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

Julia Nunes can sing. And she plays ukulele. But what won me over: her charming, silly demeanor. She videoed herself playing Queen, Kanye, Destiny's Child, Bright Eyes and others and posted it to YouTube. Now she's got an album (eMusic) and is playing Bonnaroo.
posted by eustacescrubb on Jun 7, 2009 - 46 comments

A few months ago I heard a song from the Côte d’Ivoire. Twelve minutes long, Champion DJ’s ‘Baako’ is built around a baby crying through Auto-Tune. The software bends the baby’s anguish into eerie musicality. The ear likes it. The mind isn’t so sure. ‘Baako’ is disturbing. The aestheticized cry no longer corresponds to any normal emotion. Before Auto-Tune, we had no melodious screams. dj/Rupture writes an essay about auto-tune.
posted by geos on May 2, 2009 - 49 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

The Kanye West Beat Drop. A number of the web's best rap blogs get together to post and chronicle the best of Mr. West's impressive and extensive history of producing, ghost producing, and the stories around many of the songs. [more inside]
posted by cashman on Jun 15, 2008 - 25 comments

Artist Dan Bergeron likes to muck around with billboard adverts. His recent doctoring of a billboard featuring Bush in Toronto has earned him some press in the Globe and Mail.
posted by chunking express on Aug 11, 2006 - 43 comments

"Heard 'Em Say" is Kanye West's latest video, animated by the legendary Bill Plympton.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Dec 1, 2005 - 87 comments

George Bush Doesn't Care about Black People: The Remix? Kanye West's anti-Bush ad lib on a telethon for the victims of Hurricane Katrina has already attracted considerable controversy, but now Legendary K.O. of the Houston rap group, the K-Otix, has decided to immortalize Kanye West's soundbite by incorporating it into a mash-up with Kanye's song Golddigger. The K-Otix rewrote Golddigger's lyrics to serve as an indictment of Bush and his sluggish response to Katrina, while simultaneously promoting Houston Hurricane Aid to help displaced residents of New Orleans. Other rappers including Mos Def have already recorded songs in response to the disaster, while other performers such as Jay-Z and Usher have rallied to Kanye West's defense.
posted by jonp72 on Sep 17, 2005 - 172 comments

Kanye West gets twitchy on Red Cross Benefit Oh goodness. The young prankster in me loves this kind of thing. The boring matured realist version of me finds this divisive bumper-stickerism toxic to our modern political dialogue. And worse still I see the following scenario unfold: Kanye West: "George Bush doesn't care about black people". Cut to: My mother-in-law in front of the tv, slowly putting her checkbook back into her purse.
posted by glenwood on Sep 2, 2005 - 187 comments