Subject: Hip-Hop and Rap

• From Cool Kids to Kanye: Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums Of 2008

  

  From the Cool Kids to Kanye, hip-hop did it up in 2008. Check our choices and see if you agree (and score some downloads!)

  December 22, 2008

• Hitsville: The Year in Music, by the Numbers

  By Randall RobertsYou don't need a half-wit music critic to tell you it's been a remarkable year for America, one historians will be discussing and researching for centuries to come. War, financial collapse, politics, technology: All have been dinner-table topics for many Americans. Racial barriers in 2008 were demolished by a Midwestern black man, and gender barriers were hurdled by an Arkansan and an Alaskan.Democracy has a few awesome new dance moves rolling into the Obama presidency, and it'

  December 18, 2008

• Busted Rhymes: The Top 10 Most Preposterous Rap Songs of 2008

  By Ben Westhoff Hip-hop A-listers including Rick Ross, Akon and Plies were caught grossly exaggerating their gangster credentials this year. (Turns out they were painfully law-abiding. The horror!) But even if your favorite rapper wasn't caught in a lie, you can bet he or she put out a hilariously absurd record or two in 2008. Here are the most preposterous rap songs of 2008. RICK ROSS, FEATURING T-PAIN "The Boss" (Def Jam) Though Rick Ross claimed on his debut album, Port of Miami, to know

  December 29, 2008

• Concert Review: Lil Wayne at Sprint Center, 1/09/09

  "I wouldn't care if you was a prostitute," Lil' Wayne assured the many ladies of the sold-out crowd at the Sprint Center Friday night. As the rapper delivered a brief but heartfelt defense of a love that transcends street-walking during the middle of his set, it was clear that the cheering audience was hooked. While Wayne couldn't bring his eight Grammy nominations for Tha Carter III with him to the stage, the remarkably small New Orleans native performed with a swaggering confidence and disarm

  January 12, 2009

• You Got to Read This: "Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Nation" by Jeff Chang

  A good friend once told me that people born after 1982 don't know hip-hop. That statement not only helps make sense of the decline of the genre at the hands of younger artists, it means there are a lot of young 'heads in need of a little education. In Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Nation, Jeff Chang takes his readers to school without turning pedantic. It's the rare hip-hop tract that combs through the music and the social movement with the sensitivity of a fan and the sophist

  January 13, 2009

• Movie Review: Notorious

  Christopher Wallace is the center of the hip-hop canon. Any words rhymed after the late rapper's two major works, Ready to Die and Life After Death, necessarily bare his indelible imprint. And to this day, nearly a decade after his death, other rap artists are best judged by their proximity, far or near, to his imaginative excellence. Also known as Biggie Smalls, Notorious B.I.G. or simply Biggie, Wallace combined the masterful storytelling of Slick Rick with the lyrical complexity of Rakim and

  January 20, 2009

• The Download: New Mick Boogie Mixtape

  The 51st annual Grammy Awards is set to kick off on Sunday, so the duo who brought us Viva La Hova is providing us with an audio crib sheet. From the Mick Boogie website. "Ironically, looking back at our projects the past 12 months, it seems we were definitely barking up the right tree... since Coldplay, Jay-Z and Adele all were nominated for multiple Grammys. We decided to go through the list of nominees and work with our favorite producers to come up with some really cool takes on your favo

  February 3, 2009

• The Download: New Raekwon MP3

  For a few years now, Raekwon has been promising a sequel to his classic 1995 solo LP, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, and it looks like he might finally make good in March. No word on what record label will sponsor it since his split from Dr. Dre's Aftermath imprint, but a couple of new tracks have recently surfaced, including "Back from the Slums," which features fellow Wu-Tang members Ghostface and Method Man. Download it below and stream another new one at Raekwon's MySpace page. MP3: Raekwon,

  February 4, 2009

• The Download: New J. Period & Q-Tip Mixtape

  For the past month, DJ and remix artist J. Period has been leaking bits and pieces from his tribute to the former A Tribe Called Quest member and current solo artist Q-Tip. He made the entire mixtape available last Tuesday and by Thursday, it had been downloaded over 20,000 times. Along with Q-Tip's timeless prose, the release includes a star-studded cast of extras. From the press release: "This unprecedented mixtape arrives on the heels of Q-Tip's critically-acclaimed album, The Renaissance

