by Andrew Sacher

Pusha T

Pusha T is playing in NYC TONIGHT (12/22) at Gramercy Theatre with NinjaSonik, Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire, Gilbere Forte, Emilio Rojas, and Jasmine Solano. Tickets are still available.

Earlier this week, Pusha dropped a freestyle over Common's "Sweet" off of his new LP, The Dreamer/The Believer, which came out on Tuesday. The Smoking Section reports that the track is a diss at Drake (who is touring in 2012 with Kendrick Lamar and A$AP Rocky). Stream it below.

Common played Highline Ballroom on Monday (12/19). Nas joined him at the show. You can stream the whole show below, and also check out a video of Nas joining in on "Ghetto Dreams" below.

Pusha T collaborator Wale also plays a show in NYC TONIGHT (12/22). HIs is at Webster Hall and tickets are still available. More dates, including one at Irving Plaza, are listed below.

Speaking of Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire and Emilio Rojas, they both just played S.O.B.'s with Kendrick Lamar on Monday (12/19). Talib Kweli saw the show, and tweeted, "The ASAP crew did a 20 min walk thru during the set. Classic Harlem lol." Check out a video from the show below.

Maybe Talib should give Diplo a heads up about Kendrick. Diplo recently tweeted "Kendrick lamar sounds like somebody that played for the supersonics in the 90s. Didn't know he was a rapper. What's his best tune?" (Hey Diplo, check out "The Spiteful Chant").

In other news, Kendrick told XXLMag that he and J. Cole are planning a joint album. "We're still trying to formulate it and sit down in a neutral zone, where either one of us is moving and doing shows, interviews and press all the time," he said. Kendrick told HipHopDx that he's lined up Just Blaze and Pete Rock for his next LP.

Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire will play NYC again when he opens for Action Bronson at Highline Ballroom on December 27. Tickets are still available. eXquire and Bronson both made Heems' list of favorite albums released in 2011.

Speaking of Talib Kweli, his group Idle Warship played Southpaw on 12/9. Some videos from that show are below. They'll do it again on January 4 at S.O.B.'s. Tickets are still available.

Dates, videos and stream below...

Continue reading "Pusha T & Wale play shows tonight (and other dates); Kendrick Lamar & Common & guests played recently (videos)"

One look at this weekend's Rock The Bells lineup and you could debate whether any of those MCs would be anywhere without the rhymes of the smooth operator Big Daddy Kane. The juice crew affiliate plays BB Kings on Sept 19th for those of you looking to get "R-A-W". The venue says the show is with a live band with opening sets by Lethillweapon and Prophet. Tickets are on sale.

Kane is currently working on a new album, though details remain scarce.

In related news, Pusha T's new EP Fear Of God 2: Let Us Pray is coming out September 27th on Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music. Its nine tracks will feature guest appearances by Diddy, Kanye, Young Jeezy, 50 Cent, Rick Ross, Tyler the Creator and more. Meanwhile Pusha T told the Village Voice he's working on a new mixtape called Long Live The Caine, an obvious ode to both the white powder and the great Brooklyn MC. Keep a look out for that. Check out the new video for "Feeling Myself", off the upcoming EP and featuring R&B singer Kevin Cossom, below...

Continue reading "Big Daddy Kane playing a show, Pusha T working on 'Long Live the Caine'"

today in NYC
* Whiplash @ UCB
* Spanglish Fly @ Barbes
* Aaron Neville @ City Winery
* Jane's Addiction @ Terminal 5
* Sean Moran's Small Elephant @ Barbes
* Conspirator @ Rocks Off Concert Cruise
* Flourishing, Pyrrhon, Balance @ Lit Lounge
* Chrlie Wilson & Eric Benet @ Wingate Field
* WTF with Marc Maron @ The Bell House
* Hot Tub with Kurt and Kristen @ Littlefield
* Stone Temple Pilots @ Williamsburg Waterfront
* Mother Mother, Kevin Calaba @ Knitting Factory
* Karl Berger's Stone Workshop Orchestra @ The Stone
* Carney, James Maddock, Paris Carney @ Bowery Ballroom
* Toots and The Maytals, Fear Nuttin Band @ Brooklyn Bowl
* The Bottom Dollars, The Nuclears, Lightouts @ The Rock Shop
* Wiz Khalifa, Big Sean, Chevy Woods @ Central Park Summerstage
* Cloud Control, Parlovr, Modern Rivals, New Moods @ Mercury Lounge
* Chris Bruni, Lianne Smith, Tony Scherr Trio with Anton Fier and Rob Jost, David Hershey-Webb @ The Living Room

To quote a press release:

"Coming off a powerful headline performance this past weekend (Saturday, July 23) at the "Gathering of the Vibes" festival in Bridgeport, CT, JANE'S ADDICTION tonight (Monday July 25) play an exclusive, private show at Terminal 5 in New York City, in association with YouTube and LG. Not only will the concert be streamed live on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/comealive), but it will also be the first 3D user-generated concert event. Attendees--including more than 200 lucky ticket holders selected by LG and Jane's Addiction--will be the first to be able to film the show on brand new LG Thrill 4G Devices, and then these films are combined into one special 3D 60-minute documentary film which will be premiered on the LG Thrill 3D YouTube channel on August 4."

Congrats to everyone that won tickets via BrooklynVegan.

Top Gun plays on the Coney Island Beach tonight.

Pusha T and Tyler, the Creator have a video for their recent collaboration, "Trouble On My Mind." Check it out below.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday?"

Kanye makes his grand entrance (this photo by David Andrako)

There were dancers, costume changes, Bon Iver...

Kanye West closed out Coachella 2011 in the only way he knows how, in a grand fashion and dedicated to his mama. We'll have more pictures and recaps from Sunday later, but in the meantime, check out more of what Kanye brought to the Indio stage, and the 27 song setlist, below...

Continue reading "Kanye West closed out Coachella 2011 w/ help from Justin Vernon, dancers & Pusha T (pics & setlist)"

"Great show. Though, totally unnecessary 3+ hour wait to get in." - Anonymous

Nicki Minaj & Kanye West @ Bowery Ballroom (photo by Questlove)

Kanye West played his entire new album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy from start to finish, followed by a four song encore Tuesday night at the intimate Bowery Ballroom in NYC where Kanye literally brought in "all of the lights" (there were lots of lights). The show started with people who weren't Diddy (he walked right in) waiting on a long line. The show ended with Kanye going on a rant about racism, George Bush, Taylor Swift, the Today Show, etc. Audio of that final portion can be streamed below.

Album guest stars Kid Cudi, Raekwon, Jay-Z and RZA were nowhere to be found, but Terena Taylor, Bon Iver aka Justin Vernon (who might appear again with Kanye in the Thanksgiving Day Parade), Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj (who plays Hammerstein Ballroom on Thanksgiving), Pusha T, Prynce Cy Hi, Swizz Beatz, and John Legend (whose friend Questlove was in the balcony taking pictures) all performed at the show that started around 12:40am and was was over by around 2:15. Full setlist, videos and that audio below...

Continue reading "Kanye West played Bowery Ballroom w/ many special guests (setlist, videos & audio of the show-ending rant)"

"...On Monday West, who is 33, will release his fifth album, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam), and it's terrific -- of course it's terrific -- a startlingly maximalist take on East Coast rap traditionalism. And yet that doesn't matter nearly as much as it should, at least partly because of West's insistence on his own greatness. By not allowing for responses to his work other than awe, the value of the work itself is diminished; it becomes an object of admiration, not of study. Instead the focus is on the whole of West's persona and character, which is more fractured and subject to a far wider range of responses. The result is that West becomes a polarizing public figure who happens to be the most artful pop musician of the day, not the other way around.

Nevertheless, West seems virtually incapable of making a bad record. He's committed to pop, and he's savvy and talented enough to make it great, every time. What's more, for him to make something other than a universally accepted smash would be a thing that his ego couldn't bear. Every Kanye West album, until the cancer of the world around him begins to encroach on the parts of his cerebral cortex that control his musical ear, will be excellent and huge. He'll never have an idiosyncratic period.

Even at his most extreme, West isn't an experimenter. His music is ornate, ostentatious, curious and vivacious. But risky? No. All of his fiddling is within recognized formulas. A producer as well as a rapper, West controls all of the major elements of his songs, unlike other artists who have to rely on their taste (or their record label's taste) in outside producers or songwriters.

To work on this album he retreated to Hawaii, as he did during the making of his previous album. And West's gravitational pull is such that he can import talent. Rick Ross, Kid Cudi, Pusha T, Nicki Minaj -- they all made the trip to make music that will appear on the album. The spooky indie folky Justin Vernon from Bon Iver spoke of smoking marijuana with Rick Ross on one of his three sojourns to Hawaii to work with West, about as surreal a tableau as has been created in the making of any pop album this year." [JON CARAMANICA, Sunday New York Times]

"Runaway" video below...

Continue reading "Kanye West 'seems virtually incapable of making a bad album'"

by BBG

Kanye West at The Box last night

Kanye West popped into the 200 capacity club The Box on the LES last night for a 1:30 AM surprise set:

An e-mail went out to a select group late Thursday evening, alerting recipients that West and John Legend would be holding a function. If not quite a black-tie affair, the invite asked guests to be suited and booted. No exceptions. Also noted in the message was a phone number to call to learn the address of the venue, which was Manhattan's Chrystie Street club, the Box. The stage set-up was pretty simple: a baby grand piano at which Legend sat, two microphones (one just for Auto-Tune), an 808 beat machine and a keyboard. -[MTV]

The fully-suited Mr. West crooned through favorites like "Homecoming", "Flashing Lights", "Heard 'Em Say", "Love Lockdown", "Power," "Good Life", and "Can't Tell Me Nothing" and even ventured into new territory like "Moma's Boyfriend", an unheard Billy-Joel's-"Moving Out"-sampling track viewable in the video below. Besides John Legend, who contributed with his hit "Ordinary People", Estelle was in the house (and joined him for a rendition of "American Boy") as well as A-Trak, Consequence, and his "latest signing to G.O.O.D. Music" Pusha T (of Clipse).

Some video from the show (which was also an afterparty for Rihanna's MSG show), is below...

Continue reading "Kanye West & John Legend played a swanky show @ the Box "

photos by Leia Jospe

Clipse's Pusha T & Wale

Wednesday night, in downtown Manhattan, Mark Ronson's Allido Records and Hot 97 hosted a show featuring Colin Munroe, Wale, and Kid CuDi at the Highline Ballroom. Hot 97 on air-personalities Cipha Sounds and Peter Rosenberg took on hosting duties, lightening up the tense air between the sardine can-packed concertgoers....

...GOOD Music's latest signee and Kanye's new wonderboy, Kid Cudi, hit the stage next. Fresh off the plane from Australia, Mr. Solo Dolo definitely had all eyes on him. After killing mixtape bangers like "Down and Out" and "Man on the Moon," CuDi had one more surprise in store for the thirsty fans, as hometown hero Jim Jones joined the emcee for a performance of breakthrough single "Day 'n' Night," whipping the crowd to a fever pitch.

As Jay-Z and Leonardo DiCaprio entered the VIP room, Wale and his UCB band crept onstage. "W.A.L.E.D.A.N.C.E." quickly re-energized the crowd, and Hov seemed thoroughly impressed as his goons deflected the attentions of male groupies. The lovely Chrisette Michele made her cameo as the DC heavy hitter rocked his Roots guest spot on the track "Rising Up". One half of the Clipse, Pusha T, also made an appearance for his verse on "Back in the Go-Go". The hipsters could barely contain themselves. In true Roc-A-Fella form, though, the night ended with Freeway and Young Chris storming the stage and making a convincing case for the dynasty to which they lay claim." [DJ Booth]

More pictures below...

Continue reading "Wale, Kid Cudi, Pusha T, Chrisette Michele, Mark Ronson, Jim Jones & others @ Highline Ballroom, NYC - pics"