Action Bronson is a giant white dude from Queens who raps mainly about food. Seriously, “an hour later eat a burger with my drug dealer /and add the butter to the fudge to make the fudge realer.” His breakout mixtape is full of the same lighthearted, soul-sampled, New York shit-talk that the Northeast has been missing lately. There’s no grim gun-talk, or arrests, or social justice - just retro-rap with a sense of humor. His breakout mixtape Dr. Lecter is a product of a bunch of no-name producers and features, but it remains one of the brightest moment’s of last year’s mixtape glut. more ›

This was not a reunion tour. Raekwon dropped a mixtape at the beginning of the year, Ghostface has put out two records in two years, RZA just produced a highlight track on the blockbuster Watch The Throne, and against all odds, How High 2 might actually come out this year. The Wu-Tang Clan has been astoundingly resilient to the effects of time and planning. Decades later they earnestly seem like they haven’t gotten tired of each other; not even Elephant 6 could claim such persistent acclimation. “The Rebirth Continues” read the massive W banner behind the stage at Emo’s East - if there ever was a rap collective that didn’t need to advertise a rebirth, it’s the Wu. more ›

[Note: This post is by contributor Luke Winkie.] Okay, look - you weren’t the only reader who found our staff album’s list a little pallid. Some great records, some thoughtful write-ups, but a distinct lack of sounds outside the usual indie flavors - which is fine, it’s just our collective tastes. But being the person the Austinist sends to review Das Racist shows, here’s my offering of some 2011 hip-hop that deserves at least a tip of the hat. No particular order besides the momentum the records cross my mind. All respect to Shabazz Palaces, Death Grips, Jay-Z & Kanye West, and A$AP Rocky amongst plenty others who released great albums last year, but there was only so much I could write about. more ›

Before everyone was equipped with camera phones--readily snapping Hipstamatic and Instagrams to share with the world, Ricky Powell made his mark in street photography back in 1985 with an old fashioned Instamatic camera. During the early days of NYC hip hop, Powell was following around the pioneers of the genre, turning out candid shots behind the scenes at elite clubs and on urban streets. more ›

Are you ready to go old school? We’re not talking about the Will Ferrell movie (though that film was the shiznet), we’re talking about some slammin’ beats from back in the day! If the fresh picture of MC Hammer and your homeboy Vanilla chillin’ didn’t tip you off, the title should. This Thursday, you can bust a move to some OG tunes as the Alamo Downtown hosts “Jiggy Crunk.” more ›

Method Man and Redman, who remain arguably the most charismatic duo in hip-hop despite releasing only two albums together over the course of a decade, return to Emo’s on Sunday night with Wu-associate Ghostface Killah in tow. While all three of these east coast legends are pushing 40, they’ve still managed to produce some of the best albums of their respective careers within the past couple of years. The sequel-fixated Method Man and Redman dropped Blackout! 2 back in May to extremely favorable critical and popular reception; every bit the equal of their debut, the record proves that the lifelong friends have lost none of the chemistry that made the original Blackout! so compelling ten years ago. more ›

Legendary Brooklyn MC, Blacksmith records CEO, and Ben Kweller sampler Talib Kweli rolls into Austin tonight to headline a jam-packed lineup at Emo’s. Kweli debuted in 1997, and almost immediately became an underground hero thanks to two landmark albums Rawkus albums, Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star, and Train of Thought, his collaboration with DJ Hi-Tek as Reflection Eternal. While Kweli’s solo output has been decidedly spottier, his status as a top-flight lyricist has never been questioned; what has been elusive to him is mainstream success. Although his latest LP Eardrum peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200, Kweli hasn’t yet achieved the commercial powerhouse status of a Jay-Z, Nas, or Kanye West. more ›

We can all agree that Austin is a magical place, a margarita glass filled to the brim with music, art, food, kooky events, and civic pride. Simply walk out your front door and within minutes you've been invited to a party, handed a Lone Star tallboy, and struck up conversation with someone pleasingly attractive while a great band plays in the background. We're spoiled, really. more ›

"It takes a lot more to gain respect with just lyrics," one of the female MCs states in Say My Name, a SXSW World Premier documentary feature. First-time director Nirit Peled focuses on the growing female presence in the realm of rap and hip-hop, with stops in the Bronx, London, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, LA and Detroit. more ›

There's no one in the Austin music community more dedicated to the emergence and support of hip hop here than Bavu Blakes. He's a tireless and talented performer, and a very vocal positive voice in the hip hop world in Austin and beyond. We couldn't complete a collection of local opinions without finding out what he listened to most in '08. Don't miss him perform tonight when "What's Wrong With the Scene" series. more ›

