Phillip Mlynar

The 10 Best Bay Area Hip-Hop Records of 2012

It's been another big year in Bay Area hip-hop, with one huge collaboration album from two local greats and lots of strong releases from young local upstarts. So before the world ends, let's round up the 10 best Bay Area hip-hop/rap records (including albums, mixtapes, etc.) of 2012. Main Attrakion ... More >>

The Five Best Concerts in San Francisco This Week

Sunn O))) @ Mezzanine, Tuesday, Dec. 18 Over the 14 years that Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley have run Sunn O))), the pair have eagerly tested threshold after threshold. The Seattle-born drone metal project's songs are long -- the shortest track on 2009 LP Monoliths & Dimensions is 9 minutes, 42 ... More >>

Top Five Musician-Based Video Games You Can Play In Your Browser Right Now

2012 has seen a bumper batch of musician-helmed video games hitting the Internet. They're ostensibly meant to promote an artist's latest release, but also act as snappy diversions to play in your browser while you should be concentrating on something far more important. Here are five of the best rec ... More >>

Skrillex Pal Dillon Francis Thinks Doritos Tacos Are "Greatest Thing Ever Created," Hasn't Had Real S.F. Mexican Food

Dillion Francis is setting his lofty stall out to become the DJ world's most renowned taco activist. Signed to Skrillex's OWSLA label, Francis recently embraced his love of a certain brand of taco by launching the Free Taco (DJ Awareness) movement. So far, this high political endeavor has seen him g ... More >>

Roach Gigz's Five Essential San Francisco Spots: Music, Crab, and Baseball

Roach Gigz releases his debut studio album today. Titled Bugged Out, the rapper is banking on the project to build on the buzz his mixtapes have cultivated and jolt his career up another notch. So with Gigz being at the forefront of San Francisco's fresh new generation of rap talent, we got him to r ... More >>

Fall Album Frenzy: New Local Albums You Need to Know

The Pharcyde's Five-Step Guide To Creating A Classic Hip-Hop Album

Twenty years ago, The Pharcyde released a hip-hop classic. Titled Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde, the 16-track album announced to the world the talents of M.C.s Bootie Brown, Fatlip, Imani, and Slimkid 3, plus producer J Swift. With raps that fused a freestyling background with humble and smart songwr ... More >>

IamSu! on KILT, Getting an Invite From E-40, and Why He Wants Lil B to do an "Up" Remix

E-40's "Function" is blowing up the Bay. It's a slap-happy track that also happens to feature a cameo verse from Richmond rapper IamSu!, who dropped his freebie KILT mixtape last week. So with Iamsu!'s buzz building, we checked in with the 22-year-old to talk about learning to produce under Trackade ... More >>

The Top 15 Most Cocaine-Influenced Albums of All Time, Nos. 5-1

See also: * The Top 15 Most Cocaine-Influenced Albums of All Time, Nos. 15-11 * The Top 15 Most Cocaine-Influenced Albums of All Time, Nos. 10-6 Here we are, at the end of the blizzard: the final installment of our list of the most coked-out records ever made. Less an endorsement than an assessme ... More >>

Roach Gigz's Producer CLoz Used to Sell Beats for $10

CLoz sold his first beat for $10. That less-than-whopping fee came about as the East Bay producer was clawing his way up into the local hip-hop scene. Since then, Cloz has steadily built up an impressive body of beats, most of them hooked around rousing synth lines and synapse-sizzling snares; he's ... More >>

Honor Roll Crew Singer 1 O.A.K. on His Debut Solo Album, Studio Mischief, and Covering Wham!

"We'll be taking a lot of shots tonight!" 1 O.A.K. is about to head out and celebrate his brother's 21st birthday by hitting up a few local bars -- but the Oakland-based singer and producer has good reason to indulge in some reveling with his debut solo album, Special Request, having dropped last we ... More >>

Porter Robinson's Five Favorite Things About San Francisco

Porter Robinson loves the Bay Area. A DJ and producer who's signed to Skrillex's OWSLA imprint, he cites San Francisco as his favorite place to play out and visit, not least after 2011's packed gig at Ruby Skye marked the emergence of the electro-dance purveyor as as an artist capable of selling-out ... More >>

