HipHop

Dr. Dre made his first late-night television appearance in three decades last night, stopping by Jimmy Kimmel Live after earning a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The rapper spoke to host Jimmy Kimmel in a lengthy interview about his career, with Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent later joining the conversation. During the interview, Dr. Dre shared his enthusiasm for getting the star, his unlikely fans (which have apparently included a group of nuns), and the collaborative process of making music. “Do artists from other…

Eddie Cheeba, a New York-area DJ who is regarded as a founding father of hip-hop, has died. He was 67.Def Jam founder Russell Simmons announced Cheeba’s death Tuesday on Instagram, crediting the DJ as a source of early inspiration. Simmons saw Cheeba, whose real name is Edward Sturgis, rap over instrumental tracks at a Harlem club in 1977.“It wasn’t a sophisticated rhyme flow by current standards,” Simmons, now a controversial figure facing numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, recalled in Carrie Golus’ 2012…

It was no day at the beach when the Kansas City Chiefs played host to Miami Dolphins last month, the temperature at Arrowhead Stadium plunging to a frostbite-inducing -4F (-15.5C). The only thaw came late in the playoff game when the Fast Life Yungstaz (FLY) track Swag Surfin’ filled Arrowhead.The rap song, a jock jam du jour that is likely to receive plenty of airplay on Super Bowl Sunday, starts off slow and brassy – but once the beat dropped, a rave kicked off that had the 71,492 in attendance swaying and lunging in…

Les McCann, a trailblazing pianist and singer known for fusing strains of jazz, funk, and R&B and pioneering soul jazz, died on Friday at the age of 88. The cause of death has not been disclosed, but his manager Alan Abrahams told NBC News that the musician had died at a Los Angeles hospital after developing pneumonia a week ago. The singer had lived for the last four years at a skilled nursing facility in L.A, according to The New York Times. McCann, who is best remembered for his 1967 protest song…

Let’s get this out of the way: Taylor Swift dominated the year in music, and it wasn’t even close. Four-year-old songs of hers topped the charts. She sold physical albums at a head-spinning rate. Her Eras Tour was an economic stimulus in every city she played, and reignited conversations around the deeply broken ticketing marketplace as fans scrambled to purchase tickets. Her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce created a frenzy around a celebrity simply attending NFL games. And she also released…

When the trio known as grouptherapy. takes the stage at Toad’s Place in New Haven, Connecticut, the crowd is compact yet energized. It’s a Sunday night in the fall, and this is the smallest crowd the group has seen so far on their debut tour with the rapper Tobi Lou to promote their own album, I Was Mature for My Age but I Was Still a Child. Compared with their other East Coast shows, in places like Philadelphia and Boston, New Haven is Sean Astin in Rudy: small in size but large in heart and energy. The crowd never…

T here are several ways to soundtrack a journey back from hell. On a Wednesday afternoon in late November, Jorge Pabón lifts himself out of his wheelchair, props himself up, and scrolls through his iTunes until the right song hits him. “Órale!” he exclaims, as the chugging guitar riffs of “Disposable Heroes,” Metallica’s adrenaline-pumping war epic, fill his own personal purgatory: the unassuming physical therapy gym inside New Franklin Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Queens, New York. He clasps his…

You best protect ya neck if you’re heading to Las Vegas because the Wu-Tang Clan is setting up shop in Sin City.The legendary rap collective announced Tuesday that it would become the first hip-hop act to launch a Las Vegas residency when it begins its run of shows in February at the Theater at Virgin Hotels.“Wu-Tang Clan will take the stage on the heels of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop celebration,” Virigin Hotels said in a statement. “This residency is more than a concert — it serves as a tribute to their prolific…

A chart mainstay and ferocious rhymer from the late nineties into the aughts, Queens rapper N.O.R.E. has since built a hugely visible (and lucrative) second career as a podcast host on Revolt’s Drink Champs, where he and DJ EFN swap stories and libations with the biggest names in rap. Their 2021 episode with Kanye West earned more than 12 million views on YouTube alone, dominating cultural discourse. This year alone, they’ve talked to MCs like Rick Ross, City Girls, and Kodak Black, as well as Bill Bellamy, Lyor Cohen,…

‘Can he still get on the mic and do what you like?” Ice Cube asks as he kicks off the UK leg of his High Rollers tour in Glasgow. It’s a question that hangs in the air – semi-rhetorical and positioned as a challenge by the veteran rapper, whose CV has exploded in all directions since his early gangsta rap days.Ice Cube is joined on this tour by 90s stoner-rap legends Cypress Hill, with MCs B-Real and Sen Dog presenting a slick yet frenzied set of their best work. Flanked by clouds of customary weed smoke, they pack in a…