The Pharcyde

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 >>

CopperWire: How Jam Sessions in Ethiopia Became a Hip-Hop Space Opera

CopperWire is a new hip-hop trio featuring S.F. R&B singer and prodigy Meklit Hadero, rapper Gabriel Teodros, and producer-rapper Burntface (government name: Ellias Fullmore). The group comes with its own mythology: Its debut album, Earthbound, tells the story of three renegades in the year 2089 who ... More >>

Celebrate Four Years of Debaser With This Exclusive Boyz n the Hood-Themed Mix

Editor's note: Ahead of the four-year anniversary of beloved '90s party Debaser, we invited party DJs Jamie Jams and Stab Master Arson to make a mix of some of the songs we can expect to hear at Saturday's party. What follows is their mix and commentary. By JAMIE GUZZI Hip-hop historians note that ... More >>

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

Live Review: The Pharcyde Offers Nostalgia By The Numbers at Yoshi's

Slimkid3 shows off his solo work during the Pharcyde's set at Yoshi's.​The Pharcyde Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011 Yoshi's SF Better than: Letting life pass by. The early music of the Pharcyde offers an almost idyllic snapshot of the early-'90s hip-hop scene in Southern California. The group's care ... 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Peanut Butter Wolf on His History with 45s, and Why the Vinyl Comeback is Overhyped

Leader of the Pack​ Bay Area native Chris Manak, aka Peanut Butter Wolf, is best known for his distinctive production style of jazz, hip-hop, and funk-soul beats. Starting out his career in the early 90's with the late emcee Charizma, the then-teenage duo found instant success but never chose to c ... 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 >>

Video of the Day: Preview the New J. Dilla Doc

J. Dilla was unquestionably one of the most respected, if not constantly referenced, hip-hop producers of the past decade. Born James Yancey in his hometown of Detroit, Dilla was a prolific, inspired artist dedicated to the craft of classic, sample-based hip-hop, which he made for the likes of De ... More >>

The Pharcyde

The Eazy Stylings of Jern Eye

Music Awards: Crown City Rockers

Black Like Me

Not a coveted demographic, the young African-American hipster gets a movie.

Rappers with low self-esteem: Bragging about going broke

The Top 10 Reissues of 2008

By Chris Gray It's time to rank the best of what went around and came around again. BILLY JOEL The Stranger (Columbia/Legacy) As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man's deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell - and, occasionally, ... More >>

Making Waves

Saturday and Sunday: Slow Food Rocks

Last Night: Rock the Bells at Shoreline Amphitheatre

Rock the Bells Set Times Announced

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

LastNight: Stones Throw at the Independent

Chemical Brothers Tom Interview: 'Drugs Are Bad' Mmkay

Chemical Brothers

We Are the Night (Astralwerks)

Subtle: hip-hop collagists of the artiest caliber

King Britt storms the turntables

It Was a Year Of ...

Well, lots of things, actually

So Rich, So Pretty

Mickey Avalon scores with hipsters, hustlers, and MySpace suits

Rapper Fatlip, industrial innovators Front 242, and the dancehall star who brought us "No, No, No."

Hear This

Django Reinhardt Project takes on the Gypsy jazz master; the 60-piece Dakah Hip Hop Orchestra makes its SF debut

Music Highlights

From Mahler to Morrissey, the Bay Area has it all this summer.

Get a Pop Life

The Grey Album made everyone forget about Danger Mouse and Jemini's Ghetto Pop Life. It's time to remember.

Shops and Gifts

DJ Z-Trip & DJ P

Uneasy Listening, Volume 1 (Self-released)

Dial 510-Hip-Hop

The Cali Comm tour brings the region's best hip hop talent under one roof

Holiday Highlights 2001

Holiday Event Lisitngs

Character Crazy

Singer/songwriter Sonny Smith has a lot to say about the odd twists of life -- and an interesting way to say it

New School Session

After big labels beat on its door for years, Lootpack found a home on a small San Francisco imprint and an original approach to modern hip hop

Quannum Leap

Growing out of Oakland's Solesides label, the rappers and producers of Quannum Projects look to expand even further

Night + Day

Beats, Rhymes, and Laughs

A failed record deal hasn't dampened the Mountain Brothers' sense of humor

Stakes Is High

Bay Area hip-hop artists and the art of the hustle

Hear This

Night+Day

Recordings

The Book of Lists

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

Recordings

Night+Day

Schools of Thought

The Roots, the Nonce and DJ Hurricane take hip hop to the next level