I can’t help but to groove: Bas at The Fillmore Catherine Li March 19, 2024 San Francisco, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Previews, Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, R&B, Rap, Reviews A Sudanese-American rapper born in France, Bas or Abbas Hamad born May 27, 1987, is a star in the rap world. With mentorship from world renowned rapper, J. Cole, and fellowship with Dreamville Records, Bas has ...
93 ‘til Infinity: Bay Area hip hop and punk rock revolutions in 1993 Katie Hulse March 6, 2024 Berkeley, Local, Music History, Oakland, Punk, Rap, Rock, San Francisco, Uncategorized I was in my friend's car stumbling along the landscape when “93 ‘til Infinity" by Souls of Mischief trinkled out of the speakers and changed the way that I think about hip hop. Thirty years after its initia...
A Drug-Free Trip: Psychedelia & Hip-Hop at The Masonic with Lil Yachty’s The Field Trip Tour Harrison Peters November 5, 2023 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, music, Photos, Rap, Reviews, San Francisco As I walked the near vertical climb up Powell Street on my way to The Masonic, I couldn’t help but wonder what to expect from this concert. After releasing his 2023 project “Let’s Start Here.”, Lil Ya...
From the Bayou to Big Ben: exploring ‘Drive Home’ and beyond with Portraits Of Tracy Harrison Peters October 21, 2023 indie-pop, Interview, LGBTQ+, music, Rap 19-year-old self-taught producer, singer-rapper, and multi-instrumentalist Portraits Of Tracy from Baton Rouge, Louisiana released her new project, Drive Home, this past May 26th, 2023. Dubbed an “audio n...
Listener’s delight: the sensory feast of rap music Anna Linn February 20, 2023 Black Culture, Columns and Opinions, Opinion, Rap 1 Comment When asked how rap music makes you feel, a few things probably come to mind. You might remember your heart rate rising or your mind speeding up against the rapid beat. Whether it’s at a concert among the wild...
JID for Beginners: A Song Menu Yara Choeb November 21, 2022 Opinion, Rap Born and raised in East Atlanta, Destin Route, otherwise known as JID, made a name for himself as a rapper in 2017. Though some know him exclusively for his affiliation with Dreamville Records, others know him ...
A New Era: Jean Dawson Sells Out The New Parish Leah Johnson November 21, 2022 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, Jean Dawson, music, Oakland, Reviews Watching Jean Dawson perform is like witnessing a fish swim underwater. In the crowd at an intimate Oakland venue I felt both the tumultuous waves starting in the pit and the serenity of seeing a...
Naegaz in Paris: How Black Culture Created K-pop Saida Dahir May 12, 2022 Black Culture, K-pop, Opinion In 2015, I stumbled across a YouTube video that would inadvertently alter my consumption of pop music for years to come. After randomly browsing videos for hours, the YouTube algorithm directed me to a new tren...
Rap Music and Rebellion: From Highschool Detention to the Grammys Saida Dahir April 27, 2022 Black Culture, Columns and Opinions, Opinion A rapper's biggest enemy is their K-12 teachers— or so many rap songs like to portray. From Biggie’s “to all the teachers that told me I'd never amount to nothin'” and Juice Wrld’s “I remember ...
“I know this song from TikTok” – an empowering night with Baby Tate Riley Collins March 31, 2022 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Previews 1 Comment The unexpected rain created a sense of urgency as fans rushed to get inside Oakland's Fox Theater on March 27th; shelter-seekers became indistinguishable from those clamoring to hear Baby Tate open for Charli X...
The Marriage of Dream Pop and Hip-Hop Ally Flygare December 15, 2021 Columns and Opinions, Creative Writing, Multimedia It is of no surprise that hip-hop is one of the broadest genres in music. Foundational to the vastness of its modern sound is the use of sampling, which in short is characterized by isolating the drum beat, cho...
The Serious Star Potential of 99 Neighbors Joe Sison November 21, 2021 Concerts, Festivals, and Live Reviews, News, Photos If I may, I’d like to be honest with you. Prior to two weeks ago, I hadn’t heard about 99 Neighbors. I hadn’t listened to a single song, was not struck by familiarity by any of the members’ names, nor c...
A Miserable Apocalypse: Injury Reserve’s By The Time I Get to Phoenix Alton Sturgis November 18, 2021 Album Review By the Time I Get to Phoenix (2021) is the newest release from Injury Reserve, an Arizona-based experimental hip-hop group. Their first mixtape, Live From The Dentists Office (2015), broke waves as one of the d...
Spotify Blend: Sweet Dreams Really are Made of Nightmares Jax Samsell October 23, 2021 Creative Writing, Uncategorized Spotify Blend is the newest feature on Spotify. It syncs your music taste with whoever you send the Spotify blend link to and generates a playlist with similar songs you each would like. It has a song compatibi...
13 spooky songs to serenade your soul this season Piper Samuels October 20, 2021 Blog, Mixtapes, Uncategorized The season of the supernatural is upon us, and it’s been a long time coming. Thou who shall not be named (hint: rhymes with “shmaronavirus”) hindered our chances of celebrating last October’s divine dar...