INTERVIEWS: Big SeanBig Sean, a Detroit come-up kid and Kanye West protégé, wants to be the Greatest Rapper of All Time. Dude doesn't even have an album out – three mixtapes, and a studio one on the way – but he's still happy to share the throne-swiping five-year plan. Not sure what Sean Anderson's mentor...
INTERVIEWS: Das RacistYou either love or hate Das Racist. Last year, the Brooklyn rap group — members: Himanshu Suri, Victor Vazquez and Ashok Kondabolu — released two free, critically-acclaimed mixtapes (Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man), toured Europe and Asia, hung out in Anthony Bourdain's...
SOUL, FUNK & WORLD REVIEWS: Toro y Moi Underneath The PineWhile you were busy spinning Toro Y Moi's 2010 debut record, Causers of This, into the ground, Chaz Bundick was already off that, writing and recording the follow-up, Underneath The Pine. It's not a disc in response to Causers-related chatter (chillwhat?), instead, the South...
SOUL, FUNK & WORLD REVIEWS: Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie XX We're New HereGil Scott-Heron, spoken word legend, is having one of those incredibly rewarding past-prime years of renewed popular interest. Last year saw the release of comeback record I'm New Here. By December, his YouTube hits likely quadrupled thanks to selective snippets from vintage "Comment #1"...
NEWS: Toro y Moi Gets Personal for Underneath the PineWhen South Carolinan beatmaker Toro y Moi (aka Chaz Bundick) released his Causers of This LP in 2010, he was quickly pegged as yet another chillwave act. However, as Bundick recently explained in an Exclaim! interview, he hopes his upcoming sophomore effort Underneath the Pine is seen...
HIP-HOP REVIEWS: Frank Ocean Nostalgia/UltraFor years, lothario types have dominated R&B, play-acting all vulnerable and boo-hoo when it serves them but turning hypersexual and swaggy with the quickness. Los Angelino and Odd Future associate Frank Ocean is the inverse of this dichotomy, making anti-R&B R&B. Nostalgia/Ultra is Ocean's...
HIP-HOP REVIEWS: Ghostpoet Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy JamGhostpoet's moniker evokes his super-lyrical nature, but the British MC's latest, Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam, is just as much a study in bass-soaked, atmospheric beats. Often compared to Roots Manuva and Tricky ― two other Brits adept at creating moody, innovative music...
HIP-HOP REVIEWS: G-Side The One… CohesiveRap's embrace of the Internet is kind of like corner store dudes jacking their prices up a quarter. Overnight, out of necessity and somehow organically, it just kind of happened. And now you can't fathom learning about a new album or video any place other than via a rapper's Twitter page or blog....
CONCERT REVIEWS: Lauryn Hill Sound Academy, Toronto ON January 22Heavily reported late starts and preachy stage moments earlier in the tour led to high anticipation paired with tempered expectations for Lauryn Hill's Toronto stop. To wit, the sold-out Sound Academy was teeming with a quiet, nervous energy, the result of waiting ten plus years for, well, anything...
CONCERT REVIEWS: Little Dragon Wrongbar, Toronto ON January 17Toronto recently got a glimpse of Little Dragon via a Gorillaz show, at which the crowd got to witness lead singer Yukimi Nagano slithering across the stage and throwing her voice around. Fast-forward a few months, and Little Dragon were back playing a way smaller venue to their own diehard fans....
HIP-HOP REVIEWS: Curren$y Return to the Winner's CircleOne of the hardest working rappers out, Curren$y dropped two studio albums in 2010 and released his latest mixtape, Return to the Winner's Circle, on New Years Day to kick off 2011. The flux of activity is a testament to his drive; Curren$y's been out since 2001 and it's only now that he's...
HIP-HOP REVIEWS: Diddy-Dirty Money Last Train To ParisOh, you didn't think Diddy could do it? The perpetual changer of monikers, the original executive-turned-artist-turned-mogul and famously over-the-top Hamptons frequenter has lived up to his ability to produce a banger with Last Train To Paris. Sort of quietly released in the smoked-out...
INTERVIEWS: Cee Lo GreenFor someone with such a massive voice, Cee Lo Green is unexpectedly soft-spoken. In Toronto to promote his newest solo record The Lady Killer, the rapper-singer-songwriter, one-half of Gnarls Barkley, put his "Fuck You" face and suited-up steez on hold for a day of press and padding around...
HIP-HOP REVIEWS: Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted FantasyKanye West has borne the brunt of indulging in egomaniacal Tourette's, the cost being that his behaviour (the stage-crashing, Bush-bashing, braggadocios antics) has overshadowed his actual output. Here's the conflict though: each one of his five albums has, in some way, been a game-changer, from...
HIP-HOP REVIEWS: Kid Cudi The Man on the Moon II: the Legend of Mr. RagerSince Kid Cudi released his debut last year, he's made a pop-charting hit with David Guetta, gotten arrested, admitted to cocaine abuse and landed a starring role on HBO's urban yuppie show How To Make It In America. It's safe to say we've witnessed him evolve from industry naïf to smug and...
CONCERT REVIEWS: Glasser / Twin Shadow Drake Underground, Toronto ON November 11Stacked is the only way to describe the sold-out Glasser/Twin Shadow double bill at Toronto's Drake Underground. It was one of those shows where, six months from now, you can casually drop in a conversation that you saw Twin Shadow and Glasser play this tiny show like it's NBD. But both...
SOUL, FUNK & WORLD REVIEWS: Cee Lo The Lady KillerOver the course his career, Cee Lo Green has played a number of different characters: good-natured Goodie Mob rapper; Southern singing eccentric; and, as half of Gnarls Barkley, a funky evil genius. But as some sort of half-charmer, half-with-it uncle for new solo throwback record The Lady...
