Happy 10th anniversary to Rock the Bells, who have announced their initial, rotating 2013 lineup featuring hosts Peter Rosenberg & MURS 3:16, as well as names like Bone Thugs N Harmony, Danny Brown, Black Hippy (who just played NYC), Common, E40 & Too Short, Earl Sweatshirt (ditto), Flatbush Zombies, Juicy J (who played a Fader show on Monday and Irving Plaza last night), Rakim, Wu-Tang Clan (who play Summer Jam soon), Tyler the Creator (who just announced an NYC show as part of Odd Future), Eazy E, Ol Dirty Bastard and more. Confused? Yes, I did just say Eazy E and Ol Dirty Bastard, both of which will be "virtual performances" as part of the travelling festival. AllHipHop reports:

Ol Dirty Bastard and Eazy-E's spirits will return to the stage at Rock The Bells this year, AllHipHop has learned.

The pair of Hip-Hop legends will have holograms performing this year at the 10-year anniversary of the rap festival.

Eazy-E will perform virtually with Bone Thugs-In-Harmony and ODB will rock with Wu Tang. Organizers said Eazy never blessed the Rock The Bells stage and ODB only did once.

Also, the "holograms" are approved by Eazy-E's wife Tomica Wright and Ol Dirty's mother, Cherry Jones.

Tupac's Coachella appearance inspired the new virtual performances at Rock The Bells, organizers admitted.

So far only four dates exist for Rock the Bells. They're all listed below. Two of them are on the East Coast and one is in the NYC area at Meadowlands Racetrack in Rutherford, NJ on October 4-5. Tickets go on presale Thursday (10/16) at noon, and regular sale on Saturday.

Initial lineup (at least 15 more artists TBA), dates and some video below.

Continue reading "Rock the Bells 2013 initial lineup (Wu-Tang, Earl Sweatshirt, Juicy J, Tyler the Creator... + hologram ODB & Eazy E)"

Tyler, the Creator @ MHOW, March 2013(more by Jason Bergman)

Earl Sweatshirt, who is about to link up with the touring Tyler, the Creator for some Earl Wolf shows in Texas, just played the Downtown Music Festival in NYC over the weekend. And now Odd Future have announced they'll all return to NYC to play a big Brooklyn show at Williamsburg Park on July 20. It's with Meek Mill and doubles as Hot 97 DJ Peter Rosenberg's 2nd Annual Birthday Show. Tickets for that show go on venue presale on Thursday (5/14) at 10 AM with the regular on-sale happening Friday (5/10).

The Brooklyn show comes right before Meek Mill starts touring with Mac Miller and friends, a tour that also includes Earl Sweatshirt and The Internet on some dates.

Meanwhile, Tyler, the Creator is dealing with the controversy around one of the online Mountain Dew ads he helped create along with other members of Odd Future. The online video, one of three, was pulled after Syracuse University professor and social analyst Dr. Boyce Watkins called the spot "arguably the most racist commercial in history." Watkins has since mellowed, saying via Twitter "Studied your music, I have an altered perspective. Still could do without the ad, but I think you were well-intended. #respect." Tyler then spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the ad:

It was just a goat who liked Mountain Dew. He wanted more. The waitress lady got hurt. He got pulled over by the cops, and the lady points out the goat [in the lineup], who obviously attacked her because of the Mountain Dew. And that's it.

I guess people are claiming that it's racist, which ... you know, that wasn't even portrayed in that commercial. There's no type of hate being portrayed in that work of art at all -- which I'm confused by. But this older black dude, Dr. Boyce Watkins, I guess he found it racist because I was portraying stereotypes, which is ridiculous because, one, all of those dudes [in the lineup] are my friends. Two, they're all basically in their own clothes. It was originally supposed to be just two dudes, but Garrett from Trash Talk came with his friend and other people had showed up, so I just put all of them in that lineup, if you really wanna know the truth. Three, no [commenters] saw that commercial and said, "This is racist." Everyone either said, "Wow, this is ridiculous. It's a goat talking," or they said, "Wow, this is the dumbest. Why would they even make this?" So for [Watkins] to nitpick and notice that, clearly shows his state of mind is on some other shit that I can't comprehend, for him to actually sit there and for him to notice that it's all blacks [in the lineup]. That wasn't my intention.

Tyler may or may not have another online Mountain Dew ad coming. "Defer that question to Mountain Dew," said Tyler to THR.

Tyler was recently in NYC for a live chat with Elliot Wilson at Highline Ballroom. Watch that in four parts below...

