Yeah, but there was some great stuff on his early tapes. This, for instance: https://www.youtube.com/wat…

I remember seeing Freddie Gibbs play at a tiny little club in Echo Park years ago. There were maybe two dozen people there at most, mostly dorky white rap nerds like myself. Considering the number of rappers I've seen half-ass shows that are 10 times as big, I was expecting the worst. Instead, Gibbs put in an…

Oh man, I remember the year that SXSW, St. Paddy's Day, and the U of Texas' spring break all coincided. Jesus. I mean, I attended a large state university with a party reputation, I've been to New Orleans, I've been to Vegas on NYE, and I was once accidentally caught up in a violent South American street protest, but…

That would probably be the point in my career at which my hard drug use would cease to be "recreational."

I agree. But my god man, isn't there a point at which you stop and say, "maybe this is crossing some sort of Rubicon of shamelessness beyond which I can never return?" If I were a pop star, would I sell my songs to car commercials for money? As much as I could. Would I go on branded tours? Yes. Would I sign up for…

As a former punk turned total sellout, I've developed a pretty high tolerance for this sort of bullshit. "Fight the Power" in a commercial for Powerade? Bound to happen. "An Evening With Steve Reich" at the BitCoin Theater presented by Mitsubishi? Hey, times are tough. TSOL's "Code Blue" in a mortuary ad? At least…

This is pretty hysterical, and describes several games that sound far more fun than Fable III.

I’m glad someone else said this, because I kept feeling like a dick for thinking it. As a onetime member of a go-nowhere band, I can think of few things more heartwarming that seeing a musician experience sudden fame after years of obscurity. I was legitimately touched by Rodriguez’s story, and genuinely happy to see…

I love that he's still doing interview like this. Love everything about it.

It's the nature of the beast, and it's not that hard to understand. These covers are planned out months in advance, but there's always the possibility that real life will interfere — if PSH dies, or 9/11 happens, or Tom Hanks gets arrested for murder, no halfway legitimate culture magazine would want to ignore it or…

I love the "salvage my story and my photos line." Very common attitude among celebrities, who really don't understand the way journalism — even the slavish fawning that characterizes journalism's glossiest, most celebrity-obsessed offshoots — works. It's like,Drake, dude, you voluntarily sat down for an interview and…

Years ago, I went to a screening of Kanye’s long “Runaway” video in LA. He wasn’t scheduled to be there, but he just randomly showed up right as the lights went down and took a seat right next to me in the very back row. For about 15 minutes, true to Aziz Ansari’s accounts, he was bouncing up and down in his seat like…

At least "Blood on the Tracks" got a Grammy…for best album notes. Which really was the standout element of that particular release.

In 2007. A nearly 40-year-old song recorded live 6 years ago is one of the 5 best rock songs of 2013.

Agree on your first point. Jay-Z never made a classic, but he made four really good records spread across a decent period of time, which is probably a lot rarer than the rappers who drop a stone-cold classic and spend the rest of their increasingly frustrating careers trying to live up to it.

Disagree, but of the four records he calls "classic" here, that's definitely the one that sounds most tied to the trends of its time and place. It's a really good late-90s rap record, whereas the other three are just unqualified "really good rap records."

This is a good point. I've seen Jay live 3 times over a 7-year span, and never heard a single cut from what he consistently calls his best album. I guess that's Jay in a nutshell - has decent taste and judgment, yet frequently chooses to ignore it.

Beguiling is the right word. I confess I found parts of the movie incredibly frustrating, and sometimes almost boring, even if it's also pretty clear that that's the point. At times the film almost seems to go out of its way to avoid making its subjects seem too exciting — and the performance footage definitely tends…

So glad I haven't actually heard anyone saying that in person. The police would eventually need to drop by.

Perfectly said.