  February 17, 2009

• The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum's new hip-hop CD rounds the plates, riles up the club

  Hank Aaron and Jackie Rob/Cool Papa Bell and Hank Leonard/Yeah, they set the stage/But the baddest of them all was prob'ly Satchel Paige/Yeah, clear as the air you breathe/This beat is ballin' like the Negro League That isn't the rap of your usual children's entertainer - some kind of square, after-school-special hip-hop dabbler. Far from it. That verse is intoned by none other than the Doggfather himself, Snoop Dogg, on a compilation album of raps and R&B out today benefiting Kansas City's Neg

  March 24, 2009

• Q&A: Chicago rapper GLC

  GLC, aka Gangsta L. Crisis, came to town Sunday and Monday to promote the release of True to the Game, a hip-hop compilation album featuring industry giants like Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, T-Pain and Kanye West. A portion of the proceeds from sales of the album benefit Kansas City's Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. I met with GLC, whose song with Kanye West, "The Big Screen," appears on the album. The 31-year-old is the latest signee to West's G.O.O.D. Records label. This post contains portions of the

  March 24, 2009

• The Game

  April 2, 2009

• The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum calls on some all-stars to raise much-needed money

  April 2, 2009

• Anti-Crew

  March 19, 2009

• Rushin Roolet

  Kocane Cowboy 2.2
  (Major Factor Records)

  February 26, 2009

• 30 Rap: Having parted ways with Tech N9ne’s Strange Music, Skatterman and Snug Brim get their grown man on

  February 26, 2009

• Black Milk

  February 19, 2009

• Haters Ball

  February 5, 2009

• Irv Da Phenom

  January 29, 2009

• Scinfoe

  On the Green
  (self-released)

  January 15, 2009

• Elite

  Black and White
  (self-released)

  January 8, 2009

• Florida’s T-Pain reveals his pop secret

  January 8, 2009

• Kredulous

  Tears of an Angel
  (self-released)

  December 11, 2008

• Murs makes a symbolic bid for office on his positively progressive new album

  November 20, 2008

• The Beatbox

  November 6, 2008

• The Beatbox

  October 30, 2008

• Z-Trip

  September 11, 2008

• Fly By Night KKFI’s DJ Kool Wayne keeps it real the world over

  September 11, 2008

• First-Annual KKFI Benefit Concert

  May 21, 2009

• Talib Kweli

  April 23, 2009

• Newcomer Greg Enemy has 20/20 vision when it comes to KC hip-hop

  April 23, 2009

• Concert Review: Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek are Reflection Eternal

  Brooklyn's Talib Kweli and Cincinnati-born D Hi-Tek collaborated as Reflection Eternal on the monumental album, Train of Thought, then waited ten years before making a Reflection Eternal follow-up, which is due out this summer. So I worried when the duo abandoned the Granada's stage last night at 11 p.m., having performed for a little over an hour. Obviously, these guys don't mind keeping a fan waiting."You know we couldn't leave y'all like that," Hi-Tek reassured as the duo quickly reemerged an

  April 27, 2009

• Free Black Lips feat. GZA MP3, "Drop I Hold"

  SXSW hookups usually consist of an out-of-town indie rocker going home with a townie for a one-night stand. But on the larger artistic landscape, strange things can happen. Atlanta garage rockers the Black Lips and Wu-Tang Clan maestro GZA met one afternoon of this past year's festival, at a Dickies-sponsored showcase. Later that day, the scraggly foursome and their rapper friend were on stage playing together at a Vice Records party. The collabo will be written indelibly into rock history's ann

  April 30, 2009

• After a wild youth on Kansas City’s East Side and run-ins with the law, Ronald White reinvents himself as the lyrically brilliant Ron Ron

  May 7, 2009

• Hyper Sniper

  The Last Living American Patriot
  (self-released)

