If the worlds of upmarket foodie porn and hip-hop collided, what would you find at the crash site? Behold, The Rhyming Chef, who will threaten local cows and sing you through the preparation of dishes like the Barbuda Get Laid Salad. [more inside]
posted by bicyclefish on Nov 5, 2009 - 7 comments

It was 30 years ago today... October, 1979: Rapper's Delight by the Sugarhill Gang was released. A few days later, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five gave us the tighter and catchier (IMHO) Superrappin'. Hip Hop had arrived. Here's a charming interview with a New York City paramedic who, as a very young photographer on the South Bronx scene back in the day, was the unofficial photo-documentarian of the birth of hip hop.
posted by flapjax at midnite on Oct 14, 2009 - 32 comments

Violinist Paul Dateh and turntablist Inka One bring it. Violin and turntables, like peanut butter and chocolate. If there are equivalent examples of where music is headed in the 21st century I'd like to see them. For a bit of a background on this, here's an interview with Paul Dateh the violinist. [more inside]
posted by jeremias on Oct 9, 2009 - 31 comments

Fox in Socks with beatbox
posted by ardgedee on Sep 23, 2009 - 24 comments

Mark Skillz, hip hop historian of a sort and an occasional writer for Wax Poetics, represents the old school of hip hop and lets others tell their stories on Hip Hop 101A. From Eddie Cheba recalling his time as a top DJ in the small world of hip hop in 1977, to the life of Sparky D, who took up the good fight for UTFO and started the Roxanne Wars, one of hip hop's first rap battles. Read up on the fall of funk and the rise of Planet Rock, and reminisce with Reggie Wells about the birth of hip hop from black club deejays in Manhattan who were refining a slick style of talk over disco records to open hip hop jams in the park. As a bonus, Wells throws out a playlist straight from Club 371 (videos after the break). [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Sep 18, 2009 - 23 comments

SLYTFilter: MC Frontalot - "It is Pitch Dark"
You are likely to be eaten by a grue. / If this predicament seems particularly cruel, / Consider whose fault it could be, / Not a torch or a match in your inventory.
Directed by MeFi's Own™ Jason Scott for his documentary about text adventures, GET LAMP. [previously] Featuring MC Frontalot [previously] and Steve Meretzky. More grues on MeFi.
posted by not_on_display on Sep 1, 2009 - 30 comments

Hip-hop has another warrant of bourgeois respectability to place on the shelf: Run-D.M.C. have had a street named after them in Brooklyn.
posted by shothotbot on Aug 31, 2009 - 37 comments

Last week, Eddy Temple Morris, a DJ on UK radio station XFM, challenged Twitter to remix as many songs as possible into 10 minutes. The previous record was held by Wizard of Deekline and Wizard - it is now held by rapper, producer and all-round renaissance man Akira the Don, who managed to fit a staggering 210 tracks into 1/6 of an hour. He's just put together a video to accompany the mix - watch it here
posted by muggsy1079 on Aug 26, 2009 - 22 comments

"In a hotel room in Florida during the summer of 2008, we were given an exciting preview of a "Nintendo Mixtape" by burgeoning rap group, No Question? As we listened, we felt like Mario must have felt during his first ingestion of a fire flower. In other words, we knew immediately that this was some good shiz." [more inside]
posted by kableh on Aug 11, 2009 - 58 comments

Tony & Tupac [more inside]
posted by Rubbstone on Aug 4, 2009 - 3 comments

Little Boy Dancing [SLYT]
posted by humannaire on Jul 28, 2009 - 37 comments

Back when he was younger, Jay-Z was a merciless, ruthless killer in the "beefs" which define hip hop politics. [...] As Jay-Z got older and more powerful, the marginal benefits of such battles declined and the costs increased even as the number of would-be rivals escalated. Just as the U.S. attracts resentment and rhetorical anti-Americanism simply by virtue of being on top, so did Jay-Z attract a disproportionate number of attackers.

