50 Cent and Kanye West, mere weeks before their epic soundscan showdown.

See Also:

*Five Unexpected Cover Songs From the Insane Clown Posse

*Five Artists (Besides Lil Wayne) Who Think New York Sucks

*Kai: Street Artist Painted Kanye and Eminen How They Act--Like Medieval Kings

Believe it or not, at one point Kanye West was considered an underdog. Before we were watching the throne, before the critics heralded his albums as flawless and even before Jay Leno, of all people, had to give him a reality check following the Taylor Swift incident, West was seen as the little Chi-town engine that could. Everyone loves an underdog, especially when he goes one on one with the biggest bully on the playground. That's exactly what happened five years ago today when West and 50 Cent had a release date showdown on September 11th, 2007.

More »

Syrian American hip-hop artist Omar Offendum performs at a concert venue in Beirut, Lebanon.

More »

​ If you have ears then you've probably heard the Tyga song off of his second album Careless World: Rise of the Last King called "Rack City." Not only has it soared its way up the Billboard 100 charts (it currently sits at #15), it has spawned a slew of awesome remixes and covers. Our friend Glynn Montemayor (of the band Oh Girl) sent us this impressive cover (he really knows his shit and studied the lyrics!)  which inspired us to see what other goodies might be out on YouTube. After the jump, the five whitest covers we've seen.

More »

Matt Oliver

​The Game
The Observatory
March 18, 2012
More »

​Ladies, I've got a secret for you: Men don't like Valentine's Day.

I mean, we just got over the pressure of the holidays and now we're expected to come up with more gifts to show our love and appreciation. And do we ever get it right? Of course not. We're guys and we suck.

But we know if we play our cards right, tonight's almost a slam dunk in the bedroom. With this on our minds, we're acting all soft and cute with our roses, cards, teddy bears and chocolates, but what we're really thinking about is getting naked with you. (To be fair, we're also thinking about how to get you naked on the other 355 days of the year, but tonight, the odds of that happening are much higher and we like when the odds are in our favor.)

So while you're thinking about how he went to Jared or how every kiss begins with Kay, plain and simple, we're thinking about fucking you. Just so you can't say I didn't warn you, here's the soundtrack to what's going through our minds as you gorge yourself on chocolates and white wine spritzers.



More »

There's a billion of Gillionaire!

​There's literally no better way to wake up than to an email from rapper Gillionaire telling you he's got a new song/video. I should know because that's exactly what happened to me his morning.

You see, since I've been writing about Gillionaire, I'd like to think we've grown close. Don't get me wrong -- he doesn't call me when his fish dies nor do I text him to tell him how my mom is dealing with chemotherapy, but still. In my mind, we're friends.

And what do friends do for one another? Two things. First, they tell each other when they post new videos on Youtube. Second, they give each other Valentine's Day love and I'm assuming Gillionaire's email to me this morning was no fluke. He's showing love (in that hip-hop way, yaknowwhatimsayin?) and because I consider every person who reads this blog a friend (sorry I haven't called you on your birthday), I'm now passing along the information so you can have an awesome Valentine's Day.



More »

Courtesy Bailey Blues

​Kristine Flaherty (better known by musical moniker K. Flay) isn't your average rapper-singer-songwriter. After graduating from Stanford with degrees in psychology and sociology, she decided to take her then-hobby of writing and performing music more seriously. Besides the occasional songs about Elle Fanning and partying, her lyrics can drive discrepancies between shoulds and musts or metaphors about crumbling states of emotional dejection.

More »

​
On Oct. 18, I introduced two YouTube videos that are not only changing the face of music on the Internet as we know it, but are also re-shaping and re-defining the idea of swag. The songs ("Rifles Burs" and "Snacks") are so life altering, so hard ("Gunshots are the beat!") and so damn good that the artist doesn't even list his name on the videos. Thanks to a comment left on that post, we are led to believe that the emcee in question might or might not be named Gillionaire.

In that blog, I called "Rifles Burs" "the video/song of the year." It's true: the track leaves a sticky trail of swag all over listeners' ears just like how my hair used to leave a stain on the pillows of all the girls I was with when I rocked a greasy pompadour (which was pretty swag on my part).  Without further ado: Q&A with the one-man Internet swagging machine...Gillionaire.


More »

​Odd Future's R&B crooner Frank Ocean unleashed some angry tweets in the direction of LAPD after an apparent arrest on April 28. Read Ocean's early-morning tweets, which have since been removed from his Twitter page, after the jump.More »

Aliso Black

​In an area where rap and hip-hop is nearly non-existent, a rapper is trying to be heard and recognized amidst the pop, punk and indie music scene. Aaron Williams, better known as Aliso Black gives us his take on Orange County's hip-hop scene (yes, it does exist!), his musical influences and what we can expect at his upcoming shows.

More »