by Andrew Sacher

Lil Kim in Austin in 2012 (more by Tim Griffin)

Lil Kim, who made a welcome return last year, is playing a NYC show TONIGHT (4/26) at Gramercy Theatre. Tickets for tonight's show are still available.

Shabazz Palaces' tour with THEESatisfaction hits NYC tonight (4/26) for a sold out show at Bowery Ballroom.

Chicago rapper ShowYouSuck is coming to NYC for a show on May 3 at Knitting Factory. That bill also includes Bronx crew B.I.C. (Bitches Is Crazy), Goldie Glo, D Stunna, and Hipster Rogers. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

Bitches Is Crazy just released a free album for 4/20 (but it actually came out on 4/16), Influence. It fits right in with the recent influx of NYC weed rap we've been getting from Flatbush Zombies, The Underachievers and A$AP Mob. Pretty cool stuff. Download it at bandcamp or stream it, along with the videos for "DOPM" and "Yo Soy Widdit," below.

As just mentioned, collaborators Flatbush Zombies and The Underachievers, who are currently on tour with Joey Bada$$, are playing a free show in Red Hook Park on June 4 as part of this year's Summerstage season.

Miami rapper Gunplay is set to release a new mixtape, Bogota this year (not to be confused with last year's Bogota Rich: The Prequel mixtape), and is also talking about a new album, Medellin. He recently revealed the video for "Pyrex," which will presumably appear on one of these releases. You can watch that below. Gunplay will come to NYC for a show at SOB's on June 10. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

Hip hop collective Phony PPL are doing a residency at Brooklyn Bowl which includes shows on May 1, June 5, July 3, and July 31. Each show has different special guests. For the May 1 show, it will be Allan Kingdom and Roofeeo. Guests for the other three shows TBA. Tickets for all four nights are on sale now.

Casey Veggies at Bamboozle 2012 (more by Leia Jospe)

Another good Brooklyn Bowl show happens when Casey Veggies and XXL Freshman Travi$ Scott bring their tour to Brooklyn Bowl on May 19. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

You can download Casey's recent mixtape Life Changes, which features appearances by BJ the Chicago Kid, Dom Kennedy and others, and production by The Futuristiks, Harry Fraud, and others, over at DatPiff.

The Brooklyn Bowl show is two days before Travi$ Scott and the rest of the XXL Freshmen class (Schoolboy Q, Joey Bada$$, Ab-Soul, Action Bronson, Angel Haze, and others) play the XXL Freshmen show at Best Buy Theater (5/21). Tickets for that show are still available.

Another XXL Freshman, Logic, who recently signed to Def Jam, is playing a NYC show on June 22 at Irving Plaza. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

Dizzy Wright, Nitty Scott, and others are playing The Studio at Webster Hall on May 22. Tickets for that show are on sale now.

Not exactly hip hop, but Kelly Rowland and The-Dream are playing Best Buy Theater on May 30. Tickets for that show go on sale today (4/26) at noon.

All streams and videos below...

Continue reading "upcoming hip hop shows in NYC: Lil Kim, Bitches Is Crazy, Gunplay, Casey Veggies, The-Dream, ShowYouSuck & more"

This letter, signed by a ton of artists and pictured above, is set to appear in an ad in Billboard:

We are big fans of Pandora. That's why we helped give the company a discount on rates for the past decade.

Pandora is now enjoying phenomenal success as a Wall Street company. Skyrocketing growth in revenues and users. We celebrate that. At the same time, the music community is just now beginning to gain its footing in the new digital world.

Pandora's principal asset is the music.

Why is the company asking Congress once again to step in and gut the royalties that thousands of musicians rely upon? That's not fair, and that's not how partners work together.
Congress has many pressing issues to consider, but this is not one of them. Let's work this out as partners and continue to bring fans the great musical experience they rightly expect.

Pink Floyd, Down, Primus, Dead Kennedys (with our without Jello?), Nas, Alabama, Sheryl Crow and many more big major label names signed this (or someone signed it on their behalf). Check out the full list below, and head to fairpayforartists.com for more information on their point of view..

The issue is that Pandora is supporting the Internet Radio Fairness Act which they say will "help end the long-standing discrimination against internet radio". Artists are mad because that possibly means less money for them, but Pandora and other Internet radio providers argue they can't stay in business the way things are now.

Continue reading "A bunch of artists wrote an open letter to Pandora who support the Internet Radio Fairness Act"

R&B singer/songwriter/producer The-Dream (aka Terius Nash), who planned to release the album The Love, IV (Diary of a Mad Man) last year, has been delaying the release of it and he recently changed the name to just Love IV MMXII. He's also announced that the album's first single, "Roc," will be released on iTunes on March 6 (watch the video for that song below) and just revealed another new track called "Kill the Lights," which is a collaboration with Casha, who he previously collaborated with on last year's "internet album" 1977. You can stream that track and read the lyrics at RadioKillaRecords.

The-Dream will kick off a tour in March, after the "Roc" single drops on iTunes, which hits NYC on March 11 and 12 at SOB's. Tickets for the 3/11 show are on sale now and though the 3/12 show is listed on SOB's site, no ticket link is currently available. His tour also hits SXSW and it was recently announced that he has been added to Pitchfork's showcase which also includes Fiona Apple, Grimes, Purity Ring, Nicolas Jaar, and Charli XCX.

Pitchfork official SXSW showcase
8:00 p.m. Fiona Apple
9:15 p.m. Charli XCX
10:00 p.m. Purity Ring
10:45 p.m. Grimes
11:45 p.m. Nicolas Jaar
12:45 a.m. The-Dream

All Dream dates and video below...

Continue reading "The-Dream announces tour, 2 NYC show, SXSW showcase"

by Andrew Frisicano

Wavves @ Knitting Factory in June (more by Alex Reside)

Wavves 3.0 - with drummer Billy Hayes and bassist Stephen Pope, who wrote two and one songs, respectively, on King of the Beach - had a round of NY shows back in June. That included gigs at Kniting Factory, Meat Locker in Montclair, and a Fader party with The-Dream.

The band, currently in Europe, will play a pre-Lolla show in NYC this August. That show happens Monday, August 2nd at Bowery Ballroom. Tickets go on sale Saturday, July 10th at noon.

Wavves follow those shows with more dates across North America. Videos of Wavves at NXNE, the Fader party (plus a clip of The-Dream for good measure), and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "WAVVES played a Fader party, adds a NYC show, other dates "

I was under the impression that it was a private Fader party (you may have read about it earlier in the comments) so I didn't post it before because I wasn't sure if there was any way for people to get in by the time I realized it was happening, but since Wavves tweeted it (thx Hiro) I guess it's public now? The rest of the (slightly inconsistent) details below...

Continue reading "Wavves playing a Fader party in NYC tonight w/ The Dream"