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Sound of the City: Interviews
03/12/2015 By Tara Mahadevan
Protoje — née Oje Ken Ollivierre — isn't supposed to be here, or at least that's what he says. The Jamaica native grew up in the western parish of St. Elizabeth, a small country...
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Voice Choices:
With associates like Odd Future and Mac Miller, fellow Californian Vince Staples was bound to make it. The young emcee signed to Def Jam last year, a move he covertly announced on the liner...
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Voice Choices:
After releasing their first EP Wiki93 in 2012, Ratking took an almost-two-year hiatus to work on and release their 2014 debut album So It Goes. Comprised of members Wiki, Hak and Sporting...
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Voice Choices:
Hot 97 Who’s Next Live is a showcase designed to give shine to some of the more encouraging independent rappers from in and around New York. Hosted by Hip-Hop “purist”...
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Voice Choices:
One of the hemisphere's smartest feminist voices, Aterciopelados co-founder Andrea Echeverri has plumbed the mysteries of love, motherhood, environmentalism, and injustice on three solo...
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Voice Choices:
Sevyn Streeter’s “It Won’t Stop” sounded like a hit since its May release. A song dedicated to the feeling of being in love and the man she’s loving, it had a...
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Voice Choices:
Tropical bass monthly Que Bajo!? is going to be popping regardless of guest, but it sure doesn’t hurt that their first party of the new year flew in Lady Leshurr from the U.K. and...
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Sound of the City: Keith Murray
02/26/2014 By Chaz Kangas
Tonight, the Green-Eyed Bandit returns as Keith Murray takes the stage at S.O.B.'s! The Def Squad member, known for hits such as "The Most Beautifullest Thing in This World" and his...
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Sound of the City: Listings
01/20/2014 By Brittany Spanos
For more shows throughout the week, check out our New York Concert Calendar, which we update daily.Monday, 1/20:
Whitney Houston Jukebox Musical
Cameo Gallery
8:00 p.m., $10
As far as we...
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Sound of the City: Weekend
01/17/2014 By Brittany Spanos
For more shows throughout the weekend, check out our New York Concert Calendar, which we update daily.Friday, 1/17:
Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires
Bowery Ballroom
9:00 p.m.,...
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Voice Choices:
A couple of years ago, when we caught up with L.A.’s Ty Dolla $ign (then styled “Ty$”) while working on a story about his city’s minimalist, post-jerk, post-hyphy...
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Voice Choices:
Talib Kweli returns to form on December’s internet-only Gravitas, his second full-length of 2013. Whereas May’s Prisoner of Conscious featured his standard array of...
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Voice Choices:
Since forming in 1998, a year after the death of Nigerian afrobeat creator Fela Kuti, Brooklyn-based 12-piece Antibalas has built on the sound's elastic formal perfection, polyphonic...
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Sound of the City: Listings
12/23/2013 By Brittany Spanos
For more shows throughout the week, check out our New York Concert Calendar, which we update daily.Monday, 12/23:
Mack Wilds
S.O.B.'s
9:00 p.m., $10
After growing up on Staten Island and...
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Voice Choices:
After growing up on Staten Island and attending the borough’s Michael J. Petrides School, Tristan Wilds quickly went from being Cold Case and Law & Order bit player to student in Ryan...
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Sound of the City: Listings
12/09/2013 By Brittany Spanos
For more shows throughout the week, check out our New York Concert Calendar, which we update daily.Monday, 12/9:
Motor City Dance Party
Cameo Gallery
7:00 p.m., $20
For those looking to...
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Voice Choices:
In the last ten years Natalia Lafourcade’s sound has evolved from the energetic mix of bossa nova guitars and lite-house beats of her self-titled 2003 debut to 2009’s Hu Hu Hu,...
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Sound of the City: Listings
11/18/2013 By Brittany Spanos
For more shows throughout the week, check out our New York Concert Calendar, which we update daily.Monday, 11/18:
Nightmares on Wax
Bowery Ballroom
9:00 p.m., $20
Since coming up in the...
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Voice Choices:
Roy Ayers is one of those musicians' musicans who inspired Erykah Badu, D'Angelo, and Dr. Dre, but also has equal respect from jazz luminaries such as Robert Glasper, Christian McBride, and...
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Runnin' Scared: Events
11/01/2013 By Araceli Cruz
Spooky celebrations aren't over, not by a long shot. Day of the Dead festivities run today through Sunday, which means fiestas all weekend long. But if you're not interested in honoring the...
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Sound of the City: Listings
10/28/2013 By Brittany Spanos
For more shows throughout the week, check out our New York Concert Calendar, which we update daily.Monday, 10/28:
Drake + Miguel + Future
Barclays Center
7:00 p.m., $79.75-$109.75
Bad news,...
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Voice Choices:
Starting with the sunny, Sunday-morning harmonies that open “Good Ass Intro”, Chance the Rapper’s April mixtape, Acid Rap, is a striking accord of feel-good, neo-soul...
