Being a player takes determination, focus, a mean poker face, flawless planning, and a beard that rivals Grizzly Adams’. Fortunately, for Emanuel Alvarez, the latter is in full effect before and after No-Shave November. Better known to many as Glocky Davis, the 25-year-old rapper’s mellow persona can be partly attributed…
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis With Big K.R.I.T. and Talib Kweli American Airlines Arena, Miami Sunday, November 24, 2013 Better Than: We could have ever expected. A great man once said, “If you want to be an active participant in hip-hop culture, you have to get off the couch, go to…
It’s awesome to be a VIP. Even if it only lasts a day. Over the weekend, Brisk Bodega lined up a prime party schedule, from lunch with DJ Irie to an American Airlines Arena VIP suite at the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Talib Kweli concert to a party bus…
It’s Thanksgiving week! That means endless buffets of turkey (or lechón) and pumpkin pie, never-ending family gatherings with cousins you never knew you had, and Southern Comfort hangovers. And if you’re in need of an escape from hearing your Abuela Marta constantly ask you when you’re finally gonna get hitched,…
Janelle Monáe With Roman GianArthur Fillmore Miami Beach Saturday, November 23, 2013 Better Than: James Brown reincarnated as a woman. Janelle Monáe’s set began with four roadies dressed in matching white pants, lab coats, bowties, and glasses clustered in front of the stage, seeming to be in the middle of…
Some people feel bad for the music industry, but we don’t. There may be more illegal downloads than ever. But there are still plenty of super-rich musicians sitting on golden thrones, dining on the hopes and dreams of others and little sandwiches with no crust. OK, just because they’re wealthy,…
“Radically different from what’s happening on the beach.” That’s the ballsy tagline for the inaugural, newly announced Look Alive Fest. And we here at Crossfade can only respond, “Whoa! Yeah! No shit!” Curatorially slammed together by Miami’s Spilt Milk Projects, Brooklyn’s Ad Hoc, and Wynwood’s Gramps, these “two nights of…
They say James Brown was the “hardest working man in show business,” but German house producer Thomas Gold can probably relate. He’s been on the road pretty much constantly throughout 2013. Whenever he’s not rocking parties from here to the Grecian islands, Asia, or Tomorrowland, he’s snuggled up with his…
TGIF! TGIF! TGIF! You may have “danced on tabletops, taken too many shots, and got kicked out of the bar” last Friday night, but like the pop princess Katy Perry herself, tonight you’re gonna “do it all again,” expect you won’t “max out your credit card” ’cause all you’ll need…
Have you ever gotten drunk and thought, “Man, burrrp, I wish I could go back to prom and do it all over again. I would really, hiccup, show them.” Well, if you sobered up, you might realize going back to your real prom is a horrible idea, but taking part…
Art Basel Miami Beach week isn’t just about paint on a canvas, graffiti on a wall, or a sculpture in the park. It’s also about the drop of the boom-bap beat from the most significant art form of the last half-century, hip-hop. Starting in the late 1980s and early 90s,…
Disclaimer: No questions about Kendrick Lamar, Top Dawg Entertainment, the new Source magazine cover big-upping Black Hippy as “Rap’s Illest Crew,” or anything along those lines in this interview. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, it’s been a year and a half since TDE’s human dictionary, Ab-Soul,…
When Macklemore and Ryan Lewis began recording their collaborative debut, they didn’t set out to make a record that would change their lives, shock the industry, or shape the future of hip-hop. They were just two independent musicians doing what they loved with people they cared about. “That’s what made…
When was the last time you went to the movies with Tiesto? How does Hardwell take his popcorn? Alright Afrojack, you can have some of our snowcaps, as long as you promise not to eat them all this time. Oops. You caught us fantasizing about our in-theater Dutch Influence experience…
Poland might not be a major exporter of EDM talent, but it did spawn two major international tastemakers. We’re talking about Catz ‘n Dogz, of course, AKA Wojciech “Voitek” Taranczuk and Grzegorz “Greg” Demianczuk, DJ-producers extraordinaire and the masterminds behind Pets Recordings. As a European counterpart of sorts to Claude…
Bass is the explosive power of a trillion pent up neutrons elbow dropping through the moshpit of your skull. We discovered it on three shining drops of strong Miami acid and you can too. So power your speakers to the red line, drop the needle on that new Caligula, “Sublimation,”…
The world got its first taste of Fergenstein on Live. Love. A$AP., the purple-tinged, codeine-soaked 2011 debut mixtape from New York newcomer A$AP Rocky. The tape ushered in Rocky as a breath of fresh air in the hip-hop game and introduced A$AP as not just a young collective of adventurous…
“All these megastar house DJ/producers seem to come from Holland. Is it something in the water?” We can finally put that tired-ass question to bed, because an entire documentary has been dedicated to the incredible significance and domination of Dutch artists in dance music. Dutch Influence takes an inside look…
What pairs well with bananas? If your answer is anything but champagne, raucous electro-rage bangers, and two wild and crazy guys from Sweden, then you definitely don’t know about that Dada Life. The duo brings a certain rock’n’roll-meets-Dali atmosphere to their live performances, and by that, we mean the energy…
If Miami is an oasis of booze and bashes, then South Beach is the epicenter of it all. On any given night, you’ll find endless parties. The Hennessy’s flowing, killer beats made by world-renowned DJs are blaring, and A-list celebrities and the glamorous people are just standing around mugging for…
Like a Sid Vicious or Johnny Rotten, the spirit of rebellion is alive in Joey Badass, the 18-year-old rapper who fronts up-and-coming Brooklyn collective Pro Era. The crew came together in 2009 at Edward R. Murrow High School, the same place that spawned renowned creatives like graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat…
Music and art enthusiasts! Get out those calendars, those red and black pens, and put them to work for you. The upcoming Art Basel 2013 schedule of events is thickening, and even now, we’ve got some serious news you want to hear. We’re more than stoked to say Kendrick Lamar…
