Music
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 [...]
New Music Videos from Rafael Casal & Daveed Diggs of The Getback!
March 29th, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Music
The Getback is back with some propane. First up, Daveed Diggs released the visuals for “Fresh From The Hood,” the first music video from his dynamic debut album, Small Things To A Giant. The track acts as both an exploration and declaration of Diggs’s [...]
Too $hort & Dereca Blackmon Face Off On Misogyny in Hip-Hop
March 22nd, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Events, Featured, Music
Photo and Story by Pendarvis Harshaw for 38th Notes Todd “Too $hort” Shaw sat in the seat of the City Clerk in Oakland’s City Hall’s third floor chamber on the evening of March 14th, 2012. The room reeked of regality. Big decisions were made [...]
Music Video: Mara Hruby: “Character”
March 18th, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Music
Photo by Fred Shavies “Who are you when heavy weather is blowing? Where is your character?” Mara Hruby sings on her cover of Van Hunt’s “Character.” It’s a cut off Ms. Hruby’s debut cover project, From Her Eyes. The song explores the way we move through [...]
1-O.A.K.’s Debut Album, Special Request, is a Classic
March 11th, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Mixtape Reviews, Music
The Honor Roll’s freshman crooner has made his official debut, and it was well worth the wait! Special Request is well rounded, eclectic and expertly executed. Sonically, there is electro influence, soul samples, new school funk, Brazilian flavor, boom [...]
Music You Should Download: Rafael Casal’s Mean Ones LP
March 4th, 2012 | by niema | published in Featured, Mixtape Reviews, Music
“Mediocre is a part of our culture,” Rafael Casal riffs on the title song for his solo project, Mean Ones. But one listen to the LP and it’s clear that the Bay Area raised, Los Angeles based MC’s tracks are far from pedestrian. The Bay Boy enlisted The [...]
Video: Oakland’s Wallpaper on Jimmy Kimmel Live
March 3rd, 2012 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, Music
On Wednesday night, Oakland party machine Wallpaper, fronted by the raucous and mysterious Ricky Reed, treated a national television audience to a mannish performance of their hit single “#STUPiDFACEDD” and “FUCKING BEST SONG EVERRR” (Yes, they’re spelled [...]