Why hip-hop sucks in 2009. by Dr. Lawyer Indian Chief of FreeDarko [more inside]
posted by AceRock on Jul 21, 2009 - 113 comments

Root magazine analyzes "Blipsters" (with photo examples). In an era when Hip-hop is on the presidential I-pod (Atlantic Roundtable on Hip Hop) while more and more multiracial rock, hip-hop, and crossover acts are appearing on the scene, is mainstream culture ready to move beyond racial fashion dichotomies? [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on May 20, 2009 - 79 comments

Hip hop is made of four elements: Deejaying and turntablism, Emceeing (rapping and freestyling), Breaking (more previously), and Graffiti. And don't forget beatboxing (more), which blends turntablism and emceeing. But what if you can't make the wikka-wikka sounds with your mouth? You could learn from others, or you could dust off your flute with Nathan Lee, or bust out your sousaphone with Nat McIntosh (formerly with Youngblood Brass Band (interviewed on NPR), now with Dallas Brass).
posted by filthy light thief on May 19, 2009 - 19 comments

Flaming Garbage Cans In Hip Hop Videos. Pretty self-explanatory; a blog that tracks the use of the flaming garbage can in hip hop music videos.
posted by Demogorgon on Apr 5, 2009 - 19 comments

Dynamic Duo do an attendance check, DJ Doc run to you with Epik High and Younha's help, Epik High and Younha love love love, Buga Kingz hear a siren, Drunken Tiger has a good life with T (윤미래) and bizzy, and Dynamic Duo check whether you're solo and still here!
posted by needled on Apr 3, 2009 - 23 comments

Four Hours of Free Funkiness Filter: Pretty Lights [more inside]
posted by jammy on Mar 31, 2009 - 20 comments

He's a Hasidic Jew, but that doesn't stop him from dropping mad raps over hot reggae beats. Did I mention he can beatbox like a mofo, too? He was born Matt Miller, but you can call him Matisyahu. [more inside]
posted by baphomet on Mar 31, 2009 - 71 comments

Hip Hop Zelda. It's a booty call from Hyrule, a love letter in rhyme to your childhood featuring some of the best independent and mainstream Hip Hop artists. MF Doom, Edan and Aesop Rock get tossed together with Dr. Dre, Common, and Jay Z in this surprisingly compelling mashup of old Legend of Zelda tunes. If the TriForce Rules Everything Around You, hit up the link above to stream the album, or download it for free here. [more inside]
posted by shmegegge on Mar 17, 2009 - 23 comments

There's really no need for all that swearing, Mr Ice Cube. While Adam Buxton has already revised one of NWA's finest in Help The Police, it has been soundly trumped by Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer, who is about to deliver the extent of his street cricket knowledge.
posted by rhodri on Mar 6, 2009 - 25 comments

Snacks and Shit - The premise is simple: A single hip-hop lyric, taken out of context, with bonus commentary.
posted by toxic on Feb 24, 2009 - 110 comments

Beyond Chris Brown and Rihanna. By now you've probably heard about Chris Brown and Rhianna. Jay Smooth of Ill Doctrine asked Elizabeth Mendez Berry, author of Vibe Magazine's 2005 feature Love Hurts (pdf) about "domestic violence within (and without) hiphop", for her thoughts. [more inside]
posted by lunit on Feb 15, 2009 - 50 comments

Division: Work it out! - these girls be spittin the math.
posted by madamjujujive on Jan 17, 2009 - 40 comments

Current.com's Daily Fix has named their Top 5 Free MixTapes of 2008. At number five is Black Milk's Elec. Number four is Wale's mixtape about Seinfeld (seriously). Number three is The Hood Internet vs. Chicago. Number two is Charles Hamilton's Crash Landed. Number one is a tie between Lil Wayne's The Draught is Over Part Six and some Kanye remixes called Sky High. Bonus mixtape not from the list: Jaydiohead - JayZ and Radiohead... in the same songs... I like 'em all
posted by pwally on Jan 13, 2009 - 12 comments

Classic hip-hop albums, recreated in Lego
posted by mathowie on Dec 16, 2008 - 47 comments

Sneakers: A Short Film Meditation on International Shoe Culture [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on Nov 12, 2008 - 9 comments