Tuesday’s show at Austin Music Hall has been listed as both “David Banner and Bun-B” and “David Banner, Bun-B and Z-Ro.” That’s how bonkers this show will be – Z-Ro, one of the most celebrated rappers in the state, gets low billing. After him, though, who goes next and who closes? It would be hard goings for any artist to follow Bun in Texas, where any show is a homecoming, at least as far as what you hear. As one half of UGK, his first handful of albums are classic in a way that might not be attainable any more; UGK brazenly rejected the status quo for what you could do in a rap song, and simultaneously crafted some of most vibrant and enthralling hip-hop ever. It seems every fan of Bun has at least one album they remember playing on cassette until the thing broke. Rappers today can get better, but it seems hard to fathom that they can ever be as foundational as Bun. Still, David Banner is rap’s best bid to get on one of those VH1 shows like “Craziest Concert Moments 12.” more ›

Legendary rapper and co-founder of Boogie Down Productions KRS-One has canceled his show originally scheduled for this Friday, Dec. 5 at Flamingo Cantina. Saturday's show with Houston's Dope E (South Park Coalition) will go on as planned. Tickets to that show are $5. more ›

Most know Ladybug Mecca, Butterfly and Doodlebug thanks to their 1993 release Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space), the album that delivered their first hit, "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)." more ›

Tuesday's Method Man & Redman show, originally booked at Stubb's, has been moved to Emo's outdoors. Previously purchased tickets will be honored. You can still buy tickets here or at Emo's day of show. more ›

Angry, insular, and propelled by a stripped down Neptunes beat, “Virginia” is the only song on Clipse’s 2002 debut that approached the ferocity and grit of their hit “Grindin’.” Like pretty much all of their songs, “Virginia” is about drugs and posturing on the surface, but between the lines (no pun intended), Clipse depict struggles of class, race, and lifestyle. “Virginia” never topped any charts, but has long been the foundation of Clipse’s live show. This might hold true for the group’s Sunday set, or it very well could not. Rarely is a rap show as potentially telling. more ›

When Z-Trip released Uneasy Listening along with DJ P in 1999, a “blend” was still very much Stephanie Mills over “Impeach The President” - that is to say: DJs mixed acapellas and beats from rap, r+b, soul, and funk records at will. It was, and still is, a defining trait of a great hip-hop DJ. What Z-Trip brought to the table, though, was Pharcyde’s “Passin’ Me By” over Pat Benatar's “Love is a Battlefield.” more ›

Back in 1994, when Common was Common Sense, a soulful underground Chicago rapper with a sinewy flow, he recorded “I Used To Love H.E.R.”, which remains perhaps his most widely cherished song. In four minutes, Common told the story of hip-hop’s trends and pratfalls to that point, glossing it over as a love story with a young woman. In turn, he added an undercard bout with Ice Cube to the day’s bi-coastal rap conflict, which should give some perspective to exactly how long ago ’94 was in hip hop. Since then, the story progressively enveloped the storyteller. Common hit the national scene in 2000, viewed as a tempering, traditionalist force in the face of the ascending Dirty South. He ran with the Roots when they were the emerging face of East Coast hip hop, and joined up with Kanye when he took those reins with College Dropout. more ›

Wu Tang's GZA performed his classic Liquid Swords last night at Emo's to a frenzied, thankful crowd. Austinist contributing photographer Nash Cook was there to capture the evening. more ›

Z-Ro and Trae’s It Is What It Is contains none of the signifiers – marquee collaborations, cross-overs, shouted intros by popular DJs - that we come to expect from modern rap albums of a certain stature. Save one Nitti beat, the album’s producers would be tough to place for those who don’t obsess over Mr. Lee’s drum sounds. Imagine watching Monday Night Football next week without Joe Theisman, Suzy Kolber, the intro clips, the crowd noise, the dozens of camera angles, the replays, and the in-game graphics. You’d see a purer, though potentially less enthralling spectacle that depended on a matchup strong enough to carry you along without ESPN’s glossy signposts. Here recording as ABN (Assholes By Nature), Houston’s Z-Ro and Trae have always been outlaws of sorts, even while occasionally finding success within the rap mainstream. more ›

GZA, aka The Genius, aka Gary Grice has released another record, his sixth, Pro Tools, and he’s definitely still flexing his intellectual muscle, as he’s known to do in his rhymes. Anyone with even at least a rusty working knowledge of Wu-Tang should remember this MC and hopefully even his most-praised solo release, Liquid Swords, which is kind of legendary in many hip hop circles. more ›

Language Room fans rejoice: their new handmade EP is available at shows (next gig is Sept. 13 @ Red Eyed Fly), and they're heading into the studio soon to start work on a full-length, to be produced by Blue October's Matt Novesky. more ›

The smell of weed hung in the air like a promise on the sweltering Saturday night at the Backyard as fans prepared their minds for the Doggfather, Snoop Dee-oh-double-Gee. Fresh off a run in with Dallas area police that resulted in the arrest of two passengers on his tour bus, Snoop Dogg performed with 311 and Fiction Plane as part of the Unity Tour 2008 at the Backyard. Taking the stage to the melodramatic strains of Verdi's "Requiem" with a T.O. jersey (blue, of course) and gripping a jewel encrusted mic, Snoop proceeded to bang out a set of classics including such party fav's as "Gin and Juice", "Nuthin' but a G Thang", and "Murder was the Case". With the disclaimer that he wasn't an R&B singer he also performed tracks off his latest album "Ego Trippin'", including the YouTube favorite "Sensual Seduction". more ›

