Subject: T-Pain

• Seventh-Inning Sing Along

  June 13, 2007

• The Top 10 Most Infuriating Songs of 2007

  December 19, 2007

• Concert Review: Murs at the Record Bar

  Murs November 21, 2008 The Record Bar Better Than: Finding out you're adopted By JORDAN EDWARDS Murs (aka Nick Carter) has spent the last decade drifting around the West Coast hip-hop wasteland without much love from the mainstream. The Ryan Adams of rap, he's pumped out eight studio albums and several collaborations since 1997. But the 30-year-old Angelino recently signed to Warner Bros., so it's time to get serious. Goofball guests like Shock G and pro wrestler John Cena have been brushed asi

  November 24, 2008

• 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

• The Year in Music: 2008's Top Ten Pop Songs

  BY ANNIE ZALESKIPop music often gets a bad rap for being disposable or vapid, and in many cases that's true. (Katy Perry, Danity Kane and the Pussycat Dolls, step right up!) But every year, a few irresistible bits of innovative ear candy rocket up the charts and seep into our subconscious. The following ten singles saturated the Top 40 -- or what passes for hit-oriented radio in this topsy-turvy musical climate -- while proving that accessibility doesn't necessarily preclude creativity. CHRIS BR

  December 18, 2008

• Top 10 Dance Collections of 2008, Both Mixed and Unmixed

  By Randall RobertsAny knucklehead with DSL and a laptop can now make an electronic track. With a half hour of clicking and fiddling, you can sample enough cheesy beats and mashups to clog arteries from here to Berlin. Simple dropdown mouse maneuvers can transform electro tracks into progressive house tracks (from dry and synthetic to wet and gushy), rhythm tracks can be tempo-tweaked with an upward toggle to change a Timbaland beat into a Chromeo one. Add some T-Pain-esque pitch-correction voca

  December 18, 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

• Keith Sweat: A Study In Slow Jams

  By JASON BUGG Keith Sweat may be rolling into Municipal Auditorium the day after Valentine's Day, but that doesn't mean that the love won't still be flowing. Bubbling up to the pop surface after the hits of '70s and '80s Love Walruses like Barry White had all but dried up, Sweat is a living, breathing link from those disco-era pioneers to the Autotune drenched rappers of today. Sweat is one of the last kings of the slow jam. Forget the ringtone-ready street anthems of T-Pain and Lil' Wayne, S

  February 13, 2009

• New Stik Figa MP3: "Flight School"

  Miles BonnyStik Figa, mayn. Listening to Stik Figa work this Kanye track over reminds one that 1) Kanye is not a very good rapper and 2) quality production is half the battle, if not more, to creating a solid creative track. In a hurry? Skip the first minute of T-Pain's vocoder crooning, and go straight to Stik's verse. MP3: Stik Figa, "Through the Wire" (originally by Kanye West, feat. T-Pain) Anyone make it out to Stik's performance at the Jackpot last night? Do share ...

  February 27, 2009

• Leawood children's rocker Chris Bihuniak a finalist in International Songwriting Competition

  Bihuniak's teachin' Rockbots.According to Chris Bihuniak's extensive song list, "When You Grow Up" falls under "Life Lessons," sub category: "unconditional love." We know good material for a song when we see it. And the people behind the International Songwriting Competition claim to know a good song when they hear it. With a list of judges that claims folks as diverse as Tom Waits, Jon Secada, T-Pain, Ricky Martin, Black Francis, Youssou N'Dour, McCoy Tyner, Ray Davies, Jerry Lee Lewis, Robert

  March 10, 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 Negro Leagues Baseball Museum calls on some all-stars to raise much-needed money

  April 2, 2009

• Heading out to the strip clubs? Here’s what to expect.

  February 12, 2009

• Live Jazz + jazz film

  January 15, 2009

• Florida’s T-Pain reveals his pop secret

  January 8, 2009

• Sex Edition

  Our second-annual issue dedicated to all things sex.

  February 14, 2008

• Pay 2 Play

  Hip-hop hustlers are making off with Kansas City rappers’ hard-earned cash.

  December 13, 2007

• Screamfest '07

  August 9, 2007

• Pantsless Hangout

  December 21, 2006

• Pole Position

  Bring your best stripper moves to the Roxy, where the pole comes to you.

  December 14, 2006

• Charlie Wilson

  May 28, 2009

• Concert Review: Stevie Wonder

  BY ROBERT FOLSOM The tickets said "8pm," but they should have said "Sunset." ("When it's dark enough for the stage lights and video screens" wouldn't have fit on a ticket.) Eager Stevie Wonder fans had to fan themselves in Friday's heat and humidity while waiting for the pop music legend to come on at Starlight Theatre. Scott Spychalski When he did take the stage at 8:55, he announced that the show was dedicated to Michael Jackson, his longtime friend who died the day before. Also, at daughte

  June 29, 2009

• Are Ringtone Sales Public Performances?

  In the past few days, both the LA Times and San Francisco Chronicle published pieces wherein they discuss recent moves by ASCAP and other music publishers to try and gather even more money from ringtone downloads. http://www.flickr.com/photos/bunnicula/ / CC BY-ND 2.0Essentially, the argument made by the music publishing agencies is that songwriters are due two payments for ringtones. See, when ringtones are downloaded, then that's payment #1. The second payment comes into effect because the ri

  July 6, 2009

• Video: NOVA scienceNOW on Auto-Tune

  PBS' NOVA program recently featured a segment on the much over-used (and evidently dead, according to Jay-Z) bit of computer software known as Auto-Tune. Thanks to the miracle of YouTube, you can find out all the science behind the whys and wherefores of how this miracle bit of coding has allowed the likes of Kanye and T-Pain to reach new heights of music sales. NPR has done two stories on the software, as well--one this past November, and another in 2004. Public broadcasting is bigger than hip

  July 7, 2009

• Concert Review: Jamie Foxx at Sprint Center

  The real Jamie Foxx may have never appeared at the Sprint Center on Saturday night. Instead, he performed as a few polished characters: the oversexed old-school R&B crooner, the feisty hip-hop hitmaker, and, briefly, the reincarnation of Ray Charles. Nearly as brief as Ray's appearance were the moments of pure comedy. Foxx used his formidable stand-up and sketch-comedy chops only as segues to the next club jam. Despite the undeniable popularity of "Blame It," Jamie Foxx the comedic emcee and Jam

  July 27, 2009

• Pitch Music Showcase Roundup: All Freakin' Over

  I'm not sure whether it was Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler arriving in their limo to a gaggle of paparazzi outside of the Riot Room or if it was seeing Kurt Loder interviewing T-Pain on the roof of McCoy's, but somewhere between those two sightings -- but two incidents within a major-media-filled, celebrity-packed evening -- I realized, Man, the Pitch Music Showcase has gotten sorta big. Then I realized someone had slipped peyote into Hefeweizen. Forester MichaelClick on piano cat for sli

  August 10, 2009