A: How's your day going. W: I'm doing very well. I'm in upstate new your about 4 hours outside of the city. Chin Chin is going to be doing a show tonight backing up El-P. A: Oh Wow, O.K. That's not All Tomorrow's Parties is it? W: No That's in a Couple of Weeks. This is kinda like a prep gig for that. A: What's the Venue you're heading off to, what's the name of it? W:Tonight? A: Yeah W: It's a Place Called the Barn. [...]
The 111 Best Albums of the 00s (67-77):67. The Decembrists - The Crane Wife68. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elswhere69. El-P - Fantastic Damage70. Spoon - Girls Can Tell71. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend72. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand73. Ryan Adams - Cold Roses74. Radiohead - Kid A75. MIA - Kala76. Eminem - The Eminem Show77. Linkin Park - Meteora
I'll come out and straight say it: alternative rappers suck at beefing . There have been classic underground feuds - I particularly enjoyed the unprovoked war between the High & Mighty and Masta Ace - but overall I'm generally disappointed in what transpires. Rap beefs are for ignorant commercial MCs who are willing to shamelessly boast (and lie) about their murder tallies - not for cats who sling metaphors, or who even know what metaphors are for that matter. One exception, of course, is Eminem, who recently beat Mariah with an eloquent shovel ; otherwise I [...]
Consider Def Jux, the brash NYC label founded by EL-P at the onset of this decade and immediately conjuring up murky, enigmatic, gorgeously menacing hip-hop records like El's own Fantastic Dama... Continue reading "Today in Rap Beef: El-P and Vast Aire Joust Over MySpace (Yes, It's Still August 2009) " >

If you haven't been paying attention to the beef-radar lately, Vast Aire released a diss track towards Cage and the rest of Def Jux. All of this rivalry going on has to do with the unfortunate passing of Camu Tao. Cage outed Vast very harshly about how his relations really stood with Camu, and this track apparently was Vast's response. It really saddens me to see all this bullshit beef going on in the Hip-Hop community, it's really the last thing that we need right now. On a related side note, I got an e-mail on my Blackberry [...]
This week's Daily Rind Podcast is live! Download it here or subscribe to it on iTunes. Track 1: The Almighty Defenders "Bow Down And Die" from The Almighty Defenders [Vice Music] Track 2: Figures Of Light "It's Lame" from I Still Hate CD's: Norton Records 45 RPM Singles Collection Vol. 2 [Norton Records] Track 3: Lullabye Arkestra [...]

30. El-P — I'll Sleep When You're Dead (2007) The migraine mid-point between Nine Inch Nails and the Bomb Squad. Math rap. Bombs + Nails = the sort of weapon built by suicide squads intent on creating obscene carnage. If last time, the damage was fantastic, now it's fatal. El-P's masterpiece is both explicit and subtle, political and apolitical—a snarling, maladjusted multi-tentacled beast capable of belting you in the stomach and picking your pocket in one foul [...]

40. Nas – The Lost Tapes (2002) When Illmatic dropped, it was like the rap world stopped. It was a moment when every person that was into real hip hop paused their schedules to fully ingest, process and comprehend the dopeness that was the birth of one our greatest emcess to ever touch the mike. As Nas progressed with his career, still dope, but mad inconsistent with each subsequent release, I lost more and more interest in him as the [...]
To be clear, Cage's Depart From Me isn't underwhelming because it's so different and out-there; it's underwhelming despite being so different and out-there.
Weathermen (Feat. Aesop Rock, EL-P & Cage)"Reports of a Possible Kidnapping The Weathermen, consisting of Cage, El-p, Aesop Rock, Breezely Brewin (Jugganots), Camu Tao (RIP), Tame One and Yak Ballz, release their first official single since 2003 as the second leak off the upcoming Def Jux Presents 4 from seminal underground hip hop label Def Jux.

Cage "Look What You Did" "Look What You Did" is a leak from Cage 's Depart From Me , caught on El-p's Twitter .

Cage "Look At What You Did" "Look What You Did" is a leak from Cage 's Depart From Me , caught on El-p's Twitter .

Weathermen "Reports of a Possible Kidnapping" ft. EL-P, Cage, and Aesop Rock "Reports of a Possible Kidnapping" is a track from the compilation DJXP4 .

However it leaked, it's up on the Definitive Jux label site now. Finally, we have a sneak peak of the first official Weathermen album, providing you call their 2003 release The Conspiracy what it truly is: a mixtape. The album, which has had the working title The New Left for quite some time now, is expected out this year on Definitive Jux . MP3: The Weathermen - "Reports of a Possible Kidnapping" Founder of the group, Cage has a new album coming out [...]

"Report's of A Possible Kidnapping Ft. Aesop Rock, El-P, Cage

Cette semaine dans la série "One Week Only" de Pitchfork.Tv , nous avons le droit à l'excellent documentaire "The Revenge Of The Robots" , consacré à la tournée des "super stars" du label Definitive Jux : El-P , RJD2 , Cage , Mr. Lif et bien d'autres. Réalisé par Jason Goldwach and Amaechi Uzoigwe , le film est dispo à cette adresse : http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/epis ode/1971-the-revenge-of-the-ro bots/1
Brother Ali releases new music video, Dylan/McCartney collaboration looking good & Soundset photos, videos and reviews.

Me going nuts when Pharcyde dropped "Raise It Up" in tribute to Jay Dee As you can see by the picture I look like I am in a great mood. That's because I was outstandingly over-joyed all day on Saturday in Shakopee, MN at Soundset 2009. I really couldn't have asked for much more the entire day. My camera died roughly an hour and a half into the show (thanks to Erik for the pictures as well as other people on Flickr) and I ended up looking like a lobster from sunburn, but it [...]

A weekend that's already been heralded by me once, Soundset 2009 brought some of the best hip-hop talent in the nation together in one spot, in our own quaint little Minnesota non-the-less. Yesterday I brought you some amazing pictures I caught from my usual front row spot, and today I'm back to give you some videos from the festival ( Part 1 if you missed it). The audio on them isn't amazing simply due to the sheer volume of the stage, but bear with and enjoy! I had been waiting years to see El-P , and [...]
Interviews with a handful of performers from this year's Soundset festival.