Continue reading "Odd Future playing Williamsburg Park with Meek Mill, still debating controversial Mountain Dew ads +++ watch that live Tyler the Creator interview"

by Andrew Sacher

DOWNLOAD: World's Fair - "'96 Knicks" (MP3)

World's Fair at Santos in 2012 (more by Julie Schabel)

As mentioned, Hot 97 DJ Peter Rosenberg has a new compilation out today (4/4) called The New York Renaissance, which highlights the current NYC rap scene with tracks from A$AP Rocky, Action Bronson, Joey Bada$$, Flatbush Zombies, Smoke DZA, Troy Ave and more. One of the artists on it is Children of the Night-related Queens crew World's Fair, who we've caught at a few local shows like Fool's Gold's 5th anniversary and a 2012 show with Danny Brown. Their contribution to the mixtape, "'96 Knicks," sees the members spitting rapid fast rhymes over a similarly blown-out take on '90s NYC rap production to that of Flatbush Zombies. You can download that track at the top of this post and stream it below. The whole mixtape can be downloaded for free at DatPiff and streamed below.

You can catch World's Fair playing a local show on April 17 at Public Assembly with Chicago rapper Rockie Fresh, Julian Malone, and DJ Getlive!. It's a Scion/AV show and the only way to get in is through Scion's twitter/instagram contest.

That show is one of a few upcoming dates for Rockie Fresh, all of which are listed, along with the World's Fair song stream, below...

Continue reading "World's Fair on Peter Rosenberg's 'The New York Renaissance', playing Public Assembly w/ Rockie Fresh (dates & MP3)"

Frightened Rabbit @ T5, Nov. 2010 (more by Lionel Bergeron)

SXSW has just announced another round of bands for the 2013 edition of the annual music festival that will happen March 12 - 17. This brings the total current number of acts to around 1300. Someome of the highlights include Vampire Weekend, Frightened Rabbit, The Thermals, Black Lips, Camera Obscura, Merchandise, Bleached, Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire, Eagles of Death Metal, Parenthetical Girls, Indians, Night Beds, IO Echo, KEN Mode, Prince Paul, Pure Bathing Culture, Sepalcure, UK motorik post-punks TOY, Finnish instrumentalists K-X-P, Toronto's Moon King, UK indie rockers Splashh (not Brooklyn Splash with one "h") and loads more. Head to BV Austin for the whole Round 3 list.

by Andrew Sacher

Nicki MInaj, who was scheduled to headline Hot 97 Summer Jam at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ last night (6/3), cancelled her performance due to a diss made by Hot 97 DJ Peter Rosenberg, while he was introducing Kendrick Lamar's set at the pre-show. Rosenberg said, "I know there are some chicks in here waiting to sing along with 'Starships' later. I'm not talking to y'all right now. Fuck that bullshit. I'm here to talk about real hip hop shit." Video footage of that is below.

Not long after that diss, Lil Wayne took to twitter, saying "Young Money ain't doing summer jam." Nicki then followed with "Wow. U niggaz just fucked up history. But the President has spoken. ‪#YMCMB‬" and "I go above and beyond for my fans. But won't ever go against wayne's word. What he says, goes." Young Money rapper Tyga went through with his performance, but Nicki refused to take the stage.

Needless to say, Nicki was given immediate backlash. Funkmaster Flex dissed her, saying "we ain't fucking with commercial rappers no more" (video below) and a PIX11 news report has footage of fans who came from Georgia lashing out too (video below). Maybe Rosenberg should have thought twice before dissing the headliner of his own radio station's show, but he made the comment at the pre-show, which hosted less commercial rappers like Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, ASAP Rocky, Azealia Banks, and Big KRIT, where a comment like that isn't so out of line. Plus, was that diss really grounds for canceling an entire performance, especially one that thousands of fans probably dropped a good chunk of their paycheck on?

Nicki's set was reportedly supposed to include a number of guest appearances including veterans Nas and Lauryn Hill (who played HIghline Ballroom the night before). Nas and Lauryn took Nicki's place and delivered a performance of their own at the festival, which you can watch video of below. With all the positive reactions to her Highline show and the Summer Jam performance, Lauryn Hill seems to have had one hell of a weekend in NYC.

Azealia Banks at Bowery Ballroom (via)

In related news, Azealia Banks played Bowery Ballroom at night after her set at the Summer Jam pre-show. Though doors were at 7PM, she didn't take the stage until 1 AM. (Though that set time was pretty well known in advance.) If you were at the show, was her set worth the wait? From the looks of the YouTube videos, the crowd was into it. Those Bowery performance videos are below.

Videos below...

Continue reading "Nicki Minaj canceled Summer Jam because of a diss; Nas and Lauryn Hill played instead +++ Azealia Banks played Bowery Ballroom after pre-show (videos)"

Jay-Z's new album, The Blueprint 3, is out today (September 8, 2009). Jay-Z is playing a free MySpace Music Show tomorrow (September 9th) at Blender (Gramercy) Theatre, presented by the video game DJ Hero. Entry for the public is being limited to 200 tickets, which will be available tomorrow at 10am, if you want to wait in line. Full details are below.

Jay-Z plays a charity show on 9/11 at the considerably bigger Madison Square Garden. Tickets for that went on sale this morning. A few hours before that, Jay appeared on Hot 97's morning show with Cipha Sounds & Rosenberg. Video from that appearance with the Gramercy show info, below...

Continue reading "Jay-Z - new album out - playing NYC' Gramercy Theatre Wed."