Ellen Albertini Dow, the only reason to watch The Wedding Singer more than 10 times a year has laid down her last sick rhyme. The actress, who appeared on every show you’ve ever seen —including The Golden Girls, Hannah Montana, and Scrubs — died yesterday at age 101. She leaves behind not only the best performance in…
In case you missed the 13 million tweets (and probably texts) reminding you, yesterday was 420. For the occasion of the holiday of our lord (Lord von Weedman), one of the world’s most dedicated herbalists announced his candidacy for president. That man is Waka Flocka Flame.
Last Saturday's edition of the New York Times featured a profile of the Atlanta rapper and singer ILoveMakonnen, who has become an unlikely budding star of sorts thanks to his off-kilter club jam "Tuesday." All the way down in the 24th paragraph of the story is a revelation that could count as a landmark moment for…
The intimacy of a home movie is unreplicable and, viewed in retrospect, home movies are as telling as any diary entry. (This is why they are used as an easy flashback device for so many movies about dramatic familial interchange and/or horrors.) They're a microscope where the nuances of boring, day-to-day living…
In the lyric pamphlet to Black Messiah, D'Angelo's third album after 14 years away from the spotlight, the soul-savant explains his reasoning behind its title and sudden release: "Some will jump to the conclusion that I am calling myself a Black Messiah," he begins. "For me the title is about all of us...It's about…
Iggy Azalea did not win a Grammy as expected, rendering moot the irate Tumblr screed I wrote ahead of time like the Times prepares obits in advance, just in case. Iggy Azalea is now trying to convince us that she didn't even want the stupid Grammy, because "people already hate me enough." Well, true, but... we don't…
The genre known as Baltimore club music remains one of America's greatest cultural inventions, thank you Baltimore for that, and B'more rapper TT the Artist is a key part of its freshest, most recent incarnation. In " Thug It Out," from the Art Royalty EP, she lobs bullet-powerful lyrics with the authority of a don…
I felt an inexplicable feeling of blatant AzNxPrYdE the first time I saw the ad for Fresh Off the Boat in the Nassau Ave train station. It's like when Australian dudes literally shart after their country wins an international cricket match. It felt like a win for "us." It made me feel proud. I really wasn't sure how…
Big Momma is a deeply talented firecracker of a native Floridian who raps like his life depends upon it, and ours. "Dentata," from his excellent 2014 release The Plague, is a message to all the hot boyz out there that his toothy vagine is gonna snap on dat, and it will not be one bit unpleasant. You can relate, no?
Ricky Rozay decided that a good thing to do just before he turns 39 later this month was to get seven new face tattoos to add to the one already on his lower lip. That is all fine. The thing I have questions about is that, among his crown, crosses, and Maybach Music tats he has also inked the