What does it all mean? In many ways, today's remix culture kicked off in earnest one weekend in 1983 when two ad men (one a recording engineer) spent a weekend in a studio crafting the first pop record made up entirely of samples in the hopes of winning a $100 remix contest. [more inside]
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas on Nov 9, 2008 - 20 comments

Way back in 1984, when rap was still in its infancy, a now-obscure Brooklyn trio called UTFO released a record entitled "Roxanne, Roxanne". UTFO cancelled an appearance at a show promoted by now-legendary figures Mr. Magic and Marley Marl, and when a teenage girl named Lolita Shante Gooden overheard them discussing the cancellation and their anger over it, she offered to record a diss track as the titular Roxanne, and became Roxanne Shante. UTFO responded with their own "Real Roxanne", and thus began a ridiculously long series of answer records involving everyone from the fictional Roxanne's doctor to her grandmother. Now you can listen to them all without spending a fortune: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10 [more inside]
posted by DecemberBoy on Oct 27, 2008 - 40 comments

African Swim is the newest free album being offered by Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. This time the album features South African hip hop groups.
posted by drezdn on Oct 21, 2008 - 12 comments

post a celebrity and i will TRY to tell you a story about them. Amhir "?uestlove" Thompson, drummer for the Legendary Roots Crew regales the crowds at Okayplayer with tales from the life of a professional musician. [more inside]
posted by cosmic osmo on Oct 21, 2008 - 23 comments

Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rap, by the Notorious B.O.A.L.T. (audio NSFW) [more inside]
posted by Navelgazer on Oct 9, 2008 - 17 comments

On the 10 year anniversary of his death, Mr. Cee of New York's Hot 97 played a 4-hour tribute mix (with some interviews and such) dedicated to the Notorious B.I.G., a/k/a Biggie Smalls a/k/a Big Poppa a/k/a Christopher George Latore Wallace. Downloads in four parts available here. [more inside]
posted by kosem on Oct 6, 2008 - 20 comments

Concert promoter LiveDaily has an acoustic live sessions program (video starts playing). It's been running since March of this year and so far 33 artists have performed: Priscilla Ahn, The Raveonettes, Black Lips, Paddy Casey, Dawn Landes, Lykke Li, The Duke Spirit, Frightened Rabbit, Foreign Born, The Dodos, The Virgins, Radar Bros., Langhorne Slim, Shwayze, Joseph Arthur, Missy Higgins, Wild Sweet Orange, Le Switch, Deadly Syndrome, Steve Poltz, Weather Underground, Imaad Wasif, Rogue Wave, David Ford, Takka Takka, Black Ghosts, The Airborne Toxic Event, Tally Hall, Lionel Loueke, Calico Horse, Rademacher, Judith Owen and Carrie Rodriguez
posted by Kattullus on Sep 30, 2008 - 10 comments

Assignment details: Discuss the following: We know that life exists on Earth, and has taken billions of years to evolve into the things we see today. But has this happened anywhere other than Earth? Well, to help sort out this headscratcher of a question, NASA has commissioned MC Oort Kuiper, aka Jonathan Chase, a grad student at the University of Glamorgan, to write a rap about it. "Astrobiology" appears in the European edition of Astrobiology Magazine.
posted by not_on_display on Sep 25, 2008 - 10 comments

Juan Epstein is the unaffiliated project of HOT 97 Radio DJ's Peter Rosenberg and Cipha. In this episode they talk with Qtip about how he[YT] got his start. They also interviewed Latarian the Elementary schooler who stole his grandmother's car [YT] [more inside]
posted by Rubbstone on Aug 29, 2008 - 3 comments

Hummus: The Rap (SLYP) Annoying ironic hipster? Earnest hummus lover? Who cares, hummus deserves phat beats. [more inside]
posted by TungstenChef on Aug 7, 2008 - 24 comments

The Large Hadron Collider. The Large Hadron Countdown. The Large Hadron Rap.
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Jul 30, 2008 - 76 comments

