Get Well Marley Marl

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…

Maroon 5 Show at Studio A this Saturday POSTPONED

Maroon 5’s gig at Studio A, originally scheduled for this Saturday, has been postponed until July 10. Here’s the band’s official statement: “If you haven’t heard already, Matt Flynn’s wife gave birth to the couple’s second child on Tuesday! In order to let Matt spend time with his family, we…

Grandmaster Dee and Flava Flav Play Sportscasters

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…

Know Your Amens From Your Apaches??

No? Well, the two are two of the most important breakbeats, ever, in the history of hip-hop and dance music. Here’s a history of the amen, so called because it originates from a 1969 soul record, “Amen Brother” by the Winstons. You’ll recognize this six-second loop instantly, and this video…

More Minimal Sounds from Miami

Further proof that the dance music underground is growing down here: A day after posting mixes by DJ Nova and Anatoli Russki, I’ve received a message from another local mixer of minimal sounds: Baez. He tells me he’s spinning at a free minimal/tech house party this Friday at the Mark,…

State Radio Electrifies Culture Room

Between the power chords and one-love vibration, State Radio’s performance last night at the Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale in support of their latest album, The Barn Sessions, was electrifying. After browsing the band’s website, I wondered whether Urmston, who pens lyrics about conscientious objectors, was going to preach or…

1440 Minutes

When anthropologists someday debate the exact moment when MTV became cool again, they’d do well to consider May 18-19, 2007 — specifically the 24 consecutive hours (from noon Friday to noon Saturday) the station inexplicably let the players from its sketch comedy show Human Giant take over the airwaves. Without…

Cedric Gervais

For those uninclined toward clubbing: French expatriate Cedric Gervais is one of Miami’s most popular resident DJs, appearing each weekend at Club Space downtown. Gervais spins house music in those lost hours where Saturday night becomes Sunday morning — and, for the happy hardcore, afternoon. The sprawl of a superclub…

Los Tigres del Norte

The average unsuspecting gringo has no idea: Across Latin America, Los Tigres del Norte are huge, regularly selling out stadiums of more than 80,000 seats, registering global sales of more than 32 million records — that kind of huge. Detalles y Emociones is something like the group’s 56th album (really),…

Dungen

Creatively speaking, Sweden’s Gustav Ejstes, the man behind Dungen, refuses to remain earthbound. On Tio Bitar, he takes listeners on a trip to the Fab Nebula, where almost everything within earshot sounds literally out of this world. Ejstes’s ingredients will be familiar to fans of psychedelia, prog, and musical weirdness…

Sage Francis

There’s no denying Sage Francis’s passion — for hip-hop, for speaking truth, for expression itself. Nothing changes with Human the Death Dance, but where 2005’s A Healthy Distrust dealt chiefly with today’s dire sociopolitical landscape, here Sage looks inside to tackle all things personal. As always, he’s most effective when…

Osunlade

Osunlade is, quite literally, the priest of deep, soulful house music — a talented producer who left a promising mainstream career and shed the trappings of the American recording industry in favor of becoming a spiritual guide in the African religion of Ifa. And despite the reputation for excess levied…

Jordan Knight

When former Eighties and Nineties superstars are in search of a sixteenth minute of fame, VH1 offers a slightly less desperate alternative to leaking sex tapes and adopting children. Jordan Knight, a former New Kid on the Block, took a stab at reality-TV redemption on VH1 shows The Surreal Life…

Diam’s

Tumult is nothing new to the French, but their recent political events intrigue partly because of the battle-of-the-sexes element involved. Just take France’s recent presidential election, which resulted in the rejection of popular candidate Ségolène Royal in her bid to become France’s first female president. Enter Diam’s. This female rapper…

Maroon 5

Though he seems annoyingly aware of this fact, Maroon 5’s lithe frontman, Adam Levine, is one of the prettiest pop-rockers to come along in eons. (Oh, how Jared Leto must covet Levine’s milky complexion.) But with his brassy sass and brave forays into the upper registers of his voice on…

Samba School

A jeep bumps along a desolate dirt road in the arid countryside of Pernambuco, Brazil. The dry landscape, part of the nation’s poorest region, is a far cry from the romantic image that Americans have of the country. This is, after all, not the mountains, sea, and Ipanema of Antonio…

Louie’s Lair

“Over 22,000 songs in 20 languages,” beckons the Website for Studio, the self-proclaimed “world’s largest karaoke club,” located below the Shelborne Hotel in Miami Beach. “Giant dance floor with lasers, strobe lights, and smoke! 2 VIP rooms! Chance to jam with the band LIVE! Make a professional CD of your…

Minimal Mixes from Two Miami DJs

Surprise! There is other dance music in Miami besides big-room 7:00 a.m. house. Regulars at small underground spots like Laundry Bar and Blue know this already. Here, a couple mixes from two of Miami’s techno warriors, devoted to that sound birthed in Detroit warehouses and huge everywhere else in the…

Angry Akon Throws Young Fan Offstage

Akon already caused an international media stir recently when he told MTV UK he didn’t believe in blood diamonds. (He was defending his own purchase of a mine in South Africa). Then, there was the onstage debacle involving a teenage girl in Trinidad that caused him to lose his Verizon…

The Jazzified Seeds of Techno

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…

More Good News for Miami Hip-Hop Heads

It’s official: The Rock the Bells tour is coming! What started as a couple of shows in NYC and California featuring possibly the best quality hip-hop lineup ever has been expanded into a national tour. Prepare yourself: It hits Miami’s Bayfront Park on August 4. Tickets go on sale June…