  April 30, 2009

• Q&A: Ron Ron

  As a supplement to this week's music feature on east-KC-bred rapper Ron Ron (which you should probably read first for context), we bring you some outtakes from writer Kyle Koch's interview with Ron, in which he shares his thoughts on his influences, the future of hip-hop, Stik Figa and going to college. To hear Ron Ron, beat a path to Datpiff.com and listen to and/or download his latest mixtape, Mr. No It All. (Listen for free; download for a fee.) The Pitch: So how'd you get into hip-hop? R

  May 6, 2009

• Review: Tech N9ne and Co. at Hot 103 Summer Jam 2

  The rainclouds parted just in time Saturday afternoon over Capitol Federal Park at Sandstone, making a sunlit entrance for the thousands of fans who attended Summer Jam 2, a lineup of some of hip-hop's most popular faces. The concert, sponsored by KPRS Hot 103 Jamz, featured Yung L.A., Tech N9ne, Rick Ross, Hurricane Chris and headliner Soulja Boy, among others. Aside from being perhaps the first and only time Rick Ross, owner of three No. 1 rap albums, will open for Tech N9ne, the event also m

  June 16, 2009

• The Beatbox: Nas

  June 25, 2009

• Highway to Hip-Hop: Kansas City rapper James Christos and crew pack up the van and hit the road DIY-style

  June 18, 2009

• Wayward Q&A: Grandmaster Flash

  Yes the Grandmaster Flash. The first man ever to use the turntable as an instrument was kind enough to call our headquarters last week to field questions about his life, from the first record he ever cut to what's hot on the dance floor now to his starring role in the new game DJ Hero. Without the pioneering discoveries Flash (born in Barbados as Joseph Saddler and brought up in the Bronx) made in the early '70s experimenting with vinyl records, hip-hop as we know it today would not exist. Cre

  July 23, 2009

• Alvin Brooks won't be spinning Black Walt's new one at his next party.

  A recent Fox 4 report pits the gangsta -- sorry, *cough* -- reality rap of local rhymesmith Black Walt against the "golden door"-seeking Mayor Pro-temp and Adhoc leader Alvin Brooks. Does Brooks throw his hands in the air like he just don't care at hearing Walt's tales of urban violence? What do you think? (Transcript here.)   The most important thing I got out of this video is that Black Walt's new album, Exclusive, is coming out sometime next month. (That's a really cool cover, by the w

  July 29, 2009

• Concert Review: Atmosphere at the Beaumont

  I'll say this up front: I'm not a fan of I-hate-my-girlfriend hip-hop. I'm not much of a fan of personalizing concert reviews, either. But in bringing myself to write a positive review of Atmosphere, an underground rap group from Minneapolis who flawlessly rocked a small crowd at the Beaumont Club Friday night, I've had to ditch a few of my well-heeled perspectives.Dan MonickAtmosphere's Ant (left) and Slug​ The fact is, music critics and reviewers have opinions. Like anyone, including t

  August 10, 2009

• Lil Wayne

  August 20, 2009

• Concert Review: The Cool Kids at the Granada

  This past Friday night at the Granada was a series of surprises large and small. Large: The headliner, Chicago-duo the Cool Kids, gave a decidedly un-cool performance. Small: Kansas City artist Steddy P. is far more beastly onstage than he is on wax.Clayton Hauck​ Sadly stricken from the formal record of the evening's festivities is Topeka's Stik Figa, who reportedly got things popping with a short set that included crowd favorites "Absitively," "Class of 2000," and "Caked Up," a joint

  August 25, 2009

• The Beatbox: The Jacka

  September 3, 2009

• Concert Review: the Jacka at the National Guard Armory in KCK

  Something special happened on Friday night at the National Guard Armory in Kansas City, Kansas. Call it a hip-hop Hallmark moment.The Jacka looks to blow up.​ There were about 75 to 100 people, mostly teenagers, anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Jacka, a Bay Area rapper who for several years has successfully tunneled his way through hip-hop's underground and who had come into KC for a series of events over the weekend. In the three hours between the beginning of the event and the Jac

  September 8, 2009

• With his rap documentary, Chris Williamson hopes to set Mics on Fire

  September 17, 2009

• The Beatbox: Steddy P.

  October 15, 2009

• The Beatbox: Epcot

  October 29, 2009

• Snoop Dogg's Wonderland High School Tour

  November 5, 2009