In January, Mohammed Al-Farra traveled from Gaza to Park City, Utah, to help promote Slingshot Hip-Hop, a film about him and a number of other artists in the young but strong Palestinian rap scene. The other members of his group, called the Palestinian Rapperz or PR for short, were unable to leave Gaza to join him, and after Sundance, Al-Farra was - and still is - unable to return to Gaza because of the closed borders. Instead, he currently resides in the Dallas area. If Al-Farra’s story is any indication, his show tonight with fellow Palestinian group DAM has the sort of context, history, and implications that you won’t see for quite some time, rap show or otherwise. But you shouldn’t go to Scoot Inn tonight just because of the world these artists live in or Israel’s fast-approaching 60-year anniversary or Al-Farra’s forced status as an ex-pat. You should go because DAM and PR choose to respond to all of this through rap. ...

Last summer, T-Pain made it very profitable/cool to sing like a robot. Ever since, everybody seems to be trying their hand at it, or rather, using some sort of vocal modulation/autotune to emulate a sound that is both infectious and patently insincere. Lil’ Wayne’s hit single “Lollipop” is the most recent and notable instance of T-Pain’s influence, and it’s also the most dramatic deconstruction of that sound to date. T-Pain makes Windex’d, pristine pop music, songs you can check your hair in or snort drugs off of or, most importantly, cut into little squares and stick on a Styrofoam sphere to be hung in the middle of a dance floor. The vocal fx, the pedestrian lyrics, the chintzy beats - it’s all low-to-no risk, simple, easy, breezy, beautiful, Christie Brinkley....

So my original guarantee - that every big rapper in the state would come to SXSW again - kind of didn’t pan out, though our city’s finest will be out in force (more on that later). Still, sans Lil’ Keke, Matt Sonzala’s rap line-up for the official events is particularly strong, bolstered by a handful of legends and all sorts of regional stars. Here are my picks from the official showcases in no particular order (except that Bun is first): Bun B (Houston) Mike Jones will be telling his great grandkids about Bun’s first Houston show after Pimp C’s death. Bun will pay tribute again tonight at Fuze (or, to be more exact, early morning on Thursday). You’re probably already planning on going....

The best klezmer-punk band you’ve never heard, Golem are a six-piece from New York who blend old-world Jewish music with a witty repertoire of modern influences. Debuting in 2001, the band really hit their stride in 2006 with Fresh Off Boat, a whirling collection of originals and traditional numbers (including their own version of the Hora, of course) sung in five languages. ...

Stoner metal bands ply their thankless trade in a vacuum. Holed up in bedrooms throughout their teenage years, learning every riff from Ride The Lightning, the bands typically have technical chops but lack that inherent charisma that comes from, y'know, regular human contact. Consequently very few of these bands make it big. Occasionally a Josh Homme or Matt Pike will jump the fence from their old band into a more profitable project--Queens of the Stone Age and High on Fire, respectively--but more often than not these bands toil away strictly for the love of the game....

Rap mixtapes are rarely arranged with tact or distinguished in their execution. Usually, you’ll find a buffet plate of tracks, assembled with all the wit of a languid block of late night commercials. A superb exception is found in the first four proper songs of Stop Stealin’ Our Style, a mixtape released in December by the Austin-based Screw Shop and Tosin, its curator. The project is dedicated to the memory of a number of fallen Texas rappers, and nods to both Pimp-C and DJ Screw, the former in a tribute track from Lil’ Flip and D-Red that functions as the set’s coda. The track-list, though, tends more towards three other Houston icons - Big Moe and the Hawkins brothers, Fat Pat and Big Hawk. Big Moe died last October of complications from a heart attack, at the age of 33. Fat Pat was shot and killed in 1998 and his older brother suffered the same fate in May 2006....

Fold up your cardboard squares, strap on your backpacks and pull out that old copy of 1996's Endtroducing..... to brush up on your samples. That is, if you were one of those people who already have a ticket to see DJ Shadow Friday night at La Zona Rosa, because it’s sold out. There’s sure to be plenty of knob-twiddling, 45 flipping and mixer, uh, mixing for this experimental hip-hop set as he teams up with Cut Chemist yet again to dominate a bunker fortified with eight or so turntables. ...

On Sunday night - before my sinuses joined the writer's strike - I fancied myself a Rockwell-ian protagonist. In my crappy efficiency apartment, I laid leisurely in an armchair, reading Yeats and watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I also made laborious use of the first-person singular and listened to a new Bavu Blakes song, which arrived in my inbox that night. ...

I’ve been tardy like 7th grade with these entries. I’m hoping to fix that this year, and if I have to, will make deadline by just free-associating while listening to chopped and screwed Gerald G verses…oh wait… hang around after the jump… Anyways, something big happened in Austin rap at the end of ’07, and I was negligent and didn’t cover it then. So now, with Nas’s father as my witness, I will. Matt Sonzala has been documenting Texas rap for as long as I can remember on his blog HoustonSoReal. ...

