A$AP Rocky, Harlem’s ambassador to Houston, isn’t beyond giving the west coast some love too. The emerging rap star is teaming up with Black Scale to unveil their collaboration, A$AP BLVCK, and on April 20, he’ll celebrate the collaboration with a party in Black Scale’s hometown of San Francisco at the Mezzanine following his show with Wiz Khalifa at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. DJs A$AP J Scott, Jay Kush, De & Ruby Red-I will hold down the tables along with special guests. Tickets are available now at EventBrite.
dead prez and Los Rakas ran through the Mezzanine ragged Friday night in San Francisco, along with stand-up set from Chris Riggins to warm the crowd. Thanks to Ankh Marketing for this one crazy night. Check out the pics we got at the show.
For those of us that try to keep abreast on hip-hop in Asia (I’m not talking about you 2NE1 teeny boppers), you don’t hear alot about what’s going in China, hip-hop wise. Now China is not Japan, where underground hip-hop has flourished and has begun to influence the styles of hip-hop in the US. But don’t believe the hype: China is not under an iron communist curtain that blocks out everything Western, and that pretty boy Cantopop song song rapping that’s sold as authentic hip-hop on TV isn’t what being played in the underground. Photojournalist Matthew Niederhauser of the Asia Society reports in this video about what he’s seen in the underground scene in China, and some of the issues the nascent scene is dealing with. He also has a few clips of a rap battle done in Mandarin, where the language is foreign but the swagger looks very familiar.
Two couches, two mics, and time to burn. Hip-hop’s closest analog to Matt Pinfield, Hot 97 DJ and Rock The Bells Festival host Peter Rosenberg sits down with Nas during SXSW earlier this month, and discuss for an half hour Nas’ two decade long career (and a bit about Rosenberg’s weight) in front of an Austin crowd. And naturally, the topics start with Large Professor’s “Live at the BBQ” (Nas’ first major appearance on wax, continues up to his latest single to date, the Heavy D co-produced “The Don”, and touches on Jay-Z, Damien Marley, getting a phone call from Michael Jackson, the Rock the Bells Fesival, and more. Now, admittedly, this is not the most lucid Nas interview (SXSW does things to people, to say the least), but we don’t get too many chances to to see figures like Nas speak this unguardedly.
Things are looking up for young Kendrick Lamar. After plying his craft for years with indie label Top Dawg Entertainment, he will now be on the Interscope Records roster after TDE inked a deal with the major. He has been steadily building a head of steam, landing on last year’s XXL Freshmen 2011 cover. Dr. Dre, the godfather of the West Coast, has taken him under his wing. And all along, Kendrick has been positioning himself to be the voice of the millennial generation, and from the looks of it, he is getting his way. That so much was evident last night in The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, where Kendrick headlined the XXL Freshman Live Tour’s stop in the Bay Area, along with one of this year’s Freshmen, the off-kilter Hopsin.
It might not seem like it’s been that long, but the double-dipped 70′s stylings of Camp Lo is approaching classic status. Hip-Hop.com will be celebrating their 15th anniversary since the release of their seminal debut, Uptown Saturday Night, in San Francisco on April 13 at 330 Ritch. In person will be Camp Lo, with Rocky Rivera, Honor Roll Crew’s Spank Pops, Selassie, Raw G, and Jahi on support. Advance tickets are available for $10 on EventBrite. Get there early, 9-10, for complementary Hennessey and catering from Little Skillet. For the full flyer, check after the jump.
Also, the video for “Black Nostaljack” is dynamite.
ASAP Rocky and ASAP Mob, then Danny Brown, then Action Bronson, and now Kendrick Lamar… Maybe Nardwuar loved his Ghostface interview so much he wants to interview even more rappers. Actually, I don’t think he interviewed anyone but rappers at SXSW, judging from his YouTube channel page. Anyway, for all of you who like to geek out on rappers, and geek out on the minutia, or just are entertained by geeks, here’s the full suite so far.
Thanks to special contributor Waylan Choy for providing these pics, here’s his perspective on the Questlove party at the Independent in San Francisco last week.
Here’s a heads up for one of our contributors, Jahi, who just released a new free EP, Strong Step, over at BandCamp. If you read some of his past pieces and liked where he was coming from, this EP should be right up your alley. The title track is below, check out the rest on his Bandcamp page.
In an update to our previous post, word just came in that both the state and the Feds are getting involved in the Trayvon Martin case, the incident last month where an unarmed 17-year old African-American kid was gunned down by a zealous neighborhood watch guard in a Florida gated community. Both state and federal authorities are looking into the incident, as the FBI has begun their probe of the incident and a Florida grand jury has been convened. And as the story has finally landed on the front pages of CNN.com, The New York Times, and BBC News, Pittsburg’s Jasiri X goes through the black people CNN* route and releases a video on YouTube, over the beat to Watch The Throne’s “No Church in the Wild”, and delivers a monologue on the killing to explain why we should care. Check out that video above.