The Clown Walk (also known as the C-Walk) refers to a modern dance style, usually done to hip hop music. It is a variation of the Crip walk, a gang related dance. Clown Walking, however, was created to distance the relationship between the dance style and the Crips gang. PimpMyWalk.com is a site where you can learn how to C-Walk. (language and lyrics NSFW). Step-by-step video instructions teach you how to do the V, the shuffle, and when you're really gangsta, the wiggle walk. More than a dozen tutorial videos plus expert samples.
posted by netbros on Jul 27, 2008 - 43 comments

Japanese-style popping is dope - check out u-min and dancers on the Polysics I My Me Mine. The girl, Strong Machine 2, was only 11 years old at filming. And let's not forget the classic display of popping in Late at Night. But beyond these dancers who've achieved some commercial prominence, check out a few fun and stylized Japanese popping clips from lesser known but great dancers. [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive on Jul 26, 2008 - 29 comments

El-P, founder of Def Jux, is not your average rap artist. His themes and style are frequently lush and apocalyptic. While Deep Space 9mm launched 'El-Producto', cleverly futuristic works like Stepfather factory, Flyentology with Trent Reznor or the darker Tasmanian Pain Coaster are his hallmark. He recently released a new mixtape free online, along with the lyrics pdf for his album. He also recently remixed a song from MTV's TRL, warping it into a chaotic police state jam, mirroring other songs of his with themes of authority and control. [more inside]
posted by cashman on Jul 10, 2008 - 36 comments

The kids today sure do love the hip hop music, so let's be sure to cram as much of it into our movie as possible. Thrill as MC Hammer jams with the Addams family, Bobby Brown preaches the word of the Ghostbusters via bluescreen, Rodney Dangerfield cuts loose, Ronald McDonald busts a move, and Tom Hanks & Dan Aykroyd dance their way through a criminal investigation. [Previously]
posted by Servo5678 on Jul 7, 2008 - 33 comments

Mashup artist Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, is another artist to try the 'pay whatever you want' Internet release model. However, his 55-minute album consists of over 300 samples from other artists, with many current and past hits. No stranger to current controversies in copyright, Gillis also appeared in the documentary Good Copy Bad Copy. Previously. [more inside]
posted by uaudio on Jun 20, 2008 - 44 comments

Urban Pasifika, a sub-genre of hip hop which combines American style hip hop or R&B rhyming and beats with Pacific Island or Māori instrumentation. While older artist covered topics like polynesian heritage, the disconnect from immgration to another land and support for Māori sovereignty. [more inside]
posted by X-00 on May 19, 2008 - 5 comments

The year is 1989, the world of hip hop in mainstream America is dominated by the street hard, in your face West Coast Gangsta Rap genre headed by NWA. And an army of increasingly forgettable imitators as well as genuine ingenuity coming from the opposite coast The pop music market is dominated by the sugary sweet vaguely hip-hopish pop of The New Kids On The Block. And on the corner Crendshaw and Exposition in South Central Los Angeles a group of kids at a health food store called The Good Life Health Food And Resource Center take a weekly Open Mike and turn it into an ongoing hip hop workshop where lyrical prowess, performance, and positivity instead of battling and trash talking was encouraged. In fact, swearing was strictly disallowed at The Good Life. [more inside]
posted by mediocre on May 17, 2008 - 36 comments

Akon Call T-Pain
posted by jne1813 on Apr 28, 2008 - 56 comments

In LA, a 63 (70!)-piece orchestra blends the styles of Charles Mingus and Duke Ellington with hip-hop, European classical music, and free jazz. Spend some time with the dAKAH Orchestra and it's founder Geoff "Double G" Gallegos.
posted by mikoroshi on Apr 23, 2008 - 9 comments

Ricky Flores photographs of B-Boys in the 80s. [more inside]
posted by chunking express on Apr 21, 2008 - 14 comments

Animal Pharm
posted by joe defroster on Apr 18, 2008 - 15 comments

The SEO Rapper (a.k.a. The Poetic Prophet) spits rhymes on such topics as Design Coding, Link Building, Paid Search, and Conversion Closing for all your marketing campaign and web design needs.
posted by dhammond on Mar 27, 2008 - 9 comments