Nas (Rapper)

Lauryn Hill Announces Intimate Show This Weekend at the Independent

Gotta love Lauryn Hill's penchant for last-minute announcements. The beloved and mercurial R&B singer will be in town next week for a show Nov. 19 at the Fox Oakland with Nas, but that won't be her only local appearance: Hill just announced show at the 500-capacity Independent in S.F. this weekend.

Summer Guide: Choosing the Season's Best Music Festivals

Weekend Parties: Secret Circuit, Large Professor, James Murphy, and More

As Memorial Day approaches, so does the extended pleasure of a three-day weekend. While it might be tempting to turn off your phone and barbecue straight from Friday to Monday, we strongly urge you to look over this short list before checking out completely. Read on -- your weekend awaits. Friday, ... More >>

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

Large Professor: Show Preview

Rock the Bells 2012 Lineup: Deltron 3030, E-40, and Too $hort Rep the Bay

Deltron 3030 (the trio of Del the Funky Homosapien, Dan the Automator, and Kid Koala) and the powerhouse duo of E-40 and Too $hort are the local names representing the Bay Area at this year's hip-hop megafest Rock The Bells, which returns to Shoreline Amphitheatre this August 25-26. This year's lin ... More >>

Six Children of Music Legends Whose Own Music Doesn't Suck

You may have heard this week that Paul McCartney's son, James, wants to get together with the children of John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr and be a Beatles: Next Generation band. Truthfully, that might be one of the saddest and most desperate concepts for a musical project we've ever he ... More >>

The Best of SXSW Music: Saturday 3/17/2012

So, we come to it: the end of all things. Four days of madness, Doritos, Skrillex and finally, St. Patrick's Day. Before we bid SXSW 2012 farewell, allow us to share our favorite moments from SXSW day four. Later, we'll let you know which shows weren't so hot. Find our favorites below, and if there ... More >>

Alert: SXSW Coverage Ahead

"What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area." -- Tommy Lee Jones, The Fugitive You don't have to spend much time at South By Southwest to know that all of the above building ... More >>

Stretch Armstrong on the Demise of FM Radio and the Inanity of Celebrity DJs

One half of the Stretch and Bobbito Show on New York's WKCR through the '90s, DJ/producer Stretch Armstrong has played an essential part in the integration of hip-hop into mainstream radio. A fixture in the '90s hip-hop scene, he used media outlets such as mixtapes and radio programs to launch the c ... More >>

It Was All a Dream

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

Rock the Bells Brings Classic Hip-Hop Debuts to the Stage

Mochilla's B Plus on Endtroducing, J-Dilla, and the Last Ten Years of Hip-Hop Photography

Los Angeles-based photographer and filmmaker Brian Cross (or B as he's commonly known) has blazed a distinct path through independent media over the past two decades. A native of Limerick, Ireland, Cross moved to L.A. in the early '90s and quickly became a go-to hip-hop photographer starting with a ... More >>

Country Star Eric Church Hates Your Hip-Hop Hat and Sagging Jeans

On occasion, All Shook Down gives a listen to the music that is to real America what brine is to a cucumber. This is one of those occasions. Eric Church, "Homeboy" There's a fine bit of bullshit in Jay-Z's Decoded, that tony slab of image-sprucing book art in which the man who once bragg ... More >>

Get Bent with the Beastie Boys' Hot Sauce Committee, Part 2

​This week: Get bent with the Beastie Boys' Hot Sauce Committee, Part 2 (Explicit)​Behind the buzz: There are weeks when the choice for audio bongload is obvious, and this is one such. The censor-approved "clean" version of the new Beasties' album was prematurely released onto the Internet, leav ... More >>

Former Record Exec Steve Stoute Trashes the Grammys in Full-Page NYT Ad -- And He's Got a Point

Gaga at the Grammys​Steve Stoute, an industry executive famous in hip-hop circles for managing Nas and beefing with Diddy, isn't happy with the way the Grammys turned out last week. In fact, he's so mad that he took out a full page ad in the New York Times to air his grievances with the award show ... More >>

The Top 5 Most Regrettable Rapper Tattoos

Rappers lead the world when it comes to ridiculous tattoos. But while it's easy to mock Lil Wayne getting the EPSN logo on his arm or Eve's decision to stamp cat paws on her breasts, sometimes rappers themselves have second thoughts about their ink art. So with Gucci Mane recently revealing a freshl ... More >>

