Kendrick Lamar

The Whooligan on Why DJs Should Produce More Music

While many students work their way through college serving coffee or giving lap dances, Julio Galvez, aka The Whooligan, spent his years rubbing shoulders with Ghostface Killah and hosting hip-hop appearances at S.F's Amoeba Records. Already a budding DJ and producer, he found his push to fame when ... More >>

#Hashtag: The Ghost of Music Future Previews 2013

The First Listens of 2012: What We Got Right, What We Got Wrong

As evinced bu my initial take on Tyler, the Creator's Goblin and my final opinion, a lot happens between one's first listen to an album and their final conclusion after taking it in several times. What I love about writing these features is that you get to read my pure, unvarnished thoughts about a ... More >>

2 Chainz's 10 Best Song-Stealing Guest Verses

Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz (aka Tauheed Epps, 35) is no one's sidekick. He sold out his first night as a solo artist at The Warfield on Dec. 15 (tickets are still available for the Dec. 16 show) and has a Gold-certified single ("No Lie" featuring Drake) and a Grammy nomination (Best Rap Album for Based ... More >>

Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music

Flying Lotus Makes the Fox Theater Rumble, 10/25/12

By RACHEL SWAN Flying Lotus The Gaslamp Killer Teebs Jeremiah Jae Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012 The Fox Theater Better than: Listening to a genuinely subdued hip-hop show, if such a thing exists. Steven Ellison, the experimental hip-hop producer better known as Flying Lotus, has carved out a small but ... More >>

A$AP Rocky Brings Out Hometown Special Guests at the Fox Oakland, 10/24/12

A$AP RockySchoolboy QDanny BoyWednesday, October 24, 2012Fox Theater, OaklandBetter than: Anything else you could do on a Wednesday night. Where were you!?Bouncing around on a stage draped in camouflage nets with the rest of the A$AP mob, A$AP Rocky wore a bright white army-like vest in front of a g ... More >>

A$AP Rocky's New Song Should've Been in CB4

Remember that awesome 1993 Chris Rock movie, CB4? Which basically zoomed in on the extremes of rap culture, parodied them, and got the world to see how absurd it all was? The songs in that movie were laugh-out-loud funny precisely because they were so painfully close to the real thing, but just an i ... More >>

Live Review, 8/25/12: The '80s Babies and Their New Faves Rule Rock The Bells

Rock The Bells Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012 Shoreline Amphitheatre Better than: Partying with your own demographic Rock The Bells is the only annual hip-hop festival to manage the difficult feat of attracting a truly diverse and multi-generational crowd. In its fifth year in the Bay Area (and ninth ove ... More >>

Best of Coachella Weekend Two: Friday, April 20

The first weekend of Coachella: cold, damp, and wet. The second weekend of Coachella: hot, sultry, and steamy. Here are our scribes' picks for the best of what they saw on Friday, April 20 at Coachella.

Cochella on 420: Meet the Most Stoned Festivalgoers

See also: *The Best of Coachella: Friday, April 20 *Our Complete Coachella Coverage Friday was 4/20. It was also Coachella. And so, the percentage of festival-goers who were stoned rose from a paltry 75 percent to a full 98 percent. (These estimates come courtesy of LA Weekly music editor Ben West ... More >>

Best of Coachella Weekend One: Friday, April 13

Day one of The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival brought something more unusual than ironic outfits or that poor guy who couldn't get his flip flops on for the life of him: rain. Usually, the desert festival is known for scorching, sometimes three-digit heat. But rain and wind be da ... More >>

Kendrick Lamar: Show Preview

Kendrick Lamar

Snoop and Dre's Protégé

Live Review, 3/10/12: Drake Gets Chatty in San Jose

Drake A$AP Rocky, Kendrick Lamar, Chase N. Cache Saturday, March 10, 2011 San Jose State Event Center Better than: Eating canned beans in the dark while combing through all the Drake memes on Tumblr. Halfway through his set at the San Jose State Event Center on Saturday, Drake broke the color line ... More >>

Fauxchella: How to See Your Favorite Coachella Bands Without Leaving S.F.

Christopher VictorioYou could see the Coachella artists... without seeing this.​ Maybe you hate traveling. Maybe you're broke. Or maybe you're allergic to waiting in long lines under the hot sun while privileged pre-teens gyrate to David Guetta. There are many, many good reasons not to go to ... More >>

The Game's The R.E.D. Album: A First Listen

​ The Game needs no introduction. The man who was kicked out of G-Unit and made a whole album about whinily stalking ex-benefactor Dr. Dre has most recently performed two actions: 1) Releasing a diss track called "Uncle Otis," whose targets include Tyler, the Creator; and 2) releasing a collab ... More >>