It’s been two weeks since Pimp C’s death. Last Thursday he was buried in Port Arthur. Reading through all of the eulogies and obituaries that have poured out of the local papers, the blogs, the national media, and the rap community since December 4th, you obviously will see trends. Everyone immediately identifies Pimp C by his drawl and how he rhymed through his vowels, and it seems as though this – his voice - will be a big part of his legacy, along with his production and his pioneer-status as an early and consistent member of the Texas rap scene....

Image from MySpace Clipd Beaks, iKiLLCaRS & Daniel Francis DoyleFriday, December 7Emos (603 Red River St)Inside, Doors at 8pm, Show at 10pm[info] | [iKiLLCaRS MySpace] | [Clipd Beaks MySpace] | [Daniel Francis Doyle MySpace]iKiLLCaRS At Ease With Your Haste In case the name embodying misplaced aggression spelled in an unorthodox fashion that says, “You know what, I don’t have to follow your stupid rules of capitalization!” coupled with members' pseudonyms like Johnny Law didn’t clue......

Still from The District! The DistrictNovember 16-222110 South Lamar (2110 S. Lamar)Various Showtimes, $8.25[info]We heard a lot of good things about Áron Gauder's one-of-a-kind animated gem The District! during Fantastic Fest last year, but we hadn't had a chance to see it until recently. It's a Hungarian Hip-Hop / time travel / gangster odyssey set in Budapest's notorious 8th district, where rival crime families feud like Montagues and Capulets. That is, until their kids fall......

photo by Chrissy Piper Aesop Rock, Black Moth Super Rainbow at Emo’sSaturday, Nov. 17Emos (603 Red River St)$15 - doors at 9, show at 10[info] | [tickets]El-P may be the maverick visionary of preeminent indie hip-hop label Definitive Jux, but Aesop Rock is currently its superstar. Boasting a ridiculously fluid double-time flow and enough hallucinatory wordplay to confound Bill Burroughs, Aes Rock has built a rapid cult following since his Def Jux debut, Labor Days,......

Photo courtesy Ricardo B. Brazziell Brownout w/ Bavu BlakesFriday, November 16Flamingo Cantina (515 E. 6th St.)Doors: 9pm[info] Bavu Blakes @ B-Girl CitySaturday, November 17Ruta Maya (3601 South Congress Penn Field)10pm set[info] Bavu BlakesSaturday, November 17Plush (617 Red River)$10, Midnight[info]The anticipated long-form paean to Sparkdawg will have to wait for a week: Bavu Blakes, Austin’s biggest rapper, plays three shows and runs a 5k this weekend before hanging up his hat for the holidays. I caught......

Image by The Young Adorable, Daetron Vargas DJ Mel Guests In For Radio On, TonightThursday, November 15PLUSH (617 Red River St.)10pm-2am, 21+ only, Free[info] Sure, Mel’s best known for his longstanding hip hop gig at Nasty’s every Monday, and then there are his quarterly Rock Tha Casbah parties which we here at the Ist like to get whiskey bent and sweat buckets. But he’s got more tricks up his sleeves than that. And tonight he’ll......

Image from www.loadedguntheory.comThe holidays are a busy time for theatre in Austin, with too many seasonal shows to choose from. As the glut looms, several fine shows are closing. Get to these while the gettin's good! Much-lauded director Karen Jambon helms Loaded Gun Theory's Little Murders. You can't judge a show by its artwork, but we think theirs is the best we've seen all year. This dark comedy about an overbearing daughter—played by the always-delightful......

Flyer courtesy VICE Records VICE Presents Mr. Oizo, DJ Mehdi, OCELOTWednesday, November 14Antones (213 W 5th St)(Free, 10pm-2am, RSVP Required)[info] | [rsvp] [ozio myspace] [dj mehdi myspace] [ocelot myspace]Tonight, our friends at VICE records have teamed up with Scion to throw a massive "house party" at Antone's—best of all, it's completely free if you RSVP in time. They've flying in legendary French music producer Quentin "Mr. Oizo" Dupieux, who's best known for his 1999 techno......

Image from Ringo Deathstarr’s MySpace It’s no secret that Austin is home to one of the most prolific artistic scenes in the country, Live Music Capital of the World or not. Any weekend in the city promises a number of day time occurences and a plethora of evening events. A quick browse through this weekend’s notifications leads one to fun activities for the kids at The Flying Theater Machine’s Wang Dang Doodle Hour or a......

