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February 6, 2014 Andy Cush

If two Danish dudes carefully playing the melody to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message” on empty beer bottles as they look into each other’s eyes isn’t the epitome of goofy white people-ness, I don’t know what is. Still, by the time The Bottle Boys‘ hip-hop bottle medley gets to “Hard Knock Life,” […]

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February 4, 2014 Andy Cush

Smoking weed onstage is pretty tame, as far as Action Bronson goes. I saw him toss what looked like dozens of dime bags into the crowd at a Brooklyn show in 2012 (he did the same thing but with steaks a few weeks later), and he’s also thrown fans from the stage and relegated hecklers […]

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Andy Cush

Meet Yung Lenox, your new favorite artist. He’s seven years old, lives in Seattle, Washington, and makes what look like magic marker drawings of classic hip hop albums (he dabbles in other genres, like metal and hardcore, as well). He’s been doing his thing for a while, showcasing work on Instagram but just recently began […]

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January 28, 2014 Andy Cush

Sampling has been an integral part of Western music for decades, from the French musique concrète composers of the 1940s, to the introduction of commercially available instruments like the Mellotron and the MPC, to today, with Beyoncé using Star Search intros and snippets of TED Talks in her songs and Jay Z and Kanye lifting from Blades of Glory . In […]

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January 15, 2014 Andy Cush

In a video published this week, TJ Mizell and his crew hop aboard the J train at Delancey Street/Essex Street and ride it across the Williamsburg Bridge to Marcy Avenue. While they’re traveling Mizell — son of the legendary Jam Master Jay — gets behind the decks, slicing and dicing Jay-Z’s “Tom Ford” and “Show […]

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Andy Cush

The plan to rename the corner of Rivington and Ludlow Streets — the site of the Pauls Boutique album cover photo — in the Beastie Boys’ honor was voted down by the local community board. Debated lasted 90 minutes at last night’s CB3 meeting, according to DNAinfo, before the board decided to reject the “Beastie Boys Square” proposal. LeRoy […]

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January 8, 2014 Andy Cush

The latest tools in the New York Police Department’s youth-arresting, gang-fighting arsenal are YouTube and SoundCloud, according to a New York Times report detailing how the NYPD uses rap videos to investigate shootings. “It’s a double-edged sword,” says Patrice Nelson, who manages several local rappers, about the police surveilling music. “If you have that much passion and […]

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January 2, 2014 Andy Cush

Each week in Sample Wars, we’ll pit two songs which sample the same source material head-to-head against each other, to determine which one rocked the sample better. Vampire Weekend’s “Step,” one of the best songs of 2013, just got a pretty great rap remix featuring Danny Brown, Heems, and Despot. On the heels of that track, […]

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Andy Cush

Good news for the man born William Leonard Roberts II: Rick Ross the corrections-officer-turned-rapper gets to keep his name, despite legal action from Rick Ross the cocaine kingpin. And appeals court dismissed the lawsuit the convicted drug dealer filed in 2010, which alleged the rapper appropriated his image and likeness, arguing for Rick Ross’s First Amendment […]

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October 9, 2013 Andy Cush

Everybody’s favorite drug-addled Brooklyn rappers are back with a new video, for “Death,” from their latest mixtape Better off Dead. In what has become the trademark Flatbush Zombies style, there are chainsaws, creepy white contact lenses, and copious horrorshow vibes. Not nearly enough blood, though. […]

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