We’ve seen a ton of indie/rock album covers get the redesign treatment, but it feels like the hip hop world hasn’t been made over quite as much. We first spotted Jeff Rochester’s collection of iconic hip hop album covers reimagined over at Voices of East Anglia. The designer has given several classic groups a new face, including De La Soul’s Three Feet and Rising, albums by Madlib and LL Cool J. MF Doom’s redesign is impressive — and works, because he literally dropped bombs on that album — but we prefer the original. It’s hard to beat the hilarity of a B-boy Dr. Doom holding a mic and wearing a hoodie with fat gold chains as the drawstrings. The new artwork for Jeru’s The Sun Rises in the East is far better than the original, making it less obvious and a great compliment to the MC’s smart rhyme style. The Wu-Tang redo evokes the old kung fu film aesthetic that colored that album much more effectively than the original cover. Eric B. and Rakim’s Paid in Full has us torn. When the album dropped, most had no idea what the duo looked like so it was cool for people to finally see their faces — particularly with Rakim’s unique voice. See all the albums and decide for yourself in our gallery after the jump.
The thing to giggle about on the Internet today is a brand-new Twitter feud between two people who, at first glance, have a lot in common: Kreayshawn and Azealia Banks. Both owe their fame to a single song that’s blown up on YouTube, and neither has put out a full-length album yet. And, of course, they’re both women who have found some early success in a hip-hop world so male-dominated that The New York Times can publish an article that equates black masculinity with genre authenticity and likens white female rappers to “a cat walking on its hind legs” without anyone batting a false eyelash.
Anyway, the details of this fight are pretty inconsequential: It all started when the XXX site Pornhub’s Twitter feed took a break from promoting “MILFY” videos and asking followers about the grossest food they’ve used in “sex play” to endorse Banks’ hit “212″ (and, in particular, an especially explicit lyric). Kreayshawn retweeted the link, and Banks took offense, writing: “@KREAYSHAWN You’re a dumb bitch. And you can’t rap. I’ll sit on your face. … Fall back slut.” Apparently, Kreayshawn didn’t mean to offend Banks, replying, “I’ve been listening to your music all month” and lamenting that she “got smashed on twitter because I was supporting another female.” Both sides eventually cooled off, but we’re left with the impression that, while Kreayshawn has lots of respect for Banks, the esteem isn’t mutual.
Hip hop legend Heavy D (Dwight Arrington Myers) was one of the genre’s most iconic MCs, a man who helped introduce hip hop to the mainstream by collaborating with popular R&B artists like Al B. Sure on many of his albums. Now, TMZ reports that the 44-year-old musician is dead after being found unconscious at his Beverly Hills home. He died at the hospital a short time later. The older cousin of beatsmith legend Pete Rock, Myers put down the mic in his later years and became an executive who helped open doors for a lot of upcoming acts. Despite his crossover appeal, D was one of the rare acts who never lost cred with the rap community — a difficult balancing act to pull off in his day, but he did it. He recently had a cameo in Brett Ratner’s Tower Heist as a guard and performed at BET’s hip hop awards last month — his first performance in 15 years. Some reports indicate the musician died after falling down the stairs — which would be eerie considering his dancer Trouble T Roy died young after falling from the stage at a show. Commence turning on In Living Color (he performed the theme song) or “Now That We Found Love.”
With the arrival of Spotify in the US, there’s been plenty of commentary over the past couple of months about online music consumption, with endless profiles of competing services, all focused on working out which one is going to rule the online musical roost. This is all very well, but the subject has been done to death, and anyway, none of these pieces seem to focus on our favorite way to find new tunes: specialist music blogs. The oldest MP3 blogs have been around for nearly a decade now, and this means that some of them have had time to accumulate some pretty remarkable libraries of sounds. Visiting these is like going to some crazy eclectic record shop full of esoteric stuff you’ve never heard of, and spending all day on the record player there. (Savvy artists, incidentally, have also cottoned onto these blogs as a way of getting heard by music lovers — many of them accept demos these days). Ten of our favorites are after the jump.
Last week, Forbes published their annual “Cash Kings of 2011″ list, counting down hip-hop’s top 20 earners. The winner was Jay-Z, who has raked in $37 million over the past year. But now, Rolling Stone has come up with their own “Kings of Hip-Hop” list, another top 20 that includes most of the same names but places Eminem at #1. The difference between the rankings is that, while Forbes only takes into account rappers’ earnings, RS has a more holistic (and music-focused) view, incorporating all of the following criteria: “album sales, rankings on the R&B/hip-hop and rap charts, YouTube views, social media, concert grosses, industry awards and critics’ ratings.”
So, which list gives us a better idea of who’s most influential in hip-hop? It depends whether we’re taking a short of long view. Rolling Stone definitely does a better job of picking out rappers who have released popular and acclaimed albums recently — that is, 2011′s biggest hip-hop stars. What Forbes gives us is a ranking of musicians-turned-moguls (or moguls-turned-musicians) who have proven their staying power by becoming a personal brand. In other words, Eminem is having a very good year, but Jay-Z will be around forever. Check out both lists after the jump and weigh in Eminem vs. Jay-Z in the comments.
From authors to celebrities, it seems Forbes is always publishing some new list of who’s making an obscene amount of money. Today, they’ve brought us the “Cash Kings of 2011: Hip-Hop’s Top 20 Earners.” For music-industry nerds, it’s a fascinating list. The big take-home, as far as we can tell, is that a hit album doesn’t have nearly as much to do with a rapper’s earning potential as what else he’s doing — producing and endorsing products are big, and three of this year’s top five earners are also moguls. Check out the full list, and our numerical analysis by gender, age, race, and more, after the jump.
Over the weekend, the Guardianpublished an opinion piece that asked the question, “Is tribalism in music dead?” The article was inspired by this year’s Mercury Prize shortlist, a suitably eclectic selection of 12 artists that ranged from King Creosote to Tinie Tempah to James Blake. It argues that the Internet has mitigated the once fiercely territorial tendencies of music nerds, and that these days we’re all totally happy to have Rihanna nestling next to Battles on our gym playlists. We’re not sure we really buy this idea — if anything, casual listeners might get exposed to a greater diversity of genres than they used to, but there will always be fans who are fiercely protective of “their” music and would be aghast at the idea of it ending up on the iPod of someone who just doesn’t get it, man. Join us as we indulge in some affectionate stereotyping of the tribes that still exist in the world of music. (And before you go crazy in the comments section, let’s just emphasize those last two words again: “affectionate stereotyping”.)
Are you sick of talking about Kreayshawn? Hey, so are we! Let’s forget about her for a few minutes while we meet Kellee Maize, a Pittsburgh rapper who’s been rhyming since age nine and who espouses some pretty laudable ideals. Her new song, “Mad Humans,” prominently samples the theme from Mad Men, and the video features Maize and a small army of women that look like we imagine Joan Harris might after her first consciousness-raising session. Maize definitely wears her politics on her sleeve, spitting lyrics like “puttin’ the patriarchy to bed” and including shots of Don Draper types making out in the boardroom. Watch the video after the jump, and download the song for free (in exchange for a tweet) here.
Things have been going well for Chiddy Bang. The Philadelphia hip-hop duo doesn’t even have a proper album yet, but Chidera “Chiddy” Anamege and Noah “Xaphoon Jones” Beresin have already developed a major following thanks to the success of their mixtapes, which build rap hits on indie-rock skeletons, sampling artists including MGMT, Passion Pit, Sufjan Stevens, and Matt & Kim. Their latest mixtape, Peanut Butter and Swelly, just dropped and is available to download for free; to celebrate its release, Chiddy did nothing less than break the world record for freestyling, rapping for over nine hours straight for MTV. As the duo preps for the release of its long-awaited debut album, Breakfast, we caught up with him for the latest in our interactive video series. Click through and control the questions yourself in our exclusive interview.
A decade ago, the notion of British hip-hop was one without a lot of weight. Since then, the likes of the Streets and Dizzee Rascal have made it a concept with a lot more substance; but with the emergence of Tinie Tempah, the UK may have found its first bona-fide international superstar. His debut album, Disc-Overy, has been out for just over six months overseas, and the rapidly rising rapper is already selling out arenas. The album makes its US debut on May 17, featuring three new tracks, including a collaboration with Wiz Khalifa that’s pretty much a guaranteed mega-hit.
With Tinie beginning his first major excursion into the States, we caught up with him for an exclusive interactive video interview — where you control the questions. Click through to quiz the new face of UK hip-hop on what it’s like to start from scratch, his label Disturbing London, and his advice for aspiring artists. While you’re at it, find out why his he’d like to add Adele, Drake, and Lykke Li to a list of collaborators that already includes Ellie Goulding and Kelly Rowland.
, has been out for just over six months overseas, and the rapidly rising rapper is already selling out arenas. The album makes its US debut on May 17, featuring three new tracks, including a collaboration with Wiz Khalifa that’s pretty much a guaranteed mega-hit.
