Email Author Sam Chennault

2004 Stories by Sam Chennault

• Nas

  published December 29, 2004

  Nas has always been hip hop's most complex lyricist, so it comes as little surprise that he's released one of the genre's most ambitious albums.... More >>

• Merry Christmas, Beeyotch!

  published December 15, 2004

  Recently, a few friends and I gathered for a Christmas celebration. With my girl on my arm, some nog in my hand, and a fire raging nearby, the... More >>

• Snoop Dogg

  published December 8, 2004

  Since his classic '93 debut, Doggystyle, Snoop has been more of a brilliantly honed caricature than a real person. On that album, he was a... More >>

• BeatBox

  published December 1, 2004

  More slanted and enchanted than Thomas Pynchon’s rhyme dictionary, Aesop Rock’s lyrics risk leaving listeners cold, but the grave hones... More >>

• Handsome Boy Modeling School

  published November 24, 2004

  Brazenly creative yet wildly erratic, Handsome Boy Modeling School producers Prince Paul and San Francisco resident Dan the Automator have made a... More >>

• BeatBox

  published November 17, 2004

  Sly, absurd, and more prolific than God, MC/producer MF Doom was crowned '04's king of the underground after releasing a half-dozen proper... More >>

• BeatBox

  published November 10, 2004

  "Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, but to be at Hollertronix' parties in Philly circa 2002 was very heaven." I'm paraphrasing Wordsworth, of... More >>

• A New Light

  published November 3, 2004

  As Subtle band members Dax Pierson and Jel, aka Jeffrey Logan, place their orders with the barrista at an East Bay coffee shop, MC Doseone, aka... More >>

• Prince Po

  published November 3, 2004

  There's a basic principle in both hip hop and dating that Prince Po long ago violated: Never stand next to someone more attractive than yourself;... More >>

• Talib Kweli

  published October 27, 2004

  Talib Kweli is one of the most compelling voices in hip hop, and it isn't because he's an oasis of high-minded political thought in a desert of... More >>

• BeatBox

  published October 20, 2004

  NYC MC and Anti-Pop Consortium member Beans stands as the finest example of what used to be called glitch-hop -- a late-'90s/early-'00s... More >>

• No Joke

  published October 6, 2004

  After playing a show in New Orleans in 1999, Digital Underground frontman and Bay Area hip hop legend Shock-G had a one-night stand with a... More >>

• BeatBox

  published October 6, 2004

  With the relentlessly violent, vaguely political, and occasionally homophobic rhymes of lyricist Vinnie Paz and the minor-chord, string-saturated... More >>

• BeatBox

  published September 29, 2004

  In the late '90s, Japan's DJ Krush caught the hipster zeitgeist with his crackling Japanese-garden trip hop. Spare breakbeats cradled lush... More >>

• Graffiti to Gallery

  published September 1, 2004

  Beginning shortly after Christmas 2001 and running into the new year, Andrew Schoultz changed a long, drearily gray wall in Hayes Valley into a... More >>

• Hear This

  published September 1, 2004

  As a hip hop producer, Kanye West is nearly ubiquitous -- he's produced hits for Twista, Jay-Z, Ludacris, Talib Kweli, and Alicia Keys.... More >>

• Crowning Glory

  published August 18, 2004

  On a dark and stormy night just east of Flagstaff, Ariz., after traversing Route 66, the Crown City Rockers pull their beat-up tour van off to the... More >>

• Wall Street Playaz

  published August 11, 2004

  JT the Bigga Figga leans his long, arching back against the wall and stretches his slender legs across the narrow passageway in front of Luv n'... More >>

• The Notorious B.I.G.

  published August 11, 2004

  The hedonistic prince lacing the "lyrical douches" of "Big Poppa"; the baritone-silk street hustler careening through the back-alley boom-bap of... More >>

• Lloyd Banks

  published August 4, 2004

  Armed to the teeth, bloodthirsty, and more concerned with making profits than being prophets, the members of G-Unit sound like the perfect... More >>

• Hear This

  published July 21, 2004

  Pioneers of the English space-rock underground, the members of Ozric Tentacles have been rearranging brain cells since 1982, when their... More >>

• The Roots

  published July 14, 2004

  Sometimes in order to move forward, you have to step back. Shying away from the cracked, free-form jams of their previous album, 2002's... More >>

• BeatBox

  published July 7, 2004

  I'd love to use the word "exotic" to describe the kick-ass global tunes at "Divination"-- which showcases local DJs Soulsaalam, Vinnie... More >>

• BeatBox

  published June 30, 2004

  This past year, a harvest of dewy-eyed club promoters poked their oddly dyed and oddly shaved scalps above the salted soils of San Francisco's... More >>

• Consequence

  published June 23, 2004

  The bar is set a little lower for hip hop mix-tapes, those self-released offerings that are widely seen as hip hop's liaison with the streets.... More >>