Childhood nicknames are rarely sophisticated. John Benitez knows this all too well. When he was a kid, his sister started calling him jellybean, on account of his initials and that old saying “know what I mean, jellybean?” “When I grew up in the Bronx, everyone had nicknames, because everyone was…
If you’re a hip-hop head in South Florida, you know Felisha Monet. She’s holdin’ you down on your drive at 5, delivering the hits you want to hear on 99.1 FM. She hooks you up with free tickets and requests, and she always has the right song to get you…
In 1997, a young drag queen walked into a Versace Memorial Day weekend party at the legendary South Beach Warsaw club. The general manager spotted her, asked who she was, and hired her on the spot. Today that drag queen, known as the fabulous Elaine Lancaster, has been honored with…
Miami’s comedy-loving heart skipped a beat yesterday when the post went out on Instagram yesterday: Gramps had uploaded a hand-written note announcing that Hannibal Burress would have a secret show that night at the Wynwood bar. The Broad City and Eric Andre Show comedian is one famously funny motherfucker, and at…
It’s 5:43 p.m. inside Mac’s Club Deuce, and the lurid pink neon on the walls glows through the cigarette haze. College kids in tank tops play a game of pick-up pool with a Colombian man who speaks broken English while the Staple Sisters wail from the jukebox, promising to take…
Hey dude. It’s your girl. You know me. I just want to dance, and, when one wants to dance, one can do no better than ’90s to ’00s era hip-hop. That’s why I’ve come to love Peachfuzz so much, the weekly-turned-monthly Friday night function that brings people of all tastes,…
There is perhaps no better people-watching spot than outside the main gates of Ultra Music Festival. Trust us. The fashion, the megaphone-wielding Jesus-preachers — this more entertaining than any Oscar-winning film in the last decade. For the 18th annual Ultra Music Festival, we once again hit the streets with New…
Well, it’s over. In the end, Ultra 2016 saw little rain, great performances, and — save for the Prodigy’s last-minute cancellation — minimal hiccups. At 18 years of age, Ultra has matured into a well-oiled festival, running smoothly from the Porta Potty to the Main Stage. Yesterday, the third and…
This year, Miami’s Ultra Music Festival turns 18-years-old. Which means, under Ultra’s new age restrictions, it can finally attend itself (while smoking a cigarette). And the festival’s maturity is starting to show. Day one of Ultra was largely a smooth success. Even Mother Nature cooperated (which didn’t happen during last…
Four years ago, Patrick Topping was just another dude from England wandering the South Beach strip, hopping from party to party, getting his mind totally blown by Miami Music Week, Winter Music Conference, and the hundreds of satellite parties around the city. This year, he’s back to play Ultra Music…
Matriphagy; noun: A condition in which the young cannibalize their creator to survive. It’s a practice common among crab spiders, whose mothers sacrifice themselves to trigger the predatory instinct. The younger generation doesn’t kill in bad blood. Overwhelming, the parent is necessary for growth, the only way to fulfill the…
Most dance fans would kill to travel the world and attend all the dance music festivals this earth has to offer, but for Geronimo, the head of EDM Programming at SiriusXM Radio, it’s just another day at the office. As the program director for SiriusXM dance channels, he handles all…
Have you been outside lately? The sky is clear and blue, the breeze is blowing, and the sun is shining warm. The water is glistening Bahamian blue, and the palm trees are swaying. It is that wondrous time of year — in late winter, just before spring — that reminds…
Do you remember that video of bikini-clad University of Miami Delta Gamma sorority sisters jumping off yachts a few weeks ago? You should. It topped the Facebook trending list for three days. The man behind that video is back, but this time, there are no half-naked college girls. Instead, there’s…
Most people would kill to host a show that lasts 23 years. Foulmouthed South Beach drag babe Shelley Novak, on the other hand, ain’t most people. “I’m excited to be doing it, but like any homosexual, when something gets around 23, 24, we start to lose interest in it,” Novak…
Cody and Marcus Johns always knew they’d be entertainers. The South Florida natives were writing, filming, and acting in their own mini movies before the eldest brother was even 10. They would shoot the scenes sequentially on their dad’s Hi8 camera, and though they’d move on to higher production roles…
The annual Model Beach Volleyball Tournament went down on Miami Beach this past weekend, February 20 through 21. For the seventh year in a row, beautiful people donned bathing suits and battled competing talent agencies. We’re not sure who won, and really, we don’t know who would care. The real…
Graffiti operates under the assumption that art is by and for the people. The murals of Wynwood prove that street art can be of such high caliber that it demands worldwide recognition. This point is echoed when public works from famous street artists such as Banksy and Shepard Fairey find…
In 2012, artist Bryan Zanisnik, standing inside a Plexiglas case, silently read Phillip Roth’s The Great American Novel while a chaotic assortment of baseball cards and outdated U.S. currency whirled around him. Roth immediately served him a cease-and-desist order. It was only the first day of the artist’s planned five-week performance in…
The year was 2011. American audiences were high on the rush of pulsing BPMs. But still we craved more. We demanded it, and in Miami, LIV was our answer, dealing out some of the dopest beats on the market. Always on the lookout for the hottest rising stars, it booked…
You’ve got to be pretty slick to rock the nickname “Godmother of Soul,” but you’ve got to be even slicker to go by “High Priestess of Good Vibrations.” Miss “Lady Marmalade” Patti LaBelle goes by both, and for good reason. Her voice iconic, both smooth and fiery. It could cook…
You might think the 18th-annual Medical Marijuana Benefit Concert would be a hippie-ridden, dreadlocked-Rasta smoke-out, but the organizer, who goes by the name Flash, would tell you to sit your blunt down. For him, it’s education over sedation. “We want people to learn at the event and then teach others…
