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Well, Matisyahu renounced dogmatic adherence to Jewish law that was written a few thousand years ago. He wasn’t exactly a rapper, favoring sparse Jamaican backing to traditional boom-bap. But when the performer, now shorn of his gnarly beard, ditched those antiquated ideals, he left Kosha Dillz as the most visible Jew-centric player in underground musics. Well, him and John Zorn. But their paths can’t cross too frequently. Born in New Jersey to folks Dillz refers to as Ima and Abba, Dillz began a serpentine path to becoming an established Los Angeles-based MC. Read the rest of this entry »

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Walking into a drugstore during the middle of the day doesn’t generally present the opportunity to chat up dead-eyed clerks. I, however, had the pleasure of accompanying a friend who was wearing a Kool Keith T-shirt on an important errand to snag a bag of chips. While being rung up, the clerk quizzically glanced at my friend’s T-shirt and asked, “Who’s that?” “Him? That’s Black Elvis,” my friend replied. “He stupid” was the retort. Black Elvis, one of Kool Keith’s innumerable aliases, is stupid. Read the rest of this entry »

By Dave Cantor

Kool G Rap, Pete Rock and Mobb Deep all issued new recordings during 2011. Each met with a mixed reception, and rightfully so, since all of those acts still may have something left to give hip-hop, it just didn’t happen last year. Pharoahe Monch released “W.A.R. (We Are Renegades)” during March in partnership with Duck Down, an independent New York label. The disc, the MC’s third solo endeavor since disbanding Organized Konfusion after 1997’s “The Equinox,” met with more uneven acclaim. While “W.A.R.” might not be Monch’s pinnacle, it does represent the sturdiest 2011 album issued by an MC who might be considered one of underground hip-hop’s progenitors. Read the rest of this entry »

Theophilus London was kicking around before the release of his 2009 digitally disseminated “This Charming Mixtape.” But even a few years back, positioning oneself as an unabashed lover of all musics within hip-hop seemed like old hat. And it was. What makes the New York-based MC an intriguing character, though, isn’t his music—it’s his weird attention to detail. The cover of “This Charming Mixtape” is London posed behind a camera, mimicking Elvis Costello’s “This Year’s Model.” He’s got it down to the awkwardly gesturing left hand. That sort of dedication to a music that isn’t generally connected to hip-hop’s lineage is admirable, if not indicative of the work’s buoyancy. Delving into the minutiae of the English language is what good rappers do. Read the rest of this entry »

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With the release of “The W” in 2000, Ol’ Dirty Bastard contributed his final verse to a Wu-Tang Clan cut. The MC, who died four years later, went out on a track he shared with Snoop Dogg called “The Conditioner.”  The fact that “The Conditioner” counts a West Coast stalwart speaks to the Clan’s ability to transcend any perceived constraints of coastal prejudices. Read the rest of this entry »

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Where’s Big Pooh at? It’s a fair question considering two-thirds of North Carolina’s Little Brother are slated for an appearance this Saturday. Since its inception during the late nineties, the trio seemed like a vehicle determined to expose its principal players to a national audience in order for each then to flourish independently. That’s happened. Kinda. Little Brother always dealt in productions weighted down with soul crooners on the hook. It was a practice that served the group well and set up 9th Wonder for collaborations with everyone from Jay-Z to Destiny’s Child and MURS. Read the rest of this entry »

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There’ve been a few reissued producer-focused instrumental albums during the digital age. A huge percentage of those sport Lee Perry’s name. Dilla’s become a more sought-after commodity since his death, but Pete Rock’s “PeteStrumentals” may be the pinnacle of hip-hop production, Beatminerz be damned. Despite being best known for “T.R.O.Y.,” a New York corollary to Common’s “I Used to Love H.E.R.,” Rock’s spent more time estranged from C.L. Smooth, the partner he rose to fame with in the early nineties. Read the rest of this entry »

Signed to Diddy’s Bad Boy imprint, Machine Gun Kelly’s been in the news as much for organizing flash mobs as he has been for making music. The relative success of “Lace Up” granted the Cleveland MC enough pull to tour decent-sized venues and rake in some loot. Moving from collaborators like Ray Jr. to Waka Flocka on his latest release points to the sort of attention MGK’s received. After two mixtapes, though, the angle MGK takes on his public persona is a bit disappointing. We should all be past the dichotomy dividing MCs who talk solely about carnal pleasures from those who work in literature and thoughtful cultural references. Read the rest of this entry »

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Back during the first few years of the aughties, Chicago’s The Primeridian, comprising See-Me-On and Race, issued “I’ll Meet You in Greenwich.” It was before Kanye dropped out of college and about the same time Common was readying the ill-advised “Electric Circus.” No one knew who No I.D. was. Still. “Musical Mirages,” a single compiled on Primeridian’s first long player, remains sturdy enough to dig up as work exemplifying the group’s style as a whole. But a lot’s happened since 2002. Read the rest of this entry »

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Since Blu’s last Chicago visit in early April, the Los Angeles-based MC issued “No York!,” his long awaited major label debut. The disc’s arrival, though, doesn’t seem to have done much for the rapper’s visibility. In part, electronic tunes like “E V E R Y T H I N G O K” have something to do with that. The bouncy track accompanied by a femme-vocal chorus is a pretty drastic departure from the A-Tribe-Called-Quest-on-the-West-Coast thing Blu’s been working over the last few years. Read the rest of this entry »