Thirteen years ago, the alternative hip-hop group Deltron 3030, composed of rapper Del The Funky Homosapien, producer Dan “The Automator” Nakamura and DJ/turntablist Kid Koala, released their self-titled debut, a forward-thinking hip-hopera concept album set in the dystopian future of 3030 as the hero Deltron Zero rebels against the evil suppression of the new corporate […]
On the strength of the previously released “Word Is Bond,” “95 Til Infinity” and “Unorthdox,” 18-year-old Brooklyn rapper Joey Bada$$ continues to impress with his new mixtape “Summer Knights.” To say he possesses “the gift of gab” does little to sum up the talent and effortless flow Joey holds, as he constantly weaves rhymes full […]
Minneapolis, MN’s Dessa is a wordsmith whose pursuits include spoken word, creative non-fiction, and hip-hop. A part of the Doomtree collective, as well as on the Doomtree label, she was the valedictorian of her high school, Minneapolis Southwest, and graduated college with honors a year early with a degree in philosophy. It shows in the […]
For his second album “Watching Movies With The Sound Off,” out this week on Rostrum Records, Mac Miller brought in production assistance from the likes of Pharrell Williams, Diplo, Clams Casino, Earl Sweatshirt, Flying Lotus and The Alchemist. The Pittsburgh rapper also produced a third of the album himself, under his alias Larry Fisherman, including […]
Diverse L.A. producer-cum-rapper Jonwayne is readying his first non-instrumental mixtape as a wordsmith, “Marion Morrison.” The first track to appear is “Notes to Myself,” with the rapper giving himself just that, over a dusty and dreamy vintage J Dilla beat. His rhymes range from over-analytical and self-deprecating, to insightful and uplifting. He slaps himself with, […]
L.A.-based singer-songwriter-bassist Thundercat’s 2011 solo debut “The Golden Age of Apocalypse” was an inventive synthesis, co-produced by Flying Lotus on his Brainfeeder label, that blended jazz, pop, soul and experimental electronica. His sophomore effort, “Apocalypse,” out now digitally and July 9 on CD/LP, once again teams with FlyLo and further distorts genre lines with its […]
There is Michael Quattlebaum, he, a cross-dressing half-Jewish gay black man performance artist and poet; and there is Mykki Blanco, she, the fierce female acid punk rapper alter ego, who shows multiple sides of her persona on the eclectic eight-track EP, “‘Betty Rubble: The Initiation.” She has stated her four role models are GG Allin, […]
As they gear up for a summer festival tour (featuring a hologram Ol’ Dirty Bastard) and on the heels of their triumphant Coachella performances, the Wu-Tang Clan are back in the studio at work on a new project titled “A Better Tomorrow,” due out this fall to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their classic debut “Enter […]
[Buzz Bands LA today welcomes a new contributing writer, Andrew Veeder. He has flow too.] Last year, a 17-year-old kid from Brooklyn put out a new mixtape – but it sounded as if it’d been buried in a time capsule since his birth in 1995. Now eighteen, Joey Bada$$ is emerging as one of the […]