We’ve always thought of Houston’s Devin The Dude in the same mode as DJ Quik, probably because we first heard him back in high school in California and the specific register of his nasally drawl, set against a Dre beat, reminded us a lot of Quik, who was killing it on local radio at the time. Though they’re pretty drastically different figures, Devin, like Quik, keys off of whatever-party-is-happening-at-that-exact-moment, and fleshes it out from there. more ›

AustinSurreal’s Matt Sonzala continues his '08 rolling rap show with two big gigs over the next seven days. Despite the bevy of contacts he brings with him from Houston, Sonzala balances between the gimme shows (Bun-B a day after II Trill dropped) and freewheeling, throwing his clout behind acts that wouldn’t normally come to or draw a crowd in Austin, like the Palestinian rappers who played here in May. The first show – Saturday night at the Whiskey bar – is more the latter. Ice Mike is far from a household name in rap, but the New Orleans bounce sound that he helped to cement some 15 years ago has resonated in the mainstream since, from that platinum late 90’s Cash Money sound to the Baton Rouge scene that is just now hitting nationally. Largely, though, N.O. bounce remains a strictly regional sound, as no big names ever resurrected it to the same degree as Baltimore club. more ›

Back in October of last year, Nas announced at a concert in New York that the titled of his upcoming album (originally slated for release in February '08) was "Nigger." Since that time, the release date has been pushed back, the title has changed, and various members of the black community as well as his label have had plenty to say. more ›

Trae’s impeccable (and free!) Diary of the Truth mixtape opens with an Avril Lavigne sample, layered over some simple kick-cymbal action without any hint of irony: “I wake up in the morning, put on my face / The one that's gonna get me through another day / Doesn't really matter how I feel inside / 'Cause life is like a game sometimes.” Over the top, singer L-Boogie lilts in and out with chants like “Wake-up shorty.” Those who already know Trae will find the sample both amusing and extremely fitting. Improve the cadence a bit and you could easily slide those lyrics into one of the Houston rapper’s raspy verses. Effectively, this already happened countless times, because Avril’s lyrics approximate Trae’s own mantra. more ›

I pulled into the Valero on North Lamar this weekend and the other two cars filling up were both playing Tha Carter III. One driver – a guy in his forties wearing Dockers and a button-down – waited by the pump to “Mrs. Officer”, while the other - my age in a raised black truck - blasted “A Milli.” I was listening to “La La.” It’s one thing to know that an album sold a million copies in its first week – it’s something else to hear it. And that one instance was icing on a long week of “A Milli” in West Campus and “Mr. Carter” on 6th, not to mention the long spring of “Lollipop” everywhere. There are songs you hear with this sort of inescapability – “Hustlin’”, “We Takin’ Over”, “Ridin’ Dirty.” But for an album to do it is rare, unless you’re Jay-Z or Kanye West. Or, now, Lil’ Wayne. more ›

“I Can’t Go To Sleep,” off Wu-Tang Clan’s The W, is one of RZA’s least-produced songs, technically speaking. He simply loops the intro to Issac Hayes’s “Walk On By” a few times, making no attempt to mask the sample with a snare or keyboard stab of his own. Yet it is one of his best, the sort of production that they’ll play at his Kennedy Center Honors someday. The song works because of the success of the whole formula – the yearning sample, Ghostface’s extended opening verse, Hayes’s own guest-spot on the bridge, and then RZA’s closing remarks. The bare sample plays perfectly against Ghost and RZA’s choked-up pleas – another layer would be too heavy, and RZA no doubt knew this. Always more of a collagist than a pure creator of sound (like Dr. Dre or Timbaland), RZA’s understanding that A + the snare from B + Inspectah Deck = classic is what carried the Wu to prominence in the 90’s. His grasp of tone and sequence and balance is also why he is slowly and successfully transitioning out of beats 24/7 and into movie scores and acting and directing. more ›

I tried my best to avoid the leaks of II Trill, mostly because I knew I would buy it. If there's one rapper that deserves my 18 bucks at Cheap-O, it's Bun-B; and not just because he's been through hard times no man should have to know or because I feel like my cash in his pocket doesn't just = weed. No, I say that because I feel compelled to not steal his shit. I like and respect all sorts of rappers, but would I care if Jeezy came over to watch some Gossip Girl and a burned copy of The Inspiration was on my dresser? No. But if Bun came over for some C-Span and found "3_damn_im_cold_ft_lilweezy.mp3", I would be WAY embarrassed. more ›

Though DJ Mel is primarily known for his legendary Rock the Casbah parties at the Parish, he's been bringing a little debauchery to the Beauty Bar with his SWOLL parties. SWOLL sets are focused on the higher end of the BPM range, mixing Miami Bass, Baltimore club and "anything fast". Last weekend's event including DJ Klever, Cosmo Baker looks like it was a really good time. more ›