So two Cubans, a Puerto Rican, and an Irish guy walk into a dental supply warehouse … “We make music that’s unique to this neighborhood. Sometimes I’m surprised people are interested.” Developing a strong identity as a band is a challenge. Often groups try so hard to be unique that…
Yes another rapper is dead… shot down well before his prime. It’s a story that hip-hop seemed like it was almost ready to outgrow. There hasn’t been a marquis rap homicide since rapper Proof of D-12 died in a hail of bullets in a gritty Detroit afterhours club last year…
I’m not sure what’s more filthy, Pisspot the handpuppet or Blowfly, the Miami-based dirty rapper. You’d think Pisspot would win, but in this video, Blowfly steals the show. –Jonathan Cunningham…
On Friday night, Club Nocturnal in Miami, celebrated its two year anniversary with an exclusive MySpace.com party hosted by Dub Magazine’s poster girl, Vida Guerra. The lovely Miss Guerra must have been the cause of many sticky magazine pages throughout her career because the club was flooded with men who…
Oh the joy of Disco. Over the weekend, myself and Arielle Castillo stumbled in to Dolphin Staudium, literally, half-cocked on wine and tequila and caught one of the most hilarious disco shows that you could imagine. Picture the scene: standing next to second base right after a Florida Marlins game…
If your brain is a bit groggy as you sit in that cubicle, here’s a throwback video to help shake out the cobwebs. And for the newjacks, yes Xzibit had a career before MTV’s Pimp My Ride. Long live the golden era of hip-hop. –Jonathan Cunningham…
So reports say that legendary producer, radio host, and Juice Crew affiliate Marley Marl has had a heart attack and is recovering in a New York hospital. I’m not sure if there’s need for a candlelight vigil, but dude could use some prayers. And for those that worship the Temple…
Hip-hop legends Grandmaster Dee of Whodini (now a Broward County resident) and Flava Flav are usually great on the microphone, but watching them trying to plug a local sports channel is too funny. By the third take, the cameraman must have been wondering what he got himself into. –Jonathan Cunningham…
So I came across this video while cruising the internet and couldn’t believe how much electronic music has grown since these days. Picture Herbie Hancock teaching Quincy Jones how to make techno beats. Yeah, that’s what I thought, ridiculous right… until I saw this. The year was 1983 and all…
There’s something rather, uh, funky about neo-Eastern European music. Not funky in a Clyde Stubberfield backing up James Brown kind of way, but then again, when you combine a Slavic blend of accordion, tuba, darabouka, and clarinet with the trombone, it’s hard not to smell the funk in the air…
Detroit rappers/producers are entering an age of acclaim. Now that late Motown rapper/producer extraordinaire J Dilla is getting posthumous props all over the globe, the rap world seems hungry for anything with an authentic Detroit sound. It’s a fine time for former in-house Slum Village producer Black Milk to release…
Imagine a planet where two of your favorite artists from various genres are constantly smashed together on one track. Rick James and Busta Rhymes. Sean Paul and the Temptations. Arrested Development and Jay-Z, for Christ’s sake. It’s an odd world, but Brooklyn’s funky DJ collective the Rub pulls it off…
Afrobeat is an often imitated musical form, but few bands approach it with the respect and creativity that Brooklyn’s Antibalas has over the years. When the band was created nearly a decade ago, its music picked up where the genre’s architects, Fela Kuti and his son Femi, respectively, left off…
On his previous album, Joyful Rebellion, Canadian rapper k-os shouted defensive lyrics like “Hip-hop is not dead/It’s the mind of the MC.” That particular rhyme got him in trouble with critics who saw the Toronto-based lyricist as a preacher’s kid proselytizing the masses. But k-os actually is a preacher’s kid…
Jamaican singer Richie Spice approaches dancehall music from a vastly different angle than most of his peers. Despite growing up in the rough parish of St. Andrews, Spice’s smooth vocals and delicate songwriting stand in stark contrast to most of the soundbwoy fi dead shit-talk now proliferating throughout the reggae…
Allen Toussaint New Orleans-based singer/producer Allen Toussaint is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to the Big Easy’s musical history. He’s worked as a session player with most of New Orleans’ major heavyweights (the Meters, Patti LaBelle, the Neville Brothers, and Dr. John) and got his start playing backup for…
It’s good finally to hear an LP from Cali-via-Detroit hip-hop darling Ta’Raach, who has been stuck in “next to blow up” status for, well, the bulk of his life. While rapping under the name Lacks in the late Nineties, he helped start a makeshift group called the Breakfast Club with…
Queens-bred, Broward-based lyricist Dynas has put out an impressive limited-edition mixtape, Street Skriptures, that unabashedly “borrows” beats and vocals from other producers. Corporate attorneys would call such an act theft, but hey, this is hip-hop. Jacking beats is a 25-year-old habit within the genre, and on Street Skriptures, Dynas does…
Black Milk is becoming the hip-hop junkie’s newest fix. Born Curtis Cross, he has been creeping toward brand-name status since his 2005 debut album, Sound of the City. Until then, Black Milk was known strictly as a producer, so his pinpoint lyricism caught critics by surprise. His ability as an…