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Voice Choices:
A Krewe show usually opens with a percussive introduction; gradually picks up velocity as more surf, jazz, dub, and hip-hop ideas are stirred into the mix; and ultimately climaxes in a...
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Voice Choices:
Kobo Town is Drew Gonsalves, a Trinidadian-Canadian raised in Port-of-Spain, calypso's birthplace. Better than Fox or CNN, "calypso don't pretend/ To inform without comment/ Or separate fact...
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Sound of the City: Listings
07/01/2013 By Brittany Spanos
For more shows throughout the week, check out our New York Concert Calendar, which is updated daily.Tuesday, 7/2:
The Garifuna Collective and Danny Michel
Highline Ballroom
8pm,...
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Voice Choices:
Two decades ago, a quartet of high-school friends from Oakland released its debut album, the long-sighted '93 'til Infinity, and its chill lyrics and sparse production helped make it a...
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Voice Choices:
Chance the Rapper’s first mixtape, 10 Day, was named for the length of the high school suspension that kickstarted his rap career, the second, Acid Rap, for the twisted beats and...
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Sound of the City: Live
06/17/2013 By Brittany Spanos
For more shows throughout the week, check out our New York Concert Calendar, which is updated daily.Tuesday, 6/18:
The Roots + Jim James
Prospect Park Bandshell
7pm, $41
Jim James dialed...
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Sound of the City: Weekend
06/07/2013 By Brittany Spanos
For more shows throughout the weekend, check out our New York Concert Calendar, which we update daily.Erykah Badu
BAM, Peter Jay Sharp Building
Saturday & Sunday, 7:30pm, $35
Neo-soul was no...
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Voice Choices:
Chance the Rapper's technicolor dreamcoat mixtape Acid Rap has taken 2013 by storm, pushing the artist from cult adoration in his native Chicago to out and out national fame: Despite its...
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Voice Choices:
As anyone who's watched his videos can attest, Bilal Sayeed Oliver is not destined for motion-picture stardom: telegenic, he ain't. But put this Philadelphian singer in a studio and he'll...
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Voice Choices:
The 29 year-old Fiona hasn't released a studio album since last year's The MF Life, a bluesy, blistering testament to love conquering all in the face of despair. Tonight, she tones down the...
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Voice Choices:
By the end of 2012, French Montana had emerged as a quintessential figure of the reigning rap vogue, riding high on the (post-Coke) wave of his appearances on last year’s most...
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Voice Choices:
Pretty boys Raka Rich and Raka Dun of the Bay Area group Los Rakas dish out Panamanian hyphy generously topped with the duo's molasses flow. Their most defining single, “Soy...
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Voice Choices:
When entering S.O.B.’s tonight, it might be best to follow the instructions Stasia Irons of THEESatisfaction lays out in “QueenS”: “Turn off your swag and check your...
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Voice Choices:
Just as Ca$h Out’s “Cashin’ Out” was the breakout Atlanta rap single of the first half of 2012, Trinidad James’s “All Gold Everything” ruled the...
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Voice Choices:
Last time we checked in on Dawn Richard, the former Danity Kane frontwoman had booked an S.O.B.’s show to celebrate the release of her debut solo LP, Goldenheart. Unfortunately for...
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Voice Choices:
The latest musician bequeathed with the task of bridging jazz and hip-hop, pianist Robert Glasper fits much tighter with the neo-soul crowd on his newest LP, Black Radio. Although Yasiin...
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Sound of the City: Listings
12/31/2012 By Brian McManus
These are the 10 best concerts in NYC this week.Coldplay + Jay-Z
Mon., Dec. 31. 7pm. Barclays Center. $59.15-$495. (LOL)
When Coldplay released the piano ballad "The Scientist" as the second...
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Voice Choices:
12/26/2012 By
With his Smoker's Club revue, this New Orleans rapper and has brought friends and fellow marijuana connoisseurs like Big K.R.I.T., Method Man, Fiend, Mac Miller, and the aptly named Smoke...
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Voice Choices:
We’ve always known Philadelphia transplant Questlove was a talented drummer—beyond his work with the Roots, he had a role on D’Angelo’s neo-soul masterpiece Voodoo,...
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Voice Choices:
Together, Flatbush Zombies, a pair of Brooklyn weirdos devoted to soft drugs and tight rhymes, and Bodega Bamz, the Spanish Harlem rapper whose October mixtape, Strictly 4 My P.A.P.I.Z.,...
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Sound of the City: CMJ
10/18/2012 By Tom Cowell
By all means, enjoy the whispy waifs warbling their sensitive indie ballads up and down the city during CMJ. But make time for some hip-hop while you do. Here are a few acts worth your...
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Voice Choices:
Fans of MTV’s Making the Band 3 will
remember Dawn Richard for her role in Diddy-selected female supergroup Danity Kane, the voices behind such r&b; classics as “Ride for...
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Sound of the City: Last Night
09/05/2012 By Jeff Rosenthal
Joe Budden
S.O.B.'s
Tuesday, September 4
Better than: The second-best sex ever, apparently.
