Kid Cudi and Surface To Air unite to present a video for “Mr. Rager,” from Cudi’s 2010 release MOTM2 and once again the video finds the Cleveland MC doing battle with a foe – this time, himself. Read the rest of this entry »

Up onto this point, STS has by far exceeded the expectations for a hungry rapper. He’s given you his nonfiction story on the uncut tip and even wrestled with an Alabama bear to give you the full range of his character. The Illustrious is the full scope of an emcee who turned his unique vocal talents into something that transfixes listeners to give their undivided attention. Read the rest of this entry »

Ignorance is bliss and STS goes straight dumb on “Cliché” over a bouncy backdrop courtesy of The Knux. Read the rest of this entry »

Even when you have a sturdy, main parachute in tow, it’s always best to keep a spare. With the release of his debut album just a little over a week away, Bobby Ray recruits a noteworthy co-pilot in Eminem to help navigate The Adventures Of Bobby Ray into friendly platinum terriority. You can do your part as well by pre-ordering the latitude. Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve gotten the opportunity to familarize yourself with them through their music (probably because it was bestowed as free gift,) but how well do you actually know about Yannick “Thurzday” Koffi and Yonas “Y-O” Michael, the efficacious duo that makes up U-N-I? For clarification purposes, TSS Crew’s TC caught up with them as well as Romel “Ro Blvd” Ventura, the sole producer behind the duo’s latest achievement A Love Supreme, and eradicated all stereotypes, offered thoughts on being web superstars and just exactly what was up with that Nelly diss.

TSS: Before we get down to the nitty gritty, we had to play What’s In A Name?

Thurzday: The name U-N-I is basically derived from [The Roots'] Illadelph Halflife; the “UNIverse At War” song with Common and I figured it fit us perfect being in the L.A. scene. Coming out of the city, you’re going to face a lot of opposition, so it’s “U” then Y-O and I then “I,” myself Vs. any opposition trying to prevent us from accomplishing our dreams. When I told Y-O and Chris, our manager the idea, they loved it and it’s been working ever since.

As for Thurzday, my last name is Koffi and in West Africa, it’s a nickname for “boy born on Friday.” And everybody called me by my last name and the meaning didn’t really apply so I told everybody “Just call me Thurz.” And it stuck!

Y-O: Mine is simple. It’s just a childhood name that I grew up with. My mom still calls me Yo and it’s short for my real name which is Yonas. It’s an African name given to me by my grandmother from Eritrea. It means soldier. It’s a name that everybody can relate me to or knows me as so I kept it simple.

Ro Blvd: Well my government name is Romel and I always said if I made it, I would want my stage name to have a part of my actual name. I always went by Ro but when I started making music towards the end of high school my mom gave me a stack of records, not even knowing that people sample. And one of them was a soundtrack to a movie called Boulevard Nights which truthfully, is in my top 5 movies of all-time because it’s been an inspirational influence in my life. And I was out ripping and running in the streets like everybody else but I chose to use Boulevard because the term “street” is often stereotyped into something negative. So to me, boulevard is thinking like Saturday Night Fever; John Travolta on the strip having fun so that’s the image I wanted to portray.

TSS: Interesting you say that because when people refer to L.A. music they typically think “gangsta rap.” Did you all go particularly out of your way to avoid that stigma? Read the rest of this entry »

With appearances by Pac Div, The Knux, B.O.B aka Bobby Ray, Charles Hamilton, Talib Kweli, Mistah F.A.B., Freeway, Blu, Jake One, Hi-Tek & Dow Jones Tha Bizness.

The SXSW footage still manages to find it’s way onto the net nearly 3 weeks after the fact but this is actually worth the view.

Previously Posted — Charles Hamilton x Mistah F.A.B. x Exile SXSW Freestyle | Tanya Morgan x B.o.B. x Mickey Factz x Curren$y x After Austin

Real talk…I didn’t know how my interview with Krispy Kream and Rah Almillio, the siblings collectively known as The Knux, was going to go. Usually, an artist’s music is indicative of their personality (or lack thereof). But musically, the duo from New Orleans is refreshingly unpredictable. For many Hip-Hop interviews, I chug a shot of espresso and brace myself for yet another drug kingpin-turned-rapper background story.

Not so with The Knux. Their self-produced debut album, Remind Me In 3 Days, is in stores now (courtesy of Interscope Records) and it’s just as colorful as my Q & A session with them turned out to be. Growing up in the gritty hood of N’awlins, The Knux listened to a diverse mix of rappers like Nas, Mobb Deep, Wu Tang, A Tribe Called Quest, Geto Boys and 8-Ball & MJG. To lure them away from the ever-influential streets, Krispy and Al’s mom enrolled them in their middle school’s marching band where they learned how to play instruments. The young brothers may not have stayed out of trouble, but they did hone musical abilities that would prove invaluable later on. Live guitars, bass, keys and drums play a heavy role in The Knux’s funky and futuristic beats; a perfect backdrop for their inventive lyrics.

So here’s the chat that I, Khalid Strickland of the Almighty TSS Crew, recently conducted with The Knux, who have earned a spot in my coveted, tough-to-crack MP3 rotation.

TSS: What would you like to accomplish with Remind Me In 3 Days?

Rah Almillio: Hopefully some more artists behind us will have the courage to do what they want to do with their music and not have no outside influences changing their shit; whether it’s the label or cats you hang with or whatever it may be. Basically, open the lane for more creative artists who want to do what they want to do. If we got to bear the burden for that…if we got to sacrifice album sales, you know what I mean? That’s basically what we want this album to be. Just that bridge for Hip-Hop cats and other genres. We have such a large buffet of different sounds on this album.

TSS: What can the uninitiated expect to hear on this album?

Rah Almillio: Really, you can’t expect nothin’ but what you could know is it’s gonna be some original shit. It’s some shit that’s going to bend your mind a little bit. It’s going to be some hard, hard, hard; our rhymes are something serious on there. We like…jump in the stars on our rhymes, you know what I mean? And you can find some very heavy production; not the beats, but like, production on a whole…some good songwriting. This album in particular is going to be the soundtrack of two hood motherfuckers from New Orleans being in Hollywood and adapting to the Hollywood atmosphere, so that’s what the album is about.

TSS: When did you guys start playing live instruments and what inspired you to do so?

Rah Almillio: Real, real young…as fuckin’ kids in middle school. And our mom started us playing these instruments because…In New Orleans, let me explain this to you, if your kids don’t really have nothing to do, they’re going to probably wind up selling drugs or fuckin’ shooting somebody. That’s just real and that ain’t even me over-exaggerating that. So my mom, she comes straight from the projects.

My mom is a good, good hood motherfucker so she knows she never wanted her children to be like the motherfuckers she knew when she was coming up, you know? So she put us in that shit early; in a marching band in middle school to keep us out of trouble and shit. It ain’t really work, but she tried the best she could to keep us out of trouble. So it was our mother who basically got us into playing instruments and shit like that. Playing in a jazz band and stuff like that, it’s not really a big deal in New Orleans because it’s a known thing. You got cats in the hood all day that’s like crazy on trumpet and all types of instruments. It’s like the norm in New Orleans to play an instrument.

TSS: Since Black folks pretty much invented and pioneered Rock & Roll, why don’t we acknowledge it the way we should? Why do niggas act like they’re scared of guitars? They see somebody pull a guitar out and they start buggin’. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo Credit: Wes A.

“Only eight of you at a time,” said the House of Blues security guard to a group of us as we headed to the main floor. “Otherwise the elevator will get stuck.”

It was me, Diz Gibran, DJ Kiilu and Tony from around the way. Five minutes ago we were backstage with Pac Div and The Cool Kids before they and The Knux opened for Q-Tip. Now we found ourselves rushing to catch Pac’s first number. The large elevator doors slid open and a group of dudes walked in, followed by myself and a guy wearing a black windbreaker. The doors closed. One guy pressed the button… then he pressed another… and another.

Ain’t that about a bitch. Stuck.

“How many we got?” someone called out, counting heads and ending with me and ol’ Windbreaker over there. We avoided each other’s gaze in shame. Nine and ten. Read the rest of this entry »

Okaaaaaaaay, we’re reloaded.

This week the whole crew lined up to look back at the past, set sights on the future, and take aim at the current potential threats. Read the rest of this entry »

Being yourself in the music industry is probably the most difficult thing for a major-label act to do. With the label heads reaching their hands out for a catchy single, fitting in the narrow restraints that define musical genres, the constant fear of writer’s block stalling an album’s progress, and the paying public wanting to hear something similar to what they heard the last time they turned their radio on, it would be easy for an artist to fall to that pressure of changing themselves for the almighty dollar. Read the rest of this entry »

I have it on good authority one of my favorite rappers is about to sign to a major label. For now, let’s call him Indie-ana Jones.

As his name implies, Indie-ana has always been on an independent label, armed with a diabolical whip of words to snap and style on foes, faster than the speed of sound. Now he stands at the end of an industry chasm, having been chased down by a crushing boulder of buzz, and must weigh the art he holds in his hand with a relic of corporate gold on the table. Skeptical beads of sweat form on his brow and are wiped easily away with a hundred dollar bill.

Who among us can blame our hero for wanting the prize? We sit on the edge of our seats to see if he makes it out of the Temple of Industry Doom. Can he overcome the odds? It’s a multi-faceted debate best answered by example…

The Cool Kids and the Raiders of the Lost Art

In this tale we have a tightpants-ed duo who Read the rest of this entry »