Featured
Youth Speaks Bay Area Poetry Slam Finals on Friday!
April 27th, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Art, Events, Featured
Any time I see young people performing poetry or hear anything about local literary arts organization Youth Speaks, I get a bit nostalgic. For most of my high school years I was in writing workshops or rocking stages with a power I didn’t know I had: [...]
What Does Hologram Tupac Mean for The Music Industry?
April 25th, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, History, Music
When Pac was first resurrected on the Coachella stage 2 weeks ago, it sent the internet into a frenzy. The first response was awe, despite how viewers came to feel in the aftermath of the event. But the second thought for me and many others was, how [...]
Cipher: The Bay’s GetBack Crew & Inglewood’s WoodWorks Fam
April 25th, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Music
The Bay and LA have traditionally been thought of as rivals, but in recent years, there has been a lot of cross-pollination between the two. Bay Area artists have long migrated to LA for increased exposure, but there’s also been genuine collaboration [...]
Mister Nice Guy, Eric Roberson, Performing at Oakland’s The New Parish
April 21st, 2012 | by niema | published in Events, Featured, Music
Eric Roberson knows his way around the independent music scene. The singer/songwriter has moved fans for years through his soulful storytelling and interactive live shows. From describing the more complicated aspects of relationships to freestyling [...]
Music Video: YMTK ft. Big Steve: “Murphy Pan”
April 21st, 2012 | by niema | published in Featured, Music
“I’m young, and I’m fly, and I don’t want to grow up,” Young Murph The Kidd (YMTMK) exclaims on his latest track “Murphy Pan,” featuring Big Steve. It’s a sentiment a number of 20/30-somethings can relate to, even if it’s only for the weekend. I’m [...]
Video: Locksmith, 5 Fingers of Death on Sway in The Morning
April 21st, 2012 | by niema | published in Featured, Music
Once upon a time, Saturday mornings were about Fruity Pebbles and cartoons. Now, they are about strong cups of coffee and catching up on blogs. Today, I was quite excited to see that The Smoking Section had posted a video of Locksmith’s “5 Fingers [...]
PJ Morton Signs to Young Money, Follows His First Mind and Plays Yoshi’s Oakland
April 16th, 2012 | by niema | published in Events, Featured, Music
A couple of weeks ago, PJ Morton released Following My First Mind. My first response: Yes! My second response: Wait, he’s with Young Money? I quickly downloaded the EP to see if he was still my PJ. There are a bunch of folks who got put on to PJ once [...]
Music Video: Mistah FAB & Blast Holiday: “Dear God”
April 13th, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Music
How does one live righteous in an evil world? This is a common struggle for oppressed populations from impoverished American hoods to war torn third world countries. When you grow up in the belly of the beast, survival instincts kick in by necessity, [...]
The Park’s Nate Mercereau Brings The Twang
April 11th, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Mixtape Reviews, Music
$1,000,000 Worth of Twang is a brooding country opus from guitarist Nate Mercereau of Bay Area band, The Park. The instrumental themes were recorded in Mercereau’s bedroom and mixed in SF, but they might just as well have been recorded in a ghost town [...]
Video: “You Can Give All My Grammys to Oakland” -2Pac
April 4th, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, History, Music
There is often much debate about where 2Pac is “from.” This has been a hard thing to pin down because he was born in New York, raised in Baltimore and Marin City, came up in Oakland, and called LA home. All of these cities have their righteous claim to [...]
E-40 & Busta Rhymes are Muppet Macks in Funny Or Die’s new “Bitches” video
April 3rd, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Music
This song was just a run of the mill stripper/pimp anthem until E-40, Busta Rhymes and co. took the form of muppets for the video. A muppet pimp anthem is like a nun twerk video, so wrong, but so amazing. In Funny Or Die’s new video, Busta Rhymes, E-40, [...]
Music Video: Goapele: “Tears On My Pillow”
March 31st, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Music
“I finally understand how you can love some one and leave them,” Goapele confesses to start “Tears On My Pillow.” It’s been a sobering realization for all of us who have come to that fork in the road. That realization does not always result in a clean [...]
