Ludacris

Noise Pop: Thao & the Get Down Stay Down Charm the Great American, 3/2/13

Thao & the Get Down Stay Down Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside Before the Brave Kacey Johansing March 2, 2013 Great American Music Hall // Noise Pop 2013 Better than: DJ sets. Noise Pop has been doing its homework. Saturday's show at the Great American Music Hall was a thoughtful billing, ... More >>

2 Chainz Practices His 'Tru' Religion at The Warfield, 12/16/12

2 Chainz Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012 The Warfield Better than: Ratchetness at home. At one point in the middle of his second consecutive sold-out show at The Warfield, the Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz turned his set into a sermon and preached the values of the lessons he was giving on his B.O.A.T.S. Tour (sh ... 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 >>

Big Boi's Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors: A First Listen

Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors is the title. Why? Does Big Boi even have any enemies? Has anyone ever beefed with him...ever? Who is he referring to, disgruntled Idlewild ticket-buyers? Or is he increasingly in denial that Outkast -- his meal ticket artistically and commercially -- is over? It's ... More >>

Justin Bieber's Believe: A First Listen

Like my colleague Andrew Stout, I have mostly managed to avoid Justin Bieber for what I'm pretty sure are good reasons. He's a typical "innocent" white male singer trying to represent universality to nonwhites and nonmales. Then there's his musical blandness: bits that crept through my defenses of " ... More >>

Oakland's DJ Mere on the Local Rap Scene and Becoming a KMEL All-Star DJ

As one of KMEL's all-star DJs and a member of the Oakland Faders crew, Oakland-born-and-raised DJ Mere's ascension to the top is a tale of hustling, street-teaming, and hard work. Starting his career as an intern at a promotions company at the age of 17, he found himself promoting locally for then-u ... More >>

K.Flay's Smart-Aleck Rhymes Could be the Bay's Next Big Export

A Smart Aleck with Rhymes

Meet K.Flay, the Stanford grad who might be the Bay's next big female rapper

Live Review, 2/23/12: Thao Nguyen Brings Out the Badass at Bottom of the Hill

Thao Nguyen John Vanderslice Bird by Snow Garrett Pierce Thursday, Feb. 24, 2012 Bottom of the Hill Better than: Every live performance Thao has given to date. If anything is left standing at Bottom of the Hill after last night's Noise Pop festival show, it is certainly by the good graces of powe ... More >>

'James Hetfield Is a Rapper,' and Other Awesomely Blasphemous Metallica Mashups

Onemoredisco.comOne More Disco's Metallica remix contest drew intriguing entries.​ See more of our Metallica Week coverage: Metallica Brings Out Lou Reed, Kid Rock, Mercyful Fate, and More as the 30th Anniversary Party Continues Author Brian Lew on the Early Days of Metallica and the Bay Ar ... 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 >>

Wiz Khalifa Sends Smoke Signals Through Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

Wiz Khalifa at Bill Graham Civic last night. All photos by Calibree Photography.​ Wiz Khalifa Big Sean June 22, 2011 @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium Better than: The other kind of secondhand smoke Pittsburgh MC Wiz Khalifa (government name Cameron Thomaz) takes his moniker from an abbreviatio ... More >>

Britney Spears in San Jose: Pop Star Believes She Can Fly

Calibree PhotographyBritney Spears at HP Pavilion on Saturday​ Britney Spears June 18, 2011 @ HP Pavilion Better than: Not crossing a two-man religious picket line on a Saturday night in order to (apparently) celebrate fornication, homosexuality, and general hell-raising. "God hates Britney ... More >>

The Top Five Rap Cameos on The Simpsons

Kid Rock!​The squeaky-pitched funk of "Do The Bartman" might not come up often when rap nerds talk about hip-hop's golden era, but during The Simpsons' near 500-episode reign, the show has proved more than willing to spoof the rap world's biggest stars. So with the somewhat curious news that N ... More >>

Meet the Bloggers: Tamara Palmer

Douglas ZimmermanTamara Palmer.​You read them here, now find out who the hell they are: We give you the diverse group of men and women who cover the local food and drink scene for you on SFoodie. Tamara Palmer Beats: Street food, underground dining, restaurants Tamara Palmer is the first t ... More >>

R.I.P. Nate Dogg, Hip-Hop's Greatest Purveyor of Hooks and Choruses (With Bonus Videos!)

Nate Dogg R.I.P.​ If you came of age between 1995 and 2005, it's hard to imagine you're unfamiliar with the late, great Nate Dogg (government name Nathaniel Hale), who passed away yesterday at the age of 41 after struggling with strokes suffered in 2007 and 2008. In his prime, he cornered the mar ... More >>

Top 6 Songs About Sex That'll Make You Celibate: Happy Valentine's Day

In case you forgot, it's Valentine's Day -- the one day of the year where everyone is contractually obliged to go out and get laid or fear feeling bad about themselves until Feb. 15 rolls around. Well, in the interest of restoring balance to the world, we wanted to offer some reminders that sometime ... More >>

Dear Famous Musicians, Stop Trying to Fleece Us With Your Overpriced 'Signature' Headphones

You trust this guy's opinion about headphones?​It's CES time again, that once-a-year event when every consumer tech company that you have (and haven't) heard of flocks to Las Vegas to reveal this year's lineup of middling products they're sure will drive profit margins up. And, building on re ... More >>

Ludacris Shows Up in S.F. To Motivate High School Students

Ludacris at Thurgood Marshall High School in S.F.​So why should San Francisco high school students hang tough through chemistry, French and European history classes? Among other reasons, because Ludacris says so.The rapper/actor showed up at Thurgood Marshall High School in S.F. last Fri ... More >>

Exclusive: DJ White Mike's 'Lights and Sounds' Mix

'Lights and Sounds Mixtape' Artwork​San Francisco's DJ White Mike is the man behind this 40-minute mixtape of club-ready sonics, which he calls Lights and Sounds. We've certainly featured Mike and his Get Loose! shindig before, but this upbeat DJ set is something a tad different from the mixm ... More >>

Trey Songz: Show Preview

Ludacris Performs at Slim's August 8 -- Do You Have Enough Blunt Wraps?

​Ludacris might be a completely sane, polite, business-savvy person in real life, but frankly, we prefer the bling-swingin', haunches-obsessed ruffian he plays on stage. (Or, as Bill O'Reilly called him, the "vile thug." They later made up.) The vile thug/Chris Bridges/Luda hits the Slim's stage ( ... More >>

Justin Bieber Cover: Neon Trees Digs Deep to Tap Into Its Inner Biebster

Listening to Neon Trees' cover of Justin Bieber's "Baby" makes you wish someone had told them, "Baby, baby, baby. Noooooo" beforehand. All due respect for giving a shout-out to a fellow artist on their label, Island, but nothing takes the edge off a rock band quite like covering a song by a pop sta ... More >>

The Park provides solid rhythm and a safe playspace

What to Do? Wednesday's Pick: The Park at Mojito

​The Park is probably the best San Francisco band you didn't know you've heard. With its knack for modern updates of the vintage soul, jazz, and funk sounds hip-hop producers have sampled for years, the trio has lately kept busy working on critically acclaimed albums and live shows by cult early-' ... More >>

Obama and Hip-hop: Better than "Beef"?

EKAphotography copyright 2007. all rights reservedOur shoulder-brushin', fist-bumpin' POTUS in Oakland, 2007 For a long time, hip hop debates have tended toward the tawdry and tabloidesque--i.e., Is Kanye Gay?; Is Alicia Keys creepin' with Swizz Beats?; Joe Budden vs. Saigon, T.I. vs. Mysonne, Cha ... More >>

Rap and Bullshit

Today’s R&B is pure garbage.

Texas Rap Legend Bun B Keeps It Trill

Map Confirms That Ludacris Likes Bay Area Hoes

Is Wu-Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah as Dumb as He Sometimes Acts?

Borat's Ho Helps Pimp Katt Williams Premiere New Movie in SF

I Can Go for That

The Web 2.0 generation recharges Hall & Oates' hits

Hyper! Norwegian! Electro! Dipteryx! Yay!

Slap that ass at Donkey Punch

Slam Dunk

How the story of a high school basketball team ended up much more

Our top DVD picks for the week of January 24.

Diplo brings along DJ Marlboro for a wild night at the Rickshaw; Bingo is your name-o at the Knockout's "BingoTopia"

Boyz N the Studio

Hustle & Flow is short on action, long on scenes of recording

SSRI-ay Cap'n

Depression is all around us, but here's some upcoming shows that won't bring you down

We're No Angels

In Paul Haggis' Los Angeles, good and evil Crash into one another

BeatBox

Doug E. Fresh brings the beat-boxing revival to the DNA Lounge; 26 Mix hosts the ultimate hip hop feud: "East vs. West."

BeatBox

Diplo teaches dancefloors new Hollertron-icks; the EndUp turns 31; rapper Nas makes a rare live appearance

Hear This

Kanye West is everywhere, including Oakland; My Chemical Romance delivers its canned goth-pop

Return of the Jedi

Once hailed as the savior of instrumental hip hop, RJD2 is back with his sophomore release

Hear This

Back with a new album, Wu Tang Clan's Method Man stops in San Francisco before taking over Hollywood.

Cee-Lo

Cee-Lo Green... Is the Soul Machine

Beat Box

Go out. Get wasted. Grab 2004 by its throat. Here are three more options for your Dionysian pursuits.

Letters to the Editor

Week of November 5, 2003

House of Tudor

Comic Neil Hamburger tells lame, awkward anti-jokes. What's so funny about that?

Chingy

Jackpot