it’s regular but it’s not normal • EIC at POW Mag and
@thelandmagazine
• Founder:
@powrecordings
• Waiting For Britney Spears out 2025 on FSG • Long Live Drakeo
RIP DMX. No one radiated more agony, pain, and atomic energy. The Cerberus from Yonkers, who suffered for all of our sins and his own. Maybe the rawest rapper of all-time, no pretense or frills, just pure adrenaline, lawless genius, and reckless abandon. The struggle incarnate.
RIP Drakeo, the greatest West Coast artist of a generation, a legend who invented a new rap language of slippery cadences, nervous rhythms, and psychedelic slang, who beat life twice only to suffer the most tragic fate conceivable. The Ruler, once, always, and forever. 💔
RIP Jimmy Wopo, for my money the best rapper to ever break out of Pittsburgh.
Radiant 1000-watt charisma and a legitimately original stylist. Kendrick's "Humble" was nothing if not an homage to "Elm Street."
This is just terrible and senseless.
By quitting, Deadspin's staff aren't just principled, they sent a critical fuck you to every private equity ogre that desecrates great publications. The only way 2 stop it from happening is stopping them from being able to turn a profit. Long live Deadspin. They were the realest
So let's get this straight: deputies approached and confronted a security guard at work -- a man w/ a spotless record and no reason to be suspected of anything -- and shot him dead in cold blood.
These men need to be arrested and the LA Sheriff's Department needs to be defunded
#BREAKING
LA Sheriff’s deputies shoot and kill an 18 year old Hispanic security guard outside the auto-body shop he was patrolling in Gardena. Police say the guard, who was armed, ran prompting the shooting.
#LA
#Gardena
#PoliceBrutality
#Shooting
RIP Shock G, psychedelic rap pioneer, one of the 1st & best to translate funk into hip-hop. A high concept genius, who discovered 2Pac & invented sex packets. Our Groucho Mark: raunchy, hilarious & weird. Burger King bathrooms would never be the same. Humpty Hump lives forever 🥸
RIP Gangsta Boo. The first lady of Southern rap, a pioneer w/ mesmerizing get money bounce, and a ubiquitous influence since she kicked Satanic verses at 15 on "Mystic Stylez." Boo defined Memphis rap as much as anyone in Three 6, and never spit a bad verse.
Gone far too soon.
RIP Luke Perry, who defined early 90s cool, a deeply underrated actor whose Dylan McKay unfairly overshadowed all future roles. And for good reason, the James Dean comparisons may have been hyperbolic but weren't incorrect. May he blissfully surf in Baja for infinity.
Between the massive media layoffs, the looming bankruptcy of Vice, the studios forcing the writers into a strike & the rise of A.I. there's been a grotesque devaluation of imagination & creativity – during a time where it feels like people are more desperate for it than ever.
RIP Young Dolph, the Memphis people's champ--the answer to what if the Delta Blues was rap and funny. An antihero whose hysterical punchlines and flashiness often overshadowed a deep conscience, introspection, generosity and dedication to building an independent empire. A legend.
Bourdain represented a dying ideal American archetype, maybe one that never fully existed: infinitely curious, empathetic but skeptical, warm but caustic, cerebral but self-taught, an outlaw who was relentlessly charming and fearless w/out toxic aggression. What a loss, damn.
RIP to the Biz. The epitome of hip-hop wild style. Unhinged comedy & goofball wit, beatbox mastery, and booger-picking pioneering of the drunken style. The physical manifestation of pure joy. May there be infinite haircuts in heaven and a big stage to go off. Forever unbeaten.
A few years ago, Vice was valued at $5.7 billion. They published some of the smartest, most interesting, and fearless journalism of the last decade.
And now private equity is going to strip it for parts to make a bunch of outdated nostalgia meme pages. Unspeakably grim shit.
Vice CEO Bruce Dixon announces that they’ll no longer publish anything on and employees who are affected (all of us??) will be notified early next week
The fact that 6ix9ine is free and Greedo and Drakeo and Bobby Shmurda are still locked up epitomizes everything wrong with the criminal justice system.
RIP Rich Homie Quan, 1/2 of the greatest group since Outkast, the melodic genius who never stopped going in, who sang & wrote hooks as memorable as anything to ever chart, pop masterpieces straight out the mud. An era-defining ATL all-timer. The tour dates forever locked in.
RIP to the Metal Faced Terrorist, the gas faced arsonist, the inventor of a sub-genre, language, a style of color & animation. Hip-hop's greatest villain. The last surviving rap myth, killing mics since the womb till now, where he returns to where his brother went. DOOM. All caps
RIP Ka, rap's greatest minimalist, Brownsville's finest, inimitably dedicated himself to his city & craft. The master of quiet rage, writing zen koans with unremitting soul & passion. Pain, grief & wisdom in every bar. An artist as pure & real as anyone who ever spit cold facts.
RIP John Singleton, whose films poignantly depicted, humanized & articulated the beauty & struggle of S. Central & L.A. life as well as anyone. The best filmmaker of the hip hop generation, a creator of vivid 3-dimensional characters whose work eternally defined a place & time.
RIP Coolio, whose one massive hit overshadowed a formidable run of classic West Coast bangers. An original member of the Maad Circle & Compton representative – with an undeniable star quality, humor, charisma, and a gift for making street tales mainstream without sanitizing them
Breaking: Rapper Killer Mike has been taken away in handcuffs in arena after winning 3
#Grammys
during telecast (Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance for “Scientists & Engineers,” Best Rap Album for Michael) “Free Mike” someone shouts as he walks past.
Ok, some good news to announce.
Introducing The LAnd, a new publication being launched by former staffers, editors, and contributors to LA Weekly, along with many other stellar LA journalists.
By locals, for locals.
In print and online.
First issue before year's end.
RIP Craig Mack, Bad Boy's first album artist. He had two perfect singles and the platonic rap remix. That's more than most. May he kick that ol' robotic, futuristic, George Jetson crazy shit in the infinite.
RIP Malik B.
Black Thought always received the most love, but Malik offered a Phife-caliber counterweight on those first few Roots albums. Bringing staccato fury and militance. A perfect balance and why fans listened from Michigan to Switzerland.
RIP Mike Davis, an ancient Irish prophet disguised as a truck driving academic clairvoyant, a North Star of integrity, righteousness, and fearlessness. The greatest LA non-fiction writer ever -- an omniscient who saw doom everywhere but refused to give up hope or quit fighting.
To be American is to become shamefully numbed to a steady diet of mass death, political cowardice, & corporate greed -- the erosion of fundamental decency, honesty, and the desire for equality. Every day for the rest of our lives is this: numbing tragedy and contemptible inertia.
The LAPD responding to a suicidal man with scissors -- and somehow shooting each other, the man's dog, and arresting him because somehow we have decided to give $3 billion a year and unlimited power to the Super Troopers.
RIP Black Rob, one of the great millennium-era crime rap novelists, gruff but with Harlem slickness, who endured fire & brimstone to briefly reach the apex, before gravity and the law took hold. Of course, "Whoa," which owned the world for a full year, the platonic tunnel banger.
Obviously horrified by the national results, but L.A. voting out Jackie Lacey, voting in Holly Mitchell and Nithya Raman, and passing Measure J is a landmark moment for progressive local government, criminal justice reform and hopefully, Drakeo's freedom. Big win for the city.
RIP Slim 400. A Compton gangsta rap prototype, an ambassador for a tradition, lineage, and history -- who made a whole lot of hard-as-hell rap songs full of sober gravity and blunt force.
RIP Takeoff, the secret weapon of one of the great trios since the Magi. A wild staccato stylist, a technical rapper's rapper from the trap with half-a-million around his neck, spitting deceptively complex & colorful bars, always copied but never w/ the same lingo or charisma.
RIP Pharoah Sanders, a sacred priest disguised as a tenor sax sorcerer, whose solo opuses & work w/ John & Alice Coltrane levitated into realms of time, space and divine cosmic reverie that no one traversed before or since. The holiest seer of spiritual jazz, the last of the best
Impressive detective work by the Las Vegas PD for finally making an arrest in the 2Pac murder - after a decade in which the prime suspect constantly gave interviews admitting to committing the murder
The Britney saga is as damning an indictment of the American justice system as almost anything. Evidence how even one of the most successful people alive--who committed no crime--can be stripped of agency & dignity & be trapped in an inhuman labyrinth almost impossible to escape.
This sounds eerily similar to the Drakeo/Stinc Team overreach--where prosecutors use tenuous & circumstantial ties to a crime to charge for the crime itself.
It's the 21st century blueprint for prosecution of rappers: call the rap group a gang and pursue Mafia-style indictments.
.
@youngthug
is accused of renting 2014 Infiniti Q50 sedan from
@Hertz
, which was used in the commission of the murder of Donovan Thomas, Jr., a rival gang member, on 1-10-15, according to indictment.
@wsbtv
RIP Kobe. He was our Jordan. We watched him grow up in front of us, from taking Brandy to the prom to the early yrs as a levitating warrior prince w/ the 'fro, to 5 rings & certified hoops deity. Mercurial & brilliant, possessed w/ an iron will unseen. What unspeakable tragedy.
A reminder that Paper is now run by the far right grifter who destroyed LA Weekly – a conman who runs a racist propaganda rag in SF & who lives to scam clueless brands into partnering with zombie pubs (like Village Voice and OC Weekly).
This is not a gig to be trusted or taken.
Garcetti has completely lost L.A. A spineless coward w/out a constituency, despised by the entire political spectrum, empowering a murderous police state laser-focused on arresting peaceful protestors. Terrified to tell cops they won’t get a raise. He needs to resign immediately.
RIP Mac P Dawg of Shoreline Mafia.
What a cursed and doomed era of L.A. rap. Drakeo, Greedo, and Frosty all getting locked up amidst epic runs. Nipsey gets killed. Mac gets killed. Shoreline splitting up after their debut album.
A golden age became what could've been....
Deep rage, sadness & frustration at the Bandcamp layoffs (along with everything else atm)
The editorial team built one of the best & most dependable platforms for independent musicians to be celebrated & discovered. Only to be gutted by corporate greed. Same story ad infinitum
"I want to be remembered as the first lady of Three 6 Mafia. The first lady of crunk music. The first lady who brought a platinum plaque back to Memphis." - Gangsta Boo.
Kendrick did the same thing that Jay did when he dissed Nas by saying that he created his life in his notepad – but everyone knew that was an exaggeration for the point of the attack. Except this time with Drake, it's obvious that it's entirely true, and far more effective.
RIP Tiny Lister, aka Deebo, aka Zeus, aka President Lindberg, aka Winston the bail bondsman. One of the greatest movie villains of all time. Without saying a word, his scowl and sneer sent everyone into hiding. No one ever ever looked more terrifying in a Pendleton. What a legend
Kanye's about to lock every music journalist in a Wyoming barn without their phones and force them to watch an infinity loop of Jordan Peterson lecturing them about how bad posture causes syphilis
Wrote about Isaiah Rashad for the Fader cover.
The last five years, the stint in rehab, the time spent broke and sleeping on couches, the car wrecks, the comic book visions, and the odyssey that resulted in his excellent new album, it's all here.
RIP MoneySign Suede, much more than L.A.'s own Mexican-American Kodak, but who also channeled that same pain, indomitability & sense of struggle. A young regional hero embodying the hopes & aspirations of the unsung and overlooked. Killed in jail far too young. Devastating.
It's easy to blame California voters for voting for such a terrible anti-labor law, but I've never seen such a well-funded, slick, & dishonest propaganda campaign as the one that Uber, Lyft, Doordash and Postmates ran.
A foreboding omen as they expand that strategy nationwide.
Vons and Albertsons stores in California just laid off every one of their full-time, union delivery drivers, and will replace them with DoorDash gig workers who receive no benefits as a direct result of Prop 22.
Semi-annual reminder that the entire 11-minute Suga Free kitchen table freestyle (with Clue Dog) is one of the greatest artistic achievements of the late 20th Century.
Still thinking about how South Korea had 10 minute free Covid tests in March, where the results were texted the next day -- and how 4 months later in the U.S., we still have to wait days for a test, then wait 6 hrs in line, then get the results a week later. What a failed nation
More than anything, it reflects a cynical culture of late capitalist greed run amok, fueled by tech co's & multi-national corporations run by analytics consultants trying to feed people low-cost toxic slop in the guise of "content." Solidarity to any and all fighting against it.
A major reason why rap was so good in the 90s is that artists realized that the rap group was the platonic form. Malik B was a perfect example of that. Always reliable for 16 bars of heat, blessed w/ a great voice and cadence. A heroic role player on several classics.
The case of Drakeo the Ruler embodies everything fucked up, morally reprehensible, & systematically racist about the US criminal justice system.
From the K-19 ultra-max security solitary confinement cell where they're holding him, we talked about it all.
RIP Plug Two of De La Soul, the Dove from Amityville who introduced the Daisy Age then killed it, who brought whimsy, psychedelia, florescence, skits & surrealism to hip-hop, eccentricity & deep conscience –who made the alternative essential, who never fell off, not for a second
RIP Chick Corea. The Return to Forever project remains one of the most technically magnificent creations of cosmic slop ever laid down. A blueprint for genre fusion and deep galactic jazz. The fossil fuel for an eternity of rap samples.
Support independent artists, journalists & websites. Subscribe to a Patreon or Substack. Buy the record off Bandcamp. Go to a small club show and cop the merch. The only way out is to help your favorites directly, because these major corporations only want collusion and monopoly.
RIP Ras G, LA's intergalactic ambassador, the Sun Ra of the beat scene whose vision spanned alternate dimensions & unseen worlds. A gentle sorcerer, soft-spoken & humble, suffused w/ the ability to render cosmic white noise into something that glided & banged. A giant w/out peer.
Everyone should commend J Cole for being a mature, empathetic, rational, and emotionally attuned human being. This is also why I never wanted to listen to his music.
If all major label recording artists unionized and went on strike to negotiate better rates from Spotify and less predatory standard label deals, the entire business of music would radically change in an instant. And yet...
RIP Jessica Walter. I don't know if any actor ever conveyed more with a wink. Her Lucille Bluth was the best satire of the smug rich ever done. Her voice all transatlantic arrogance, vodka delusion, and charming ignorance. The Motherboy episode alone, my god. A true comic genius.
The Drakeo verdict is in — Drakeo’s been acquitted of all charges of murder and attempted murder.
The jury hung on a 2nd count of street gang conspiracy — a complex & convoluted charge that they’ll decide whether to refile on August 1. He will he in prison until at least then.
RIP Eve Babitz, the L.A. Woman incarnate, the insider-outsider whose books & life reveled in the absurd, flamboyant, and technicolor. A genius in a feather boa, poet laureate of Tana's & Musso, all dissolute Hollywood glamour & gilded insight, who said all the wrong things right.
Bad news to report: 03 Greedo has been denied parole. He won't be eligible again until next June.
A tragic & punitive decision that highlights how evil our criminal justice system is. One of the most gifted artists of his generation is losing his life over a drug charge
#Free03
RIP Scratch Perry, the Black Ark Noah, who warped reggae into mad science, brought the country to Kingston, mountains, earth, & trees reimagined, herb exhaled onto the console to alchemize funky sci-fi dub. Greatest producer of all-time (any genre). Who upset time, space, sound.
I went to Venice Beach to pay a visit to the new blue pharaoh of the flute, Andre 3000.
We talked about rap and woodwinds and Outkast and aging and ayahuasca and whatever else exists.