Posted by D.L. Chandler on 05/06/2008 3:17 PM Since 1995, Anthony “AZ” Cruz has employed one of Hip Hop’s most impressive flows and has amassed a catalogue of material worthy of praise amongst fans and critics alike. With moderate success over the span of his career, AZ has gone from major to the minor while never losing his formidable lyrical abilities. With his latest studio album, Undeniable, AZ delivers another solid and lyrically sharp product.
Posted by Jeff Harvey on 05/06/2008 3:11 PM Taiyo Na has been a fixture on New York City’s theatre and spoken word scene since his teens, but is just now making his debut as a recording artist. With Love is Growth, the singer/song writer/MC establishes himself as a multidimensional talent with a unique creative voice that fuses the rhythms of the city that raised him with the soul of the Asian immigrant culture that birthed him.
Posted by Dale Coachman on 05/01/2008 4:29 PM It’s hard being the middle kid in a family of three and or a million, you never receive the love like a first born, and you never get spoiled like the baby of the family. Kidz in the Hall have been blessed and cursed with that positioning on hip-hop’s timeline. Never being credited with really being the first to bring that new wave of independent and solid music back to...
Posted by Adrian Ruhi on 05/01/2008 4:26 PM Throughout a 25-year career, ten studio albums, and seven massive world tours, Madonna was the trendsetter who defined popular music and dance music aesthetics, paving the way, for better or for worse, for the Britneys of the world. But on her eleventh opus, Madonna decides to step down as the female MJ and plays submissive to the two of the hip-hop world’s best pop producers: Timbaland and Pharrell Williams. The...
Posted by Jeff Artist on 05/01/2008 4:23 PM Ever since Multiply, Jamie Lidell’s occupied a prominent spot atop my “If I Had To Be Another White Guy” list. The kid’s ridiculous. He wears a gold cape on stage and dances like an epileptic tribesman. His influences are disparate but solid; think Amon Tobin meets Lou Rawls meets a black MJ when Quincy Jones still had his back. But while his 2005 breakout release found him straddling post-industrial electro,...
Posted by Justin Deremo on 05/01/2008 4:20 PM Mike Relm extends turntablism beyond music and into image, manipulating audio and film in a manner consistent with the concept of “multi-media artist.” The nature of this work might lend itself best to a live experience, but DVDs such as Relm’s new Clown Alley In 3D can at least begin to compensate for the prohibitive ticket prices of the Blue Man Group show for which he has been opening....