Photo of Girl Talk by Davisayer on FlickrFun Fun Fun Fest lived up to its name in spades last weekend, showcasing local and not-so local bands of all genres on three stages in two short days. Day one included local acts White Denim, Brothers and Sisters and Okkervil River, as well as touring acts like Neurosis, Final Fantasy, of Montreal and Girl Talk. Last year's event was a success, albeit overshadowed by too-cool temperatures and......

Galactic brings its annual Halloween bash back to Stubb’s this Wednesday for a grand ole time powered by the band’s funk, jazz and hip hop medleys. Since vocalist Theryl “Houseman” DeClouet left the New Orleans outfit a few years ago, Galactic have largely returned to their days of extensive instrumental jam sessions while also continuing to receive vocal support from the likes of Lyrics Born and Gift Of Gab from Blackalicious. This year’s Galactic......

Editor's Note: Triller is a new column here at Austinist featuring the latest news and goodies from 512's hip hop scene. The views expressed in this column are the author's, and might not reflect the Ist network as a whole. Enjoy! Rap is, by definition, intensely and inescapably local. It’s a music obsessed (some would say overrun) by its culture, and this culture is divided first and foremost by state, then city, then neighborhood, then......

Prefuse 73 - Preparations Electronic musician Guillermo Scott Herren, a.k.a. Prefuse 73, has spent years building some of the most elaborate and abstract hip-hop productions on the market today; thing is, they’re aren’t really on the market. Rather than auctioning his wares to the highest bidder, Herren weaves his tracks together into loose instrumental albums, bringing in a guest MC if he feels like it. Preparations, his latest, features plenty of vocals, but barely any......

Snake Eyes Vinyl is not a record store front for a dirty gambling outfit. Snake Eyes, in fact, is just another of those death metal illusions, like Whore of Babylon, Self Induced Pain, or Suicidal Failure. In fact, Snake Eyes Vinyl does specialize in the metal genre, specifically zeroing in on the black metal, death metal, thrash metal, doom, stoner rock, southern rock, crust, grind, power violence, fast core, hardcore, punk, classic punk rock, progressive,......

If you ask us, "bling obsession" has long been commercial hip-hop's most shameful component (though we're totally down with the Bling! barbershop quartet). At one time, conspicuous consumption by a historically poor culture might have seemed like powerful social commentary--but now that hip hop is the music industry's cash cow, doesn't a $100,000 necklace just seem completely ridiculous? And is obnoxious ornamentation really worth the cost--not only monetarily, but socially and politically? Next week, as......

Aqueduct aka David Terry, purveyor of fine laptop pop, will be taking the stage this evening at Mohawk. Things one might expect from an Aqueduct show could include hip hop and Journey covers, both of which we're pretty up for. And, though the act is sort of a postmodern one-man band, Terry's usually got a boatload of talented folks rounding out his stage act, so you're not going to get stuck watching some guy operating......

The Austin Museum of Digital Art (AMODA) is bringing back its monthly Digital Showcase tomorrow night at Club DeVille, and, as usual, they've managed to assemble an impressive roster of electronic musicians and visual artists. Saturday's headliner is New York City's DJ /rupture, aka Jace Clayton. A gifted musician and producer, Rupture has enjoyed a prolific career that's run the gamut from releasing mix albums and performing with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (as a turntable......

Part of the Anticon hip-hop collective, Odd Nosdam (a.k.a. David P. Madson) is a DJ and an audio chemist whose credits include work with cLOUDDEAD, remixing Boards of Canada, and five full lengths under his own name. A label as much as it is consortium of like-minds, Anticon is known for taking a collaborative and fresh approach to hip-hop and turntable-ism, two genres that, despite the many realms of possibility, can often be strikingly homogeneous.......

You bring up the idea of “art”, and you’re definitely begging for some heated shit talking. Opinions are the first to fly, then potentially followed by epithets, then perhaps some brass knuckles. All metaphoric in form, of course. Why must these disagreements come to pass? Notorious MSG comes to mind. It could be said that this is exactly what art and artists, as functional cogs in the machines of social industry, are supposed to......

Austin's PBS affiliate KLRU-TV received a record 21 Emmy nominations from the Lone Star Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The awards dinner will take place in Dallas on Saturday, October 27th. The complete list of KLRU honors includes: KLRU producer Elena Ramirez (Public/Current/Community Affairs Feature Segment category), for her story "Getting By in Austin." This documentary, which aired on Austin Now, focused on the difficulty of families making minimum wage......

Marie Daulne (aka Zap Mama) is one helluva woman. This tireless globe-trotting humanitarian also happens to be soulful singer, not content to simply sit on her laurels and make groovy music. She's got enough clout to work with famous musicians like Pink Floyd's David Gilmore and virtuoso bassist Meshell Ndegeocello. It's an intoxicating blend of "World" music, Reggae, Funk, and Hip-Hop, and a set that guarantees gleeful globe-trotting. Zap Mama Latest Release: Supermoon, 2007 Brussels,......