Raekwon

DJ ChaunceyCC on the Spooky Side of Hip-Hop, and Stopping with the Stupid Subgenres Already

East Coast-rasied hip-hop DJ-producer ChaunceyCC began his career in a very straightforward way: "I became a DJ pretty much out of the sheer fact that I can't rap, and everyone else I grew up around could." The observation paid off, as the selecter born Chauncey Johnson has since toured with indie r ... More >>

G.O.O.D. Music's Cruel Summer: A First Listen

Kanye West has officially become the bad guy, people. He's rich, he's rude, he's entitled, he's a rock 'n' roll legend who's awaiting a legit artistic backlash any year now, and he's also a smart businessperson. After Taylor Swift-gate and record sales of his third Pazz & Jop-winning "masterpiece" f ... More >>

Hood Internet: Show Preview

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 >>

Ant-1 on Growing Up in the Local DJ Scene and Krazy Kids Radio

As a member of Krazy Kids Radio and the Ri$ky Bizne$$ Crew, local DJ Ant-1 is known for playing a broad variety of music, including '90s hip-hop and even the burgeoning trap music genre. Originally from Daly City, home to DJs like Shortkut and DJ Chicken Skratch, Ant-1 began his career in 1996 after ... More >>

Raekwon: Show Preview

Rhyme Master Run Amok

Van Halen's A Different Kind of Truth: A First Listen

​Van Halen is about one thing: revenge. Eddie brought in Sammy to get rid of Dave, flirted with Dave again to get rid of Sammy, brought in Gary Cherone to clear out the building, trained his own son to replace his most loyal member, and brought Dave back in for now. Don't be surprised if he cans h ... More >>

The Eight Most Memorable Pop Culture References on Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

The rap game -- well, any game -- could use more people with the ambition of the RZA and the ability to make good on it. The man born Robert Diggs is more than an MC, a producer, and an actor. His resume also includes "DICTATOR" in big, bold letters: When the Wu-Tang Clan was just a bunch of young b ... More >>

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

Here's Why People Really Hate the Black Eyed Peas -- and Why It's Unfair

Black Eyed Peas: Hate 'em or love 'em?​ Yesterday, prominent critic Ann Powers broke down why people hate the Black Eyed Peas so much, without necessarily defending their music. Much of what she wrote makes sense, but there is a point where it feels overthought academically. She writes: In eve ... More >>

New Fist Family Video: From North Carolina to North Beach, Via the Median Strip

​You may remember Asheville, NC transplants Fist Family from their dope car-chase video tribute to their adoptive hometown. Well, they're back, lamping around the slanty thoroughfares and dimly lit alleyways of North Beach and loitering in the literal middle of Columbus Ave, with the first single ... More >>

Soul-Funk Outfit The Budos Band Wants To Harsh Your Mellows, Hippies

Lotsa people, lotsa attitude.​You've got to love New Yorkers for their blatant honesty. Speaking to Jared Tankel, baritone saxophone player in 10-piece Staten Island global-funk group The Budos Band, he makes it clear to aspiring rappers that his instrumental band is not interested in collaboratin ... More >>

Wu-Tang Clan Is Playing San Francisco's Mezzanine This December

Nothing to fuck with.​YES: the Wu-Tang Clan (R.I.P. O.D.B.) is bringing its Shaolin magic on the road next month, and San Francisco lies in the path of destruction. (This less than a month after Ghostface Killah's show at Slim's next week.) So boom-bap to that! Come this way for details.

Review and Download: Curtains' 'The Dissertaion (The Wu Thesis)'

​The past month has been a pretty great one for rap. New Orleans weed aficionado and sometime Lil Wayne sidekick Curren$y released Pilot Talk, featuring a terrific single, "The Day," where Jay Electronica waxes "young, black, intelligent, elegant, blasé," and Mos Def sounds like his jaw is still ... More >>

A Night of J Dilla Featuring ISM and the Fan-Tas-Tics at Madrone Art Bar

Hiroshi Okun​A Night of J Dillafeaturing ISM and The Fan-tas-tics @ Madrone Art Bar July 28, 2010 Better than: A night of Steve Milla.James Yancey, a.k.a. Jay Dee, a.k.a. J Dilla, is somewhere between 2Pac and Pimp C in the running for the title of hip-hop's hardest-working dead guy. His death of ... More >>

Why The Critics Are Wrong: Rap Albums You Probably Don't Know But Should, Part II

​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. Here's an alternative to the critical consensus on rap. Yesterday, we ... 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 >>

Listomania: Top Hip-Hop Picks For 2009

While year-end, catch-all wrap-ups are common to every musical genre, in no other style of music do they turn into the hand-wringing, "state of the game" examinations that hip-hop seems to provoke. (I've certainly written a few.) We worry because we care, of course. But at some point, like a thirty- ... More >>

Listomania: Top Southern Rap Picks For 2009

Yeah, it stirred the Yankees to the World Series championship, but was there a more boring album this year than Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3? Perhaps it was a geographic thing; with a few exceptions like Raekwon and Kid Cudi, most of 2009's exciting, innovative rap records came from Southern artists. Sur ... More >>

Rock the Bells

Rock the Bells Announces Bay Area Dates

Rock the Bells 2007, San Francisco America's premier (and possibly only major) hip-hop touring festival, Rock the Bells, has announced the date and venue for the 2009 edition: August 9, at the Shoreline Auditorium in Mountain View. While ASD much prefers the parking lot of the stadium where the Gia ... More >>

Rock the Bells Announces Lineup

EKAphotography Not to be outdone by the massive, monumental Outside Lands lineup, hip-hop's annual extravaganza Rock the Bells has announced its lineup as well: Nas & Damian "Jr Gong" Marley,The Roots, Common, Big Boi, KRS-One, House of Pain featuring La Coka Nostra, Reflection Eternal (Talib Kw ... More >>

The Pharcyde, A Tribe Called Quest, Nas Headline Annual Rock the Bells Festival

GZA: Going Back in Wu-Tang Time

RZA Leaves Wu-Tang Tour

Wu Hu!

LastNight: RZA at the Independent

CD Review: Wu-Tang Clan -- 8 Diagrams

Wu-Tang Clan

8 Diagrams (Loud/SRC/Universal)

Kings of Commenting: Top Weekly Comments on SF Weekly.com

Kings of Commenting: Top Weekly Comments on SFWeekly.com

Kings of Commenting: Top Weekly Comments on SF Weekly.com

Wu-Tang Clan's '8 Diagrams' -- Sneak Review of the Leak!!

New Music : Ghostface follows SF Performance by checking into " Rehab"

The heavy hitters of hip hop jingle your bells

ODB

A Son Unique

BeatBox

Mu brings the techno stompdown to Rx; Mighty hosts a hip hop jammy-jam block party

Prince Po

The Slickness

Hear This

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

SF Weekly Music Awards 2003

Americana DJ/Selector/Turntablist Electronic/Electro Hard Rock/

Metal Hip Hop/Rap Jazz Latin/

International Lifestyle Music New Genre/Beyond Pop Punk Rock/Indie Rock Soul/Funk/ R&B

If music be the brandy of the damned, then we're drunk off our asses

Planet Rock

Break out the dance pants and hide your jewelry: You're about to meet the Crack Emcee

Preaching to the Unconverted

Martin Luther wants to save your soul -- music, that is

Wu-Tang Forever?

U-God comments on the state of the Wu nation after a tumultuous year for its members

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The Book of Lists

SF Weekly contributors salute the best (and worst) music of 1995

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