Joe Budden's lyrics are a minefield of emotions, bringing skeletons out of the closets and into...
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Sound of the City: Interviews
08/28/2012 By Devon Maloney
It's harder than it looks to sit down and break burritos with Angel Haze.
The plan, originally, was simple: Invite the New York-based (but not native) rapper, whose recent signing to...
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Sound of the City: Last Night
08/17/2012 By Jayson Greene
Beanie Sigel
S.O.B.'s
Thursday, August 16
Better than: The Beanie Sigel show I attempted to see in 2006, purportedly with a "live funk band," that was canceled due to something referred to...
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Voice Choices:
Mexican-American drummer Francisco Mora-Catlett has been gigging around with the third incarnation of the rich Latin-jazz concoction that emerged out of his '70s stint in Sun Ra's Arkestra....
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Voice Choices:
The South African producer-bandleader has evolved from intriguing M.I.A.-inspired rapper to experimental rap-rocker. In between his 2009 debut, Mshini Wam, and his terrific recent Father...
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Voice Choices:
Starting a dozen years ago as a side project of ska group La Floripondio, little big band Chico Trujillo has evolved into Chile's most ambitious party concoction. Bumptious horns, twangy...
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Voice Choices:
Even if you’ve never heard of ratchet music, the rap-production style associated with L.A.’s DJ “Dijon McFarlane” Mustard, you’ve probably heard “Rack...
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Voice Choices:
The gruff-voiced Mississippi MC has a new one due out May 22 that he’s selling through his website for a suggested donation of $1. But if Banner’s business is going indie, the...
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Voice Choices:
Most know Mystikal from 2000—the year when his "Shake That Ass" followed Juvenile's "Back That Azz Up" on the charts and out of the speakers at clubs, parties, and barbecues across the...
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Voice Choices:
With his five Cash Money records, Juvenile established himself as one of the best ever to do it, finishing Mannie Fresh beats with inventive flows that brought azzes to the dancefloor while...
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Voice Choices:
In 2009, two EPs—the first self-titled, the second Of Light—primed Planet Earth for Shabazz Palaces, an interstellar avant-rap duo led by Ishmael Butler, the man once known as...
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Voice Choices:
Still establishing his voice three mixtapes inis he a moralist, a hedonist, or a knowing parodist of both?L.A. rapper Schoolboy Q is a compelling presence nonetheless. There's a...
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Voice Choices:
For the last 15 years, DJ Rekha’s Basement Bhangra party has exposed the city to the South Asian dance music and in turn exposed artists such as Punjabi MC and M.I.A. to the city,...
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Voice Choices:
The alter ego of Chilean telenova star Celine Remond, Kali Mutsa ("black cat" in Romany) blends Bollywood spectacle, Gypsy bravado, and electronic cumbia into a colorful package. Her clever...
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Voice Choices:
This week, singer/songwriter/producer/critical darling Terius Nash comes to S.O.B.’s for two shows: Tonight, he performs as The-Dream, the stage name under which he released the...
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Voice Choices:
Tonight was supposed to be the launch party for the new record by heavily political English-Iraqi rapper Lowkey (sample lyric: “I’m not anti-American, America is anti-me”),...
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Voice Choices:
You might know 2 Chainz as one half of Playaz Circle, the Georgia duo from the Lil Wayne–assisted “Duffle Bag Boy.” Or you might know him as Tity Boi, the solo artist...
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Voice Choices:
Besides Gil-Scott Heron, vibraphonist Roy Ayers is a key link between jazz, R&B;, and hip-hop. Jazz fusion might have been a ‘70s fad, but Ayers was one of the few who elevated it to...
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Voice Choices:
NBC’s least-favorite band leader, the Roots’ drummer and DJ ?uestlove, who turns 41 this month, became one of 2011's most notable rabble-rousers when he picked Fishbone’s...
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Voice Choices:
Tonight’s co-headliners Joe Budden and Joell Ortiz were busy in early 2011, releasing a new EP with their hip-hop supergroup, Slaughterhouse, but both have kept a relatively low...
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Voice Choices:
With the plinky “Hold You,” Gyptian topped the Jamaican Dancehall charts for two hot weeks in the summer of 2010, but New York lovers didn’t start rocking to its swooping...
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Voice Choices:
Despite vocal dexterity, a twangy flow, and a willingness to leapfrog onto posse cuts, Q-rating elevation has proved difficult for Pill. While the Atlanta native born Tyrone Rivers has come...
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Voice Choices:
It was 38 years ago this week when Bronx gang/youth group (depending on your politics) Universal Zulu Nation coalesced under the leadership of future hip-hop godfather Afrika Bambaataa....
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Voice Choices:
This might be cocky, but its real, so fuck it, Im-a say it, Syleena Johnson declares on her new one, right before a chorus of back-up singers chime in on the hook:...
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Voice Choices:
With Parisian r&b; sibling duo Les Nubians, notorious Brooklyn street prophet Saigon, and underground African diaspora emissary Hasan Salaam headlining, this year's gathering of socially...
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