Kanye West on Twitter: Top 8 Things We Want Kanye's Buying Advice On

Kanye and his crew looking ready to dispense some buying advice.​Dear Kanye,In the approximately thirty-four days, five hours and seventeen minutes since you joined Twitter, you have taught the world great deal -- about yourself, about life, and even sometimes about music. But the rarest wisdom ye ... More >>

Nas and Damian Marley show the wrong way to Africa

Nas and Damian Marley, Outside Lands' Weak Lineup, and the Unfashionable Mister Loveless

​So Nas and Damian Marley set out to make a rap-reggae record. It's not a terribly novel idea, but given the pair's credentials, the disc sounds at least promising, right? Don't spark that spliff just yet: Sean Fennessey writes in our print edition this week that Nas and Marley's finished product, ... More >>

Cormega Gets Crowd Moving at First-Ever Bay Area Show

​Cormega June 17, 2010 The Rockit Room Better Than: South Bronx. South, South Bronx. The latest in Sellassie's on-going hip-hop series We All We Got brought Cormega to the Richmond District for his first Bay Area appearance ever. Rockit Room's upstairs venue was a fragrant hotbox stuffed with par ... More >>

Rap Albums You Probably Don't Know But Should, Part I

Illmatic isn't Nas' only good album, despite what you may have heard​Since many recent Next Big Things in rap have proven disappointing -- see Wale, Asher Roth and B.o.B. -- it might be time to consider the possibility that hip-hop tastemakers don't know what to look for in the first place. T ... More >>

Outside Lands Goes on Sale Today. Behold These Tasty Food and Music Pairings

Tamara PalmerPica Pica Maize Kitchen's cachapas: Goes great with Colombian rock.​While we're both a music and food writer by trade, we were sent to Outside Lands last year with a specific mission to eat, and it was refreshing to have so many truly good edible distractions that we barely cared ... More >>

Good Rappers Who've Made Terrible Actors

The trend of rappers shifting into acting is nothing new, and in theory it makes sense. Both roles focus on emotive storytelling, right? Unfortunately, that transition isn't always a smooth one--a point hammered home repeatedly by the new film Just Wright, starring Queen Latifah and Common. It's 100 ... More >>

Straight Outta Fresno: Fashawn Hits Slim's

​Plenty of cities you wouldn't normally associate with hip-hop have been producing their fair share of beats and rhymes. That said, it's still surprising to learn that one of rap's brightest young stars is from the same place that just hosted the Future Farmers of America's Leadership Conference. ... More >>

Stretch Armstrong

How the Grouch Stole Christmas

Rock the Bells

Friday Night: Nas at the Warfield

NasThe Warfield November 28, 2008 Notes by Jackie Lopez Better Than: The "Untitled" Album (and that album is pretty amazing). Nas has been rocking the hip-hop crowd since 1992; that's saying a lot considering the game has been changing and he's managed to stay on top. In 1998, he joined Lauryn Hil ... More >>

Nas

Untitled (The Jones Experience/Def Jam/Columbia)

New Nas Album in Stores Tuesday - Listen Free Online Today

Nothing in Common

To right-wingers, all rap is the same. It's not.

For Whom the Bottom Line Tolls

Hip hop's big Rock the Bells thinkers break free from industry shackles

Grown and Chrisette

Who Killed It?

Nas and the right wing vie for the heart of hip hop

The Fifth Element

As mainstream hip hop stalemates in commodities, underground MCs keep old-school aesthetics alive through art

Nas

Hip Hop Is Dead (Def Jam)

Misc. Reviews

Trojan War: Carmen Bryan's blank slate

Unagi emerges from the local hip hop underground

Lupe Fiasco

Food & Liquor (1st and 15th/Atlantic Records)

Follow the Leader

Rakim's oft-imitated, never duplicated rap style

My, what big beats you have: Slick Rick, the Mad Professor, and the DJ who brought us "Me So Horny."

Department of What the Fuck?

Beef, it's what's for dinner: Hip hop feuds we'd like to see

Zion I

True & Livin'

BeatBox

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

Nas

Street's Disciple

BeatBox

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

SF Weekly Picks

Recordings