The Evolution of A-Trak: From Scratch Nerd To Dance Tastemaker In Five Steps

A-Trak is one of the world's most effective musical tastemakers. These days, the Montreal-born DJ and producer is part of the braintrust behind the Fool's Gold label, which has a proven record of picking up artists like Danny Brown, The Cool Kids, and Kid Sister long before larger labels show intere ... More >>

The Park on Drinking Baileys with Wallpaper., Appearing on Carson Daly's TV Show, and What Song They'd Play for Mitt Romney

You've heard The Park, even if you don't recognize the name. As the Bay Area's most in-demand rhythm section, the trio quartet of Derek Taylor (drums), Josh Lippi (bass), Ben Schwier (keys), and Nate Mercereau (guitar) has laid down backing grooves for new-generation rap chaps Freddie Gibbs and Big ... More >>

Veteran Rappers: Do You Really Need to Continue Making New Records?

There was a time, back in the late '80s, when the legendary Bronx rapper KRS-One was a candidate for the title of Greatest Rapper of All Time. Twenty-five years later, though, the self-anointed Blastmaster's latest long-player, The B.D.P. Album, suggests that compulsory retirement from the recording ... More >>

Instrumental Hip-Hop Sucks. Ban It Forever.

RJD2​ Instrumental hip-hop should be banned. It's the banal, meandering stepchild of hip-hop. It's a front-runner for the dubious honor of being the world's most snooze-inducing form of music. And, shockingly, there are still producers and fans who insist on validating it like it's anything bu ... More >>

Oakland Rapper Beeda Weeda Borrows Too $hort's Persona, Picks His Five Favorite Songs

"I'm kinda like taking the Too $hort persona and putting my own stamp on it," says Oakland-based rapper Beeda Weeda about his upcoming project. Titled Bass Rock Babies, the album is co-signed by $hort Dog, who contributes guest raps and has allowed Beeda to recreate classic videos of his to promote ... More >>

Q&A: Hieroglyphics' Casual on Being a '#RapGod' and Battle-Rapping in Middle School

Casual​ For his latest project, the Oakland-raised rapper Casual has anointed himself a rap god. It's a lofty and arrogant title, but one that the Hieroglyphics crew's undisputed battle champ has earned the right to coin, having now clocked up a near-20-year recorded career with new album He T ... More >>

Kreayshawn Looks Back on Her Breakout Year, Invents a Signature Cocktail, and Talks Plans for 2012

Kreayshawn is 2011's most dramatic hip-hop blow-up story. After starting the year planning to transition from directing videos for local Bay Area rappers to releasing her own mixtapes, the 21-year-old Natassia Zolot scored big with the DJ Two Stacks-produced "Gucci Gucci." The song's success was ins ... More >>

R.I.P. Rapper Special One, of Oakland Duo Conscious Daughters

Special One (left) and CMJ​Special One, a rapper in the East Oakland hip-hop duo the Conscious Daughters, passed away on Saturday. Initial reports say the woman born Karryl Smith was found dead at her apartment by her rhyming partner CMJ (Carla Green); according to Green, the cause of Smith's ... More >>

Distortion 2 Static's Top Five Celebrity Guests

During its 10-year run, the Distortion 2 Static hip-hop TV show graduated from profiling local upcoming artists to chatting it up with rap superstars. Started by Prince Aries, Ariel Nuñez and DJ Haylow, the show signed off on its broadcast run back in September; a farewell shindig will be going dow ... More >>

Top Five Hip-Hop Songs That Shout Out and Give Thanks

Hip-hop isn't exactly the most festive or friendly music in the world. Yeah, there's a smattering of Christmas rap songs -- although Run-DMC's "Christmas In Hollis" really isn't that good -- but on the whole, the genre has shunned the lure of the extended holiday season. But don't despair! Rappers n ... More >>

SF Rapper DaVinci Lists His Five Favorite Fillmore District Memories

Ken TaylorDaVinci, in unmistakably San Francisco fog. ​ DaVinci represents the Fillmore passionately. The rapper claims roots in the area going back to his grandmother's time, and has traced the changes in the blocks he grew up on through songs like "What You Finna Do." So before he lights up ... More >>

Justin BUA's Top Five Illustrated Hip-Hop Album Covers

"Historically, artists painted the court and the aristocracy. I'm the court painter of hip-hop -- the artists are that important." So says Justin BUA, the hip-hop generation artist who celebrates the release of his new book The Legends Of Hip-Hop with a signing session at Booksmith this Friday start ... More >>

