During Labor Day weekend, Hurricane Frances caused considerable damage, and not only to our unlucky neighbors in Broward and Palm Beach counties. The interminable storm sparked a flurry of cancellations and postponements of several major concerts. A big Friday, September 3, rap show at the Coconut Grove Convention Center with…

South Florida is full of all sorts of weird and wonderful things. One little-known variety is Nophi Records, a small leftfield electronic label in Davie owned by producer Randy “r_garcia” Garcia. Though most local kids haven’t heard of this five-year-old imprint, Nophi has already issued nineteen releases of leftfield IDM,…

Miami quartet Sunday Driver has been touring all year behind their great 2003 rawk debut, A Letter to Bryson City, with little talk of a follow-up. Joining them on their current jaunt are two equally promising bands: Batavia, New York’s Down to Earth Approach, who just released its debut, Another…

This summer has been a most unusual one for the Magic City. Far from being just another sleepy sweater post-season, this summer has featured an inundation of great concerts (Mum, the Cure), car shows galore and, to cap it all off, a wild and overcrowded MTV VMA weekend of parties…

In the most popular DJ contest, few house music advocates can compare to trance spinners such as Paul van Dyk and Tiesto … except for Danny Tenaglia. Defying all odds, Tenaglia has ruled New York’s dance scene for over a decade, fueling his sets with tribal (hell, he was one…

Forest of the Echo Downs is an ambient electro album from the New York (formerly Miami) trio Secret Frequency Crew, the follow-up to their excellent 2001 debut EP, The Underwater Adventure Hop Secret Treasure. It has been designed as an aural swamp, and overlaid with crickets chirping, bugs buzzing, and…

It was around 2:00 a.m. on Monday, August 30 when I ventured into the alleyway behind Mansion for OutKast’s MTV Video Music Awards after party. I had just spoken to the publicist overlooking the velvet rope in front of the club, telling her I was on the press list. She…

5, 4, 3 … Applause! Keep it going!” a production assistant commands the 200 or so teenyboppers assembled in the newly created park behind American Airlines Arena for a special Video Music Awards episode of TRL. The show hasn’t even begun taping yet, but the kids, mostly girls in bikini…

M.I.A.M.I. (Money Is a Major Issue), the debut album from super-prospect Pitbull, arrives in stores with considerably high expectations. There is his reputation as one of the most industrious MCs in Dade County; the ubiquitous presence of Lil’ Jon, who produced and appears on much of the disc; and the…

The man behind the Bedrock empire needs little introduction in these parts; as one of the chief beneficiaries of the American rave explosion of the late Nineties, his epic trance tag-team sets with Sasha, captured on mix CDs such as Northern Exposure, helped define electronic music for a generation. Today,…

What’s up with all the freestyle concerts lately? First, there was a concert at Bongo’s Cuban Café; then Miss “Funky Little Beat” herself, Debbie Deb, showed up at crobar for an Eighties flashback. Now comes Freestyle Reunion Concert Uno, an electro-pop blowout with Debbie Deb, Lisa Lisa, Shannon, Joyce Sims,…

It seems like a lifetime ago when DJ Craze was acknowledged as one of the best, and most controversial, hip-hop turntablists in the world. He has seemingly abandoned boom-bap beats for boom-clack tracks, cutting up junglist tracks with the same dexterity he once applied to Super Duck Breaks. His new…

On Sunday, August 29, the MTV Video Music Awards will be presented in a location other than New York or Los Angeles for the first time in its history. It is the latest coup for a locale that already boasts a World Series champion in the Florida Marlins; features an…

By the time Usher Raymond appeared before a horde of journalists, photographers, videographers, and city officials during a press conference announcing the MTV Video Music Awards nominees outside the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the morning sun had risen completely into the sky, threatening to scorch the gathering beneath it. But the…

Like most tourists who fly down to South Beach for a vacation, Marianela Pereyra was on a mission, but she wasn’t necessarily seeking out surf and sun, which was a good thing since those were in short supply during her rain-soaked trip. Instead she came here to promote her fast-rising…

For the past several months, design firm Tekmind, Inc. has been releasing a smattering of twelve-inch records, positing the company as the newest local electro imprint on the block. Its flagship artist is Xerodefx, a collaboration between two brothers, Amer and Khar. The duo’s three releases, including their latest, the…

Since it was first held as a tribute to Albert “Uncle Al” Moss, the influential DJ, producer, and mainstay of the Miami hip-hop scene before his tragic murder in 2001, the Peace in the Hood Festival has become an annual tradition, an all-too-necessary celebration of the power of music in…

With a few exceptions (Arrested Development, anyone?), politically aware lyrical activists usually aren’t peace and loving hippies, but fire and brimstone warriors who advocate a violent overthrow of the system, despite the human cost. Seth P. Brundel, best known as one-half of the group Algorithm, is no different; his debut…

“I use speech to bust rhymes through a concrete wall,” raps Boston MC/producer Insight on “Evolve,” the first single from The Blast Radius. Insight’s music is meant to hit like shrapnel, dousing the ears in horn stabs, rumbling bass, and careening effects. It bears a remarkable similarity to DJ Premier’s…

From August 4-6, Billboard magazine, the industry bible of the American recording industry, had its fifth annual R&B and Hip-Hop Conference Awards at the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach. The three-day event drew some 500 registrants from across the Eastern seaboard for several panel discussions and enthusiastic, if occasionally…

Every summer, a handful of events emerges to capture the (fleeting) hearts of downtown hipsters and Kendall kids. Last year it was Vice and P.E.; this year it looks like Ladyballs may be the queen of the prom. A self-described “chick’s night” for women of all orientations and their male…

Is the real hip-hop over here? The combination of the legendary KRS-One, the chameleonic rap musician Cex, and staunch indie-rockers Make Believe would seem to make for an irreverent night of fireworks and awkward glances. Alas, one of the greatest rappers of all time will be appearing at an early…