet. Here’s what the original post from the T.R.O.Y. blog/Philaflava said: If anyone has info about this please let us know. We’re told his sister Tricia said … [Read more…]
Last week, Milwaukee’s Juiceboxxx dropped his first mixtape, Thunder Zone Volume One. Topping out at 20 tracks, the mixtape could be a turning point for the oft-misunderstood rapper from the heartland. Often mistaken for a nerdcore artist because of the color of his skin and nasaly flow or met with confusion by concert-goers struck by … [Read more…]
Will Kanye’s new album have a riff about I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings? Well, West made reference to Caged Bird author Maya Angelou today on his blog while announcing his return to the studio: IT’S FUNNY HOW SO MANY RAPPERS GET WORSE AS THEIR CAREERS STRETCH OUT BUT TRUE POETS GET BETTER. Â WE … [Read more…]
The new year is almost here, and with it comes a maelstrom of “End of the Year Lists.†Here on Ex-Spectator, I’ll be rolling out a few “End of the Yearâ€/â€End of the Decade†lists. Today’s list: The Best Overlooked Albums of the Aughts. A while back I started an ongoing feature called “Overlooked in … [Read more…]
The Grammy Award nominees were officially announced last night. Most criticisms of its blatant populism and lack of any surprise nominations aside, let’s tackle the really big issue with this years nominees: No Mickey Rourke. This is bigger than his Oscar loss last year to the overrated performance by Sean Penn in Milk. But wait. … [Read more…]
The New Yorker’s Sasha Frere-Jones recently caught flack for a piece titled “Wrapping Up.†Frere-Jones began the joint review of Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3 and Freddie Gibbs’ Midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmuzik with a pretty heady assertion: That hip-hop – gasp – is dead! If I had to pick a year for hip-hop’s demise, though, I would choose 2009, … [Read more…]