SF Rapper San Quinn Reviews His Own Discography

What the shirt says.​ San Quinn is a certified Bay Area rap veteran. Since dropping his debut, Don't Cross Me, back in 1993, he's gone on to amass a 15-album discography, with his latest project, Can't Take The Ghetto Out A Ni**a, released in July. With that album's new single, "Big Bank," sti ... More >>

The Top Five Classics From Quannum, the Bay Area Hip-Hop Collective

Lateef the Truthspeaker performs at Mighty tonight.​ With a line-up that includes cut-and-paste maestro DJ Shadow, innovative rap duo Blackalicious, and the spirited funk styles of Latryx, the Quannum collective is a Bay Area institution. Since its inception in the early '90s, the creative cre ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Metronomy's Top Five Remixes of Other Bands

​British electronic ensemble Metronomy plays the Rickshaw Stop tonight. Back in its home country, Metronomy scored a coveted Mercury Music Prize nomination for its last album, The English Riviera, which dropped earlier this year. That project's second single, "The Look," also grew into somethi ... More >>

Five Hip-Hop Album Covers That Would Make Insanely Difficult Jigsaw Puzzles

This week, a new candidate emerged for the spot of hip-hop's fabled fifth element: The jigsaw puzzle. With a canny eye on the not-too-far-off Christmas season, the Boston-based Get On Down Records has released jigsaw versions of classic rap album covers by Biz Markie, Kool G Rap, Boogie Down Produc ... More >>

DJ Shadow's The Less You Know The Better: A First Listen

Let's get this out of the way right from the off: DJ Shadow's fourth solo studio album, The Less You Know The Better, won't finally stop long-time fans from requesting that he makes a true sequel to 1996's Endtroducing. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. (I usually don't have the patience to l ... More >>

Five Great Jimi Hendrix Samples in Hip-Hop Songs

​ Today is officially Jimi Hendrix-Winterland Day in San Francisco, which is a fine excuse to soundtrack the rest of your afternoon with a dose of Hendrix's classic guitar grooves. But beyond the deceased guitarist's own oeuvre, his music has received a second life as the sample source for a f ... More >>

DJ Shadow Reviews His Own Discography

DJ Shadow​This week, DJ Shadow released his fourth solo studio album, The Less You Know, The Better. Featuring cameos from Little Dragon, De La Soul, Talib Kweli and Tom Vek, Shadow insists that the album isn't just a snapshot of where he's at as a musician in 2011, but also something that wil ... More >>

Consciousness vs. Sex: Jean Grae and the Plight of the Underground Female Rapper

Jean Grae​ Jean Grae, who performs tonight at the New Parish, is a very talented rapper. That's not just a very talented female rapper, but a very talented hip-hop artist who deserves to be considered on nothing more than her own lyrical merits, and shouldn't be given some sort of a rap pass d ... More >>

The Antidote to Watch The Throne: Why We Need Chuck D's "Notice -- Know This"

Public Enemy's Chuck D​ The luxurious sheen of Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch The Throne has beamed brilliant over the last couple of weeks of the hip-hop hype cycle. But amongst the chatter marveling at the upscale audacity of it all, there came a sobering and grounded moment just before the al ... More >>

The Top 10 New Jack Swing Anthems of All Time

This Thursday, one-time New Edition member and new jack swing icon Johnny Gill will be performing a set at Yoshi's. Credited as the creation of Teddy Riley, new jack swing saw R&B vocals being fused with uptempo beats coated in the bumptious attitude of hip-hop. At the subgenre's height in the '90s, ... More >>

D. Willz's "Watermelon" Might Be the Weirdest Local Rap Video of the Year

D.Willz​The song "Watermelon," by Oakland rapper D.Willz, is striking a claim for 2011's most off-kilter rap video. Instead of plumping for the usual format of having an artist posture, gesticulate, and rap to the camera, the flick features three farmers on an organic watermelon farm rapping t ... More >>

Before Lil B's I'm Gay: Five Great Hip-Hop Homages to Marvin Gaye

​When it comes to creative career moves, the rapper Lil B usually blazes his own distinct and very often quirky path. But his decision to re-up the cover art of Marvin Gaye's I Want You album for his own I'm Gay project taps into hip-hop's long and lustrous admiration for the music of Marvin. ... More >>

The Top Five Weird And Wonderful Music Scenes Championed By Diplo

The second installment in the Blow Your Head compilation series, released today, underscores Diplo's status as the world's most persuasive musical archaeologist. Released on Mad Decent, the record label run by the DJ, producer, and former darling of M.I.A., it focuses on the newly-created sub-genre ... More >>

The Top Five Utterly Embarrassing White Girl Rap Songs

Kreashawyn's "Gucci Gucci" is blowing up. The video to the song from the Bay Area-raised female rapper, which features cameos from members of Odd Future, is on track to top over a million YouTube views since its release last week. It's a high point in Kreashawyn's short career so far, as she attempt ... More >>

Rapper J Billion on Being a Bay Area Lakers Fan, Getting His Own Burrito at Papalote, and Running S.F. for a Day

JBillion​ Pairing San Francisco rhymer JBillion's high-strung, tactile rapping voice and beat-maker Rel's sophisticated, soulful production was a good idea. Together, the duo have just released the free download album MVMNT, which is headed up by the first single "Once In A Lifetime." The song ... 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 >>

The Top Ten Hip-Hop Drinking Anthems

​Hip-hop's reliance on marijuana as a creative conduit and lifestyle accessory is well documented. But beyond the genre's top tokers, there's also a bubbling batch of rappers who've rhymed about not so much getting a little tipsy as daily dalliances with the dark world of being black-out drunk ... More >>

In Print: Classic Hip-Hop Albums Performed Live, Wavves' Surf-Punk, and Rappers in the Shadow of Hyphy

​The lineup for this year's Rock the Bells hip-hop festival has the likes of Snoop, Slick Rick, A Tribe Called Quest, Rakim and even the Wu-Tang Clan all performing classic hip-hop albums in their entirety. In our print edition this week, Tamara Palmer takes a look back at each album's considerabl ... More >>

Seu Jorge and Almaz' Samba-Pop, the Trainwreck of Lil B, and EL-P's Independent Mind

Seu Jorge and Almaz in São Paulo​What happens when a bunch of skilled musicians get together in a room and just start playing -- with no regard for whether what comes out will be marketable? Check out the gorgeous new collaboration between Seu Jorge and Almaz for an example. For our print edition ... More >>

In Print: Francis & the Lights' iPad Album, Sammy Hagar is a Joke, All Shook Down Fest

Francis Farewell Starlite​Does the album matter anymore? Does anyone care? Do you know what a CD is? Okay, kidding on the last point (kinda), but clearly the music industry is looking for some new, marketable format to sell to music lovers. After all, CD sales ain't what they used to be, and it do ... More >>

10 Things To Do This Weekend For Under $10: Basement Disco, KUSF's B-Day & 3-D Blowout

Mean Jeans​This weekend there's no excuse to experience San Francisco in one dimension. Not when there are cheap events coming at you from basements, galleries, comedy clubs, and record stores. Make your weekend 3-D (especially if you hit the ATA Saturday night) with a few of these 10 ways to get ... More >>

Free Pair of Tickets to Bonobo Show Friday

Will Cooper​This week, Phillip Mlynar writes that U.K.-based Bonobo, the production star of the Ninja Tune label, "is fond of creating epic soul- and funk-infused soundscapes embellished with expansive horn arrangements." Together with London-born singer Andreya Triana, who is featured on Bon ... More >>

Video of the Day: DaVinci's Fillmore History Lesson

This week, Phillip Mlynar wrote about Fillmore rapper DaVinci, whose "What You Finna Do" focuses on gentrification in the hood where he was raised. As the gloomy beat kicks in, DaVinci starts to rap, eventually coining his update on the situation: "Down the corner of the street used to be the s ... More >>

In This Week's Issue: Noise Pop Picks, D-Lo's 'No Hoe,' & Vitalic Paranoia

D-Lo (left) and DJ Fresh​In case you've yet to pick up this week's issue of SF Weekly, a couple music highlights for you here:Emily Savage looks at what makes Noise Pop different from every other local music fest/good week in venue booking. The secret, it seems, is in limited-edition events, wheth ... More >>

Track(s) of the Day: Bossasaurus' Giant Tunes

In this week's paper, Phillip Mlynar profiles Oakland remix/production crew Bossasaurs. He writes of this group of hip-hop heads and dinosaur hoodie retailers:All four members of Bossasaurus are serious about their aims to be seen as creators. They openly scorn the current remix scene, dissing "lap ... More >>