Ladies and Gentlemen,

On Oct. 1-3, you will need to be in Atlanta, Georgia with the TSS crew, witnessing Hip-Hop history.

Your favorite Section is partnering with the good folks at A3C to bring you the 2009 A3C Hip-Hop Festival. Read the rest of this entry »

KoKo Reign > Knowledge Reigns Supreme

Seth MacFarlane Outs Baby Stewie In ‘Family Guy’: “He’s Gay” [NYDN]

Does It Make Sense to Build Robots That Look Like People? [Gizmodo]

Rapper Gets Prison Time For Cop-Killing Song [HHDX]

Blood, Sweat & Soul: Survival Of The Fittest In R&B [The Source]

10 Great Baseball Beanings [Banned In Hollywood]

German Blog Approves Of Trackstar The DJ’s Eff Yeah It’s Summer [Northcoaster]

‘Reno 911!’ Canceled [EW]

The Second Coming Of Mos Def [Creative Loafing]

Rakim ‘The Seventh Seal’ Album Details [HHC]

49 Most Influential Men Of 2009 [AskMen]

Top 10 Fantasy Wide Receivers [Open Sports]

Bobby Creekwater Leaves Shady/Aftermath Records [Maurice Garland]

It’s Good To Be a Pac Div Fan These Days [Fake Hustle]

10 Of The Best General Lee Jumps Of All-Time [Epic Carnival]

Freshly Baked Delicious Vinyl [Format]

As far as mythical albums go, The Seventh Seal > Detox. Read the rest of this entry »

As you can see from above, yesterday I made my obligatory stop by Best Buy.

Yup, I fought the temptation of acknowledging TC, his luring e-mail comment (“That new Tech leaked”) and paid my hard-earned cash to show support to the HHO Artist Of The Week. Halfway through my own personal listening session, I get to the first of two Nina solo tracks off this collaborative disc, “Blown Away,” and hear Mr. Fuck The Industry himself is throwing a few jabs at Keyshia Cole. By the time I realized they were referencing the situation that took place last summer at KPRS’s Summer Jam in his hometown of KC MO, the third verse of this mid-tempo mockumentary was underway and the face-painted patriarch of psycho music was taking shots at one of the most respected emcees to ever rock a mic.

“Rakim, get off your high hoooorse…”

After hearing the song, I’m not even going to get into why Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a year and I still miss The Wire and all its characters. We said our final goodbyes in 2008 but recent endless viewings of the DVD box set had me feeling sentimental and inspired. It’s the “Who would play me in a movie?” game further realized and repurposed, i.e. which rappers would play characters on The Wire? So, without further adieu…

Charles Hamilton as Duquan “Dukie” Weems — These two have more of an uncanny physical resemblance than Blu and Bubbles. Besides their connection as look-alikes and being coincidentally homeless at different points in life, both are bright, yet can’t seem to get the formula quite right to move on to a higher level of success. Coincidentally, and both lived in the streets.

Nas as Avon Barksdale — Okay, so maybe Nas isn’t really a hustler or a gangster. But he is an older figure who has seen more dominant days, finding his way in an environment that may/may not be suited to his tastes any longer. Oh, and he evolved as the opposite of…

Jay-Z as Stringer Bell — The intelligent hustler. Does/did anyone so knee deep in their respective field have a more savvy business sense than these two?

Andre 3000 as Lester Freamon — These wise vets are intensely cerebral while having a creative outlet that helps them make money while expressing themselves. Both have also expressed discontent or disinterest with the state of their environments. Read the rest of this entry »

The other day, while I was daydreaming about gutting Bill O’Reilly and feeding his cyanide laced insides to the Fox News crew, it occurred to me that Bill was a machine sent here from Hell, and that, by design, he had no edible insides.

I was saddened, and gravely needed a song to listen to as a pick me up. This is how I ended up typing in a random word into my Winamp search.

“Uplift”
Read the rest of this entry »

In a week where “Yacht Rock” was the working theme music…

Nasty Nas took umbrage & spoke out against Jesse Jackson & his comments regarding Obama. He also took aim @ Fox News with a new video. Cop the album when it drops this Tuesday.

If you were looking for fresh faces & voices, might we suggest S1, Boaz, Danny Brown…and Charles Hamilton one more time.

Did you really need more justification for Rakim’s greatness? Read the rest of this entry »

I just finished reading Grandmaster Flash’s autobiography, The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash (More on the book later), and this particular excerpt that had to be shared.

Too often, those of us in the here wonder why Rakim was and still is so revered as an emcee. I even remember hearing him for the first time and I know I’ve told the tale. When you heard him for the first time, you were mesmerized. Period. But having been a little too young to fully remember all the way back to remember Read the rest of this entry »

Words By Khalid Strickland

Pics By Eric Russ

The traveling, independent Hip-Hop festival known as Paid Dues rolled into NYC’s Nokia Theater last week and it was quite an event to say the least. The concert’s line-up was rock solid: Rakim, GZA, Buckshot, Murs (accompanied by his frequent co-defendant, 9th Wonder), Kidz In The Hall and Blackalicious. Guerilla Union, the organization that also coordinates the Rock The Bells tour, gets mucho props for making this joint happen. The Nokia’s been host to some pretty hot Hip-Hop shows this past year; the EPMD jump-off in April, which I documented at TSS, was particularly off-the-chain. How did Paid Dues rate? Let’s find out…

The Crowd

Early on in the show, the size of the crowd was respectable, but sparse. Even the White fans were on C.P.T. But as the show progressed, the crowd began to swell. By the time Buckshot performed midway through the concert, the Nokia was packed. There were hordes of fans rocking Wu-Tang shirts in attendance; The “W” will never die, record sales be damned. The concert-goers were cool, though, no tension whatsoever. People were there to enjoy themselves, not to ice-grill each other and throw down. That can be fun too, but not once at Paid Dues did I feel the slightest need to grab my shank (Nokia security must really trust the press).

While I was at the bar copping another Guinness, I noticed Billy Danze of M.O.P. and his manager Laz-E-Laz standing about four feet away from me, ordering drinks. You’d probably think otherwise after listening to M.O.P.’s music, but Billy was amicable and *gasp* even had a smile on his face. Fans kept walking up, showing crazy love, and he didn’t hook off on anybody. It reminded me of back in the day, when you’d be hanging at clubs like The Ritz or The Grand on any given night and famous rappers were partying amongst the crowd, without fear. I got all misty eyed and shit.

Grade: A

Chick Factor

Being that this was an independent Hip-Hop festival, I didn’t know how many babes would show up. I’m sure GZA and Murs have their fair share of female fans, but if this were a concert that featured Fabolous and LL Cool J, you know there’d be flocks of birds. Plus, the Nokia Theater is located in Times Square, where all the movie theaters are. So I figured all the ladies would skip the concert and peep Sex and the City instead. The aforementioned EPMD concert had a nice amount of hot women, but I went to that gig with wifey, and she’s always cock-blockin’. Read the rest of this entry »