It was an accident. It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. It broke the rules of what a hit single should be. The unlikely pairing of Goodie Mob frontman, Cee-Lo, and remixer-turned-super-producer, Danger Mouse was a fluke in today’s age of disposable music. But “Crazy”, coupled with a ridiculously solid debut, did it for Gnarls [cont.]

It’s been a minute since we heard from the self-proclaimed Funky Homosapien, Del. His first two records were cult classics, helping launch the Hieroglyphics crew, whom, as a whole, played a huge role in the creation of the indie hip-hop movement. Del remained elusive during the underground’s new frontier, releasing a few solo records, (Future [cont.]

Who says New York lost its crown? For as many jiggy emcees that we saw emerge from the region after Biggie passed, there’s a million roughneck street cats spitting rhymes on the corner, watching each breath come out of their mouths with each accompanying lyric. NYC’s own Torae can be added to that list, whose passion [cont.]

Third times a charm? DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist re-team once again for The Hard Sell, the latest installment in their non-stop 45 live mixes, following classic entries Brainfreeze and Product Placement. The mission this time around? To be the first headlining turntablists to play the Hollywood Bowl, the legendary 16,500 seat venue which has [cont.]

Usually when celebrities try to take on projects that are outside of their craft, it’s viewed as a “vanity project.” It’s more or less the star saying to the audience, “Yes, I am so infinitely talented as an (actor/athlete/singer/rapper) that I can also (sing/rap/act/play sports)!” In the case of rapping, the results are usually disastrous. [cont.]

The big question here is, how do you fuck this recipe up? 1) Take one of the hottest club producers, who has produced hits for Jay-Z, Beyonce, DMX, Eve, Cassidy, and countless others; 2) give him a major label album deal; 3) let simmer for a year or two; 4) and the end result should [cont.]

Bishop Lamont is Dr. Dre’s latest discovery and newest signee to the Aftermath imprint. However with the label’s track record for signing artists and never releasing an album, the Carson, California based emcee took matters into his own hands, releasing his N***** Noise mixtape earlier in the year. Combing a gangster-ass attitude, but with the [cont.]

Indie hip-hop today is a hard hustle, just ask the folks at Embedded Music. Not to familiar with them? Well, Embedded is a forward-thinking NYC indie imprint, that is run by the guy who runs another forward thinking NYC indie imprint, Definitive Jux. That man would be Jesse “DJ Ese” Ferguson, and while El-P owns [cont.]

Getting a record deal is not the answer to your problems. Just ask Kenna, one of the many thousands of artists that have landed a major label deal, who is struggling to become a household name. You’d think that with the embracing of The Neptunes, who produced Kenna’s first record, New Sacred Cow, in 2002 [cont.]

Hip-Hop has changed tremendously in the last ten years, and as the major label way of doing business dominates the culture, we see less and less of our favorite lyricists being rewarded for making honest music. Let’s face it – these days, you need a club-banger to get radio or video play, and at the end [cont.]

You have to hand it to Edo G. Most rappers of his generation – the 1980′s – no longer have careers. Hell, most rappers from the 1990′s are even having problems remaining relevant in the new millenium. Thankfully for Edo, he’s always found new ways to reinvent himself. Over the past few years, we’ve seen [cont.]

In hip-hop, the land of India is not as sampled as the land of say…Motown…so there’s plenty of beat mining to be done in the country. And some hip-hop producers have already started. Timbaland has carved out many-a-hit record (and accompanying lawsuit) from the region’s sample rich resources, while artists like Jay-Z and Eve have [cont.]

Listening to Percee P rhyme on virtually any track on Perseverance makes it easy to envision him standing outside of Fat Beats NYC, slanging self-produced CD’s to backpackers, just as he’s done over the past few years. You can hear the hunger in his voice and his seemingly endless cache of run on rhymes flow [cont.]

Student kills the teacher? Who would have thought that Roc-A-Fella’s “least marketable artist” would become their hottest commodity in years, perhaps even surpassing Jay-Z in terms of popularity. Well, maybe not quite, but “Golddigger” was a bigger commercial hit than the last few Jay-Z singles we remember. With his third LP, the aptly titled Graduation, [cont.]

The short history of M.I.A. can be summed up as a whirlwind series of events that began in her childhood, as the daughter of a Tamil revolutionary whom was hiding from the Sri Lankan army. Running off with her mother and the rest of her family, they ultimately ended up as refugees in London, where [cont.]

     Tallahassee’s T-Pain first made it big two years ago with crossover hits “I’m Sprung” and “I’m In Love With A Stripper” off of his Jive Records debut, Rappa Ternt Sanga (yes, that is spelled “correctly”). Utilizing a “talk box” with his vocals, T-Pain’s style has been compared to the late Roger Troutman. With two [cont.]

    As far as white boys go, there’s only a few out there that get the elusive “ghetto pass”. Sure, you’ve got Eminem and Justin Timberlake - two undeniable talents, and just like them, you’ve got to be good - or have some friends in the rock department, to get signed to a major label while being [cont.]

Mixtape; No Rating Given.      Royce has had a string of bad luck throughout the course of his career. He’s rolled in all of the right circles, first being introduced by Eminem, who later landed him a ghostwriting gig for Dr. Dre’s 2001 LP. When word got out that he was advocating the Doc’s lyric [cont.]

   “This is the mixtape, imagine how the album sound,” brags Prodigy on Return Of The Mac, his new Koch released mini-album, which features wall-to-wall production from The Alchemist. But this isn’t an album full of “Keep It Thoros”, more a collection of songs that find the two artists giving their “B” and “C” game - [cont.]

   Peep game. For over ten years, Consequence has ran in all of the right circles, been cosigned by legendary artists, but has yet to become a hip-hop household name. Cousin to Q-Tip, he made his first appearance as the “new member” of A Tribe Called Quest, appearing all over the Beats, Rhymes, and Life [cont.]