Local rapper Swazy Styles’ made-for-summer jam “Birthday Suit” is definitely a polarizing song. The title alone looks ludicrous on paper, for one thing, and then there’s the fact that the song is built on a maddening, note-for-note sample of the Tetris theme song. Still, the song’s mash-up of tinny dance music…
Gym Class Heroes frontman Travie/Travis McCoy has insisted he hasn’t gone solo forever (see, he’s “Travie” when he’s by himself, but back to regular old “Travis” with the band). Still, his solo work, which he’s currently promoting through a tour with Cobra Starship and 3OH!3, may soon eclipse his output…
For the past two years, Ex Norwegian has quietly been gaining national traction on the strength of some classic guitar-driven power pop that sounds as though it came from anywhere but here. Anyone still mourning the late, great Alex Chilton can take some comfort in knowing some of his musical…
Can you blame him? Fat Joe is seen around Miami all the time, but when he’s in South Florida, he doesn’t actually sleep in the 305. Instead, he’s been living like a king out in the western edge of Plantation. And now, apparently, he’s tired of it, and as we…
Alright, alright, we’ll stop blogging about Kat Stacks, hip-hop’s Internet enfant terrible … when she stops being so entertaining. Plus, it’s Friday — not a day to think about anything serious.The latest piece of Kat drama: People are supposedly now trying to kill her. But not in the way most…
Friday, June 11*Jazid beings its weekend-long 14th anniversary celebration tonight with the debut of its new reggae party, Freeup Fridays, featuring live music tonight by Jahfe and Mixed Culture. Admission is free before 9 p.m., $10 after. Click here for full details. *Celebrate Sweat head Lolo Reskin’s birthday tonight at the…
Askmen.com is one of those sites that seems to be endlessly generating best-of lists that other people then write about, thus creating an endless Internet circle-jerk. Mind if we join? Oh, it’s of some local interest. The site has released its 2010 list of the “top 10 nightclubs in the…
John Hancock seems to have always been the slightly more out-there member of local favorites Awesome New Republic, continually releasing his own, more experimental material during the band’s down time. The latest addition to his solo oeuvre is a new vinyl-only album, Antenna Death, out now on 10K Islands/St. Ives…
The Lebron James speculation is serious. Of course, here in Miami we’re hoping he comes down to join buddy D-Wade … but Wade’s future in Miami hardly seems certain, either. So who can help entice James make up his mind? How about some rappers with a new mixtape!Yesterday saw the…
After releasing separate solo albums, singer Andrea Echeverri and bassist/producer Hector Buitrago reunited in 2007 to record Oye, their first CD as Aterciopelados in five years. The disc wasn’t as rambunctiously rocking as their early work in the mid-’90s. Instead, there were entrancingly lovely interludes such as the upbeat prayer…
While people complain about the lack of live music in town, and usually the same people complain about going to South Beach for anything, Jazid is a lone soldier quietly battling to prove the naysayers wrong. Sure, the venue has changed plenty over the years — for one thing, only…
The Velvet Underground song “After Hours” always seemed like an anomaly for the band. For one, it featured a rare vocal by the band’s usually silent, fiercely androgynous drummer, Maureen Tucker. For another, it seemed just too pop, with a cutesy melody that didn’t jibe with either the band’s guitar-drenched…
Somehow this slipped under our radar before, but here’s a seeming last-minute booking that may entice the hip-hop heads to get out to a South Beach megaclub. Jay Electronica, one of the Internet’s Favorite Rappers, is set to perform at Cameo Saturday night.While he first gained his hype status in…
We sure are glad Lauren “Lolo” Reskin was born on this day, 20-something years ago (a lady never tells). If you run into Sweat Records’ legendary proprietress around town this weekend, feel free to bow and give offerings. Or just show up at the store tonight for her actual birthday,…
Thanks, Gawker, again for tipping us off to an incredible Internet phenomenon, this time a dance craze from Brazil known as “surra de bunda,” translated roughly as “ass punch,” “punched by the ass,” or, well, you get the picture. Like all good dance crazes, it was born out of a…
Whenever Kat Stacks releases a new video, it’s like day-job Christmas. Last week we brought you up to date on the latest in the Internet-famous hip-hop escort’s saga, in which she was attacked in public by two men who tried to force an apology from her on Bow Wow’s behalf…
Once upon time it seemed like Pitbull was possibly just too Miami to make sense anywhere else. Well, we were wrong to think that. His blend of Little Havana swagger, dance beats, and lusty raps went truly global last year with the success “Calle Ocho (I Know You Want Me). His…
2010 VH1 Hip Hop Honors |Hip Hop Rally Machine |Hip Hop Honors Video Despite the theme of our earlier post about last night’s VH1 Hip-Hop Honors show, the entire thing was not, in fact, about Miami. Atlanta, Virginia Beach, New Orleans, and Houston all got their due as well, represented by…
2010 VH1 Hip Hop Honors |Hip Hop Rally Machine |Hip Hop Honors Video Last night’s VH1 Hip-Hop Honors show was full of hits (the return of Missy Elliott, for one), and misses (the glaring omission of Outkast, among many others). Still, much of it gave us some serious hometown pride…
Back in May, Crossfade reported that Alanis Morisette was pregnant by longtime boyfriend Souleye, a.k.a. ex-Boca resident Mario Treadway, a conscious-type hip-hop MC specializing in vaguely crunchy, spiritual lyrics. (Really crunchy — dude even once worked at Whole Foods). Yesterday, People reported that the two semi-secretly got hitched at Morisette’s…
It seems the village of Bal Harbour is tentatively continuing to try to shake its stuffy image, and hopes again to attract some new visitors through live music. We’ll be honest, we were intrigued by the indie-rock-centric Ten-in-One Music Festival this past April, but found it a bit ill-advised. (Surfer…
Here are a few preview snippets to count down some more time until the VH1 Hip-Hop Honors broadcast tonight. Though the program debuts this evening, it was already taped this past week. (That’s somewhat disappointing — can you imagine the possible shenanigans if it were a live broadcast?) Our favorite…