CONCERT REVIEWS: The Morning Benders / Twin Sister / Oberhofer Mod Club, Toronto ON November 5It's hard to see the Morning Benders perform and not comment on how adorable they are. No doubt this makes it even easier for the California foursome to peddle surfy indie pop that's equally endearing. But when they're not demurely pacing to and from the front of the stage, taking a moment to...
HIP-HOP REVIEWS: Gucci Mane The Appeal: Georgia's Most WantedThere's something quieter, less riotous about Southern rap preacher Gucci Mane's latest mixtape, The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted. Sure, the brashness and goofy names are still there ("My Little Friend," "Making Love to the Money"), but there's a more introspective bent to Gucci's growl-y...
INTERVIEWS: Wiz KhalifaPittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa (Cameron Jibril Thomaz) could be a social media guru in another life. His eighth career mixtape, Kush and Orange Juice — a reference to a particularly popular, potent and frosty-looking strain of weed — hit trending topic status on Twitter earlier...
Big Sean, a Detroit come-up kid and Kanye West protégé, wants to be the Greatest Rapper of All Time. Dude doesn't even have an album out – three mixtapes, and a studio one on the way – but he's still happy to share the throne-swiping five-year plan. Not sure what Sean Anderson's mentor...
You either love or hate Das Racist. Last year, the Brooklyn rap group — members: Himanshu Suri, Victor Vazquez and Ashok Kondabolu — released two free, critically-acclaimed mixtapes (Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man), toured Europe and Asia, hung out in Anthony Bourdain's...
While you were busy spinning Toro Y Moi's 2010 debut record, Causers of This, into the ground, Chaz Bundick was already off that, writing and recording the follow-up, Underneath The Pine. It's not a disc in response to Causers-related chatter (chillwhat?), instead, the South...
Gil Scott-Heron, spoken word legend, is having one of those incredibly rewarding past-prime years of renewed popular interest. Last year saw the release of comeback record I'm New Here. By December, his YouTube hits likely quadrupled thanks to selective snippets from vintage "Comment #1"...
When South Carolinan beatmaker Toro y Moi (aka Chaz Bundick) released his Causers of This LP in 2010, he was quickly pegged as yet another chillwave act. However, as Bundick recently explained in an Exclaim! interview, he hopes his upcoming sophomore effort Underneath the Pine is seen...
For years, lothario types have dominated R&B, play-acting all vulnerable and boo-hoo when it serves them but turning hypersexual and swaggy with the quickness. Los Angelino and Odd Future associate Frank Ocean is the inverse of this dichotomy, making anti-R&B R&B. Nostalgia/Ultra is Ocean's...
Rap's embrace of the Internet is kind of like corner store dudes jacking their prices up a quarter. Overnight, out of necessity and somehow organically, it just kind of happened. And now you can't fathom learning about a new album or video any place other than via a rapper's Twitter page or blog....
Heavily reported late starts and preachy stage moments earlier in the tour led to high anticipation paired with tempered expectations for Lauryn Hill's Toronto stop. To wit, the sold-out Sound Academy was teeming with a quiet, nervous energy, the result of waiting ten plus years for, well, anything...
Toronto recently got a glimpse of Little Dragon via a Gorillaz show, at which the crowd got to witness lead singer Yukimi Nagano slithering across the stage and throwing her voice around. Fast-forward a few months, and Little Dragon were back playing a way smaller venue to their own diehard fans....
One of the hardest working rappers out, Curren$y dropped two studio albums in 2010 and released his latest mixtape, Return to the Winner's Circle, on New Years Day to kick off 2011. The flux of activity is a testament to his drive; Curren$y's been out since 2001 and it's only now that he's...
For someone with such a massive voice, Cee Lo Green is unexpectedly soft-spoken. In Toronto to promote his newest solo record The Lady Killer, the rapper-singer-songwriter, one-half of Gnarls Barkley, put his "Fuck You" face and suited-up steez on hold for a day of press and padding around...
Kanye West has borne the brunt of indulging in egomaniacal Tourette's, the cost being that his behaviour (the stage-crashing, Bush-bashing, braggadocios antics) has overshadowed his actual output. Here's the conflict though: each one of his five albums has, in some way, been a game-changer, from...
Since Kid Cudi released his debut last year, he's made a pop-charting hit with David Guetta, gotten arrested, admitted to cocaine abuse and landed a starring role on HBO's urban yuppie show How To Make It In America. It's safe to say we've witnessed him evolve from industry naïf to smug and...
Stacked is the only way to describe the sold-out Glasser/Twin Shadow double bill at Toronto's Drake Underground. It was one of those shows where, six months from now, you can casually drop in a conversation that you saw Twin Shadow and Glasser play this tiny show like it's NBD. But both...
Over the course his career, Cee Lo Green has played a number of different characters: good-natured Goodie Mob rapper; Southern singing eccentric; and, as half of Gnarls Barkley, a funky evil genius. But as some sort of half-charmer, half-with-it uncle for new solo throwback record The Lady...
It's hard to see the Morning Benders perform and not comment on how adorable they are. No doubt this makes it even easier for the California foursome to peddle surfy indie pop that's equally endearing. But when they're not demurely pacing to and from the front of the stage, taking a moment to...
There's something quieter, less riotous about Southern rap preacher Gucci Mane's latest mixtape, The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted. Sure, the brashness and goofy names are still there ("My Little Friend," "Making Love to the Money"), but there's a more introspective bent to Gucci's growl-y...
Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa (Cameron Jibril Thomaz) could be a social media guru in another life. His eighth career mixtape, Kush and Orange Juice — a reference to a particularly popular, potent and frosty-looking strain of weed — hit trending topic status on Twitter earlier...
