Over in the soccer world, championships were decisively won and lost this past weekend.

Beginning in Spain, only five points separated Barcelona and Madrid in their annual two-horse race at the start of Saturday morning. By day’s end, Madrid’s title challenge was effectively over. Read the rest of this entry »

Lost amidst the hype surrounding Tyler The Creator’s raucous Fallon performance was the announcement earlier in the week of his signing of a deal with XL Recordings. Tyler, it seems, knows exactly what he’s doing. Read the rest of this entry »

Ronaldo was the closest thing to MJ soccer has ever seen. The Brazilian, the original, “O Fenomeno” that is. Upon his arrival onto the world soccer stage in the mid-‘90s, the Nike-endorsed wunderkind was the most exciting and, most importantly, the undisputed best. Read the rest of this entry »

Performing at SOBs in New York last week, Chris Ries a.k.a. Young Chris suffered a seizure, collapsed onstage, and was rushed to a nearby hospital. Days later, Chris took to his Twitter to thank fans for their well wishes and explain the cause of the unfortunate occurrence — the stress of the grind. Read the rest of this entry »

The ability for art to transport an audience to a different place has always been one of its biggest draws. But sometimes, it’s a lot simpler then seeing an entirely distant world. Around this time last year, I found myself spinning the self-titled debut from New Jersey surf-rock band Real Estate on repeat. The sounds of the breezy, open shore and tranquil simplicity of the suburbs offered a sharp contrast from New York City during the holidays. Read the rest of this entry »

The line between gimmick and authenticity is a fine one. For the cracked-out Cali kids that call themselves Odd Future, the Jackass steez first introduced in the “EARL” video seemed contrived for shock-value aims. Beyond the surface, group leaders Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler, as well as MellowHype rapper Hodgy Beats, possess legitimate strength and depth in the emceeing department, something of far greater importance than their self-mutilation antics, real or fake. Read the rest of this entry »

Back in the early 2000′s as Real Madrid assembled their Champions League-winning squads, the term “Zidanes y Pavónes” was coined to describe their recruitment policy. On one side were the world-class stars—the “galácticos” the likes of Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo—and on the other were home-grown academy products such as Francisco Pavón to plug the gaps where money couldn’t. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s hard loving the Gorillaz. The cartoon band usually drops a gem of an album, but then a painstaking four or five years will pass until another sees the light of day. Thanks to Steve Jobs, that’s no longer the case. Read the rest of this entry »

Artwork by @dunnyy

Back when “Large On The Streets” first dropped in March, it was reasonable to think Slime Flu was gonna be a gritty, boom-bap outing. But Vado took his time in the lab to craft the best possible product and, apparently, he caught the bug to mastermind a lush, Mafioso affair. First “Celebration.” Now “Goodfellas.” Made man, indeed. Read the rest of this entry »

First introduced to his lyrical talents through his mixtapes, the sporadic releases from J. Cole over the last year have revealed a lot about the man himself, from his utter disdain for Sallie Mae to his Illmatic yearnings. However, even more glaring has been his ascendancy to the upper echelon of the genre’s best producers. Read the rest of this entry »

Recent reports have surfaced reiterating Hov’s plans to invest heavily in Arsenal F.C., one of Europe’s elite soccer clubs despite winning jack sh#t since 2005. On both footballing and financial fronts, the timing of such a move couldn’t be any better. Read the rest of this entry »

It isn’t just the kinda-old hip-hop heads who wanna see OutKast return. Just ask the couple thousand kids in attendance at NYU’s Skirball Center two nights ago.

As an annual gift to the new freshmen, the school throws a mystery concert to kick off the school year, in which the bill is announced the day of the show. So, following openers Dr. Dog and The Knocks, General Patton came out to a hero’s welcome. Those making all of the noise were only about 7 or 8 the last time ‘Kast released a true group album. Yet, many matched Big Boi word for word during the likes of “Player’s Ball,” “Rosa Parks,” and “So Fresh, So Clean” and “Shutterbug,” too. As Andre is finding out as he hits the road more and more, something strange tends to happen when an artist is forced to soldier on without a bandmate—the crowd begins to fill that void.

The European domestic leagues may have already begun but the post-World Cup malaise—a hangover for the winning Spanish—is finally over. With the close of the transfer window and thus the end of the associated player movement, players, managers, fans, and everyone in between must accept their fates for the next four crucial months. Read the rest of this entry »

Visceral verses, a moving soul-man act on the hook, and a smooth cruiser of a beat courtesy of Burn One. All the right elements that make both iterations of “Do Wrong” a signature standout from Gangsta Gibbs, and thus, why my crew at Scheme Engine (formerly North Tower Media) were moved to make a narrative piece that would hopefully do the song justice. Read the rest of this entry »

Every athlete loses a step. In fútbol especially, unless you’re Zidane or Ryan Giggs (or even Gio van Bronckhorst) the difference between mid-20s-prime and early 30s-breakdown is even more glaring, given the game’s reliance on youth.

For Thierry Henry, after trading North London for Barcelona in 2007, the Arsenal legend has been on a slow decline towards obscurity, his presence fading in the shadows of teammates Samuel Eto’o, Lionel Messi, and now, David Villa. He even failed to feature in any of France’s starting lineups in this past World Cup. And so, naturally, following in the footsteps of another waning star, Henry is headed to the MLS to be a European giant among his American teammates.

His skills diminished and confidence lacking, the Red Bulls won’t be getting the deadly finisher who terrorized English defenses. But the 2003 World Player of the Year runner-up, two-time European Golden Boot winner, and goalscoring machine behind the unbeaten “The Invincibles” could conjure some past magic given the weaker opposition.

Something sort of like this: