REVIEW: JAKE ONE – WHITE VAN MUSIC (2008)
Producer extraordinaire Jake One recently released his Rhymesayers and full on debut album, White Van Music this year, heavily anticipated due to his work with 50 Cent, Young Buck, and De La Soul. It’s a collective work featuring well over a dozen contr
Photography: Mac Lethal & Grieves in Milwaukee
Grieves at Stonefly Brewery, shot by John (Gallery) Grieves is a (young looking) emerging rapper coming out of Seattle. He spent time on CMJ’s Top 20 Hip Hop before coming out with his newest album 88 Keys & Counting via Black Clover, a new label started up by Mac Lethal. A personal
REVIEW: KANYE WEST – 808S & HEARTBREAK (2008)
From the university and parties of 2007’s Graduation, Kanye reigns in a distinct dark departure leaving heart and love in the spotlight. West will alienate many listeners much in the way Beck did with Sea Change in 2002 with this album, especially those seeking follow-ups to the&nbs
ON THE HORIZON: TRANSATLANTIC URBAN POP ARTIST, ZAHO
So in the last Qui? I wrote of a London-based folk group turning heads (and Saturn Vues). This time around, something a slightly different from every genre I’ve previously written about. It happened in Ninkasi Ampère in Lyon last year, over their artisanal beer and f
REVIEW: DOOMTREE – SELF-TITLED (2008)
The Minneapolis collective unveiled their long-anticipated debut. Aside from anthologies of efforts, the self-titled album is first studio album, polished by the artistic visions of five rappers and four producers. Last week I reviewed their previous effort, False Hopes (Doomtree
REVIEW: ATMOSPHERE – WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS… (2008)
Mellow, mature, melodious but not so melancholic. In short, that’s what happens in When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold(Rhymesayers Entertainment, 2008). Instead of fighting back against life’s uncontrollable events, one shouldn’t merely roll with the punches but continue
REVIEW: DOOMTREE – FALSE HOPES (2007)
If something is in the drinking water in Minnesota, good luck finding the source in the land of 10,000 lakes. Midwestern hip hop has been on the radar in recent memory headed by the outspoken Kanye West, the Pitchfork-darlings The Cool Kids, and now with the nearly-Ashlee Simpson-chart-top