Nas (Rapper)

Devin The Dude: 'Beer and Rap'-Approved

New Nas Album in Stores Tuesday - Listen Free Online Today

Last Night: Rock the Bells at Shoreline Amphitheatre

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)

For Whom the Bottom Line Tolls

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

Grown and Chrisette

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

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

Trojan War: Carmen Bryan's blank slate

Diddy

Press Play (Bad Boy)

Coke Dreams

In Scarface, slinging yayo is the name of the game.

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."

Rakim's oft-imitated, never duplicated rap style

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

House Of Tudor

Olu Dara

Reviews

Olu Dara

SF Weekly Picks

Olu Dara

Recordings

Olu Dara

Nothing in Common

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

Rock the Bells

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

How the Grouch Stole Christmas

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

Stretch Armstrong

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

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Nas and Damian Marley show the wrong way to Africa

​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 >>

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 >>

Outside Lands, Day Two: More People and More Fun

The right side of the crowd during Phoenix's "1901"​The first thing we noticed about the second day of the Outside Lands festival was all the people. We're still waiting on official figures to back this up, but here are our impressions: On Saturday afternoon on the polo fields felt laid back, with ... 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Mobb Deep's Prodigy Has More to Say Online Than in Rhyme

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 >>

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 >>

R.I.P. Amy Winehouse, 1983-2011

​Beloved English singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse died in her London home on Saturday at the age of 27. Police have not yet determined the cause of death, but several outlets have reported that there were no signs of foul play. Winehouse enjoyed a brutally short legacy akin to that of several ... More >>

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

​Beloved English singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse died in her London home on Saturday at the age of 27. Police have not yet determined the cause of death, but several outlets have reported that there were no signs of foul play. Winehouse enjoyed a brutally short legacy akin to that of several ... More >>

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

​Beloved English singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse died in her London home on Saturday at the age of 27. Police have not yet determined the cause of death, but several outlets have reported that there were no signs of foul play. Winehouse enjoyed a brutally short legacy akin to that of several ... More >>

It Was All a Dream

​Beloved English singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse died in her London home on Saturday at the age of 27. Police have not yet determined the cause of death, but several outlets have reported that there were no signs of foul play. Winehouse enjoyed a brutally short legacy akin to that of several ... 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 launc ... More >>