Hip-Hop.com

Shabazz Palaces invites an interesting crowd. The duo, who performed last night at Yoshi’s in San Francisco before departing on an European tour in a few weeks, seems to straddle that line between indie rock and hip-hop only if you look at their audience, because their music is doesn’t sound like rock at the least bit. The avant-garde duo of Palaceer Lazaro (aka Ishmael “Ish” Butler) and percussionist Tendai Mariare has pieced together a theme of bluster, black power, african diaspora, jarring beats and psychedelia, and perhaps that last part is what brought together the two different scenes.

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Erykah Badu is a woman of many faces, and she has names for each of them–Medulla Oblongata, Analog Girl in a Digital World, and Sarah Bellem. Tonight’s featured persona is DJ Lowdown Loretta Brown, and as the name implies, there was plenty of funk and soul to go around tonight. At Ruby Skye, on the most marijuaniest of days, she played a DJ set that seemed to move from style to style with a heaping of classic soul to glue everything together. read more »

An energetic Lauryn Hill thrilled fans as she performed in concert that at times seemed more like a sing-along than solo performance. Ms. Hill brought her Moving Target: Intimate Playdate Series tour to a sold-out Warfield Theater in Downtown San Francisco, where she was greeted by eager and enthusiastic fans, and returned the energy in a two hour set that saw Ms. Hill become more and more animated. read more »

Naughty by Nature swept into San Francisco on Thursday night, playing at the legendary jazz club Yoshi’s in the middle of the Fillmore District. There was a notable lack of kiddies in the crowds, as you would imagine a show for an act that haven’t (yet) released an album in almost 8 years. But what they make up for in age was skill befitting of a 20-year career. This crew from Jersey are professionals in the craft of hip-hop, able to move a quiet crowd into a frenzied mob in a matter of moments. They showed off their years of experience of knowing what buttons to push, and they jammed them like it was Street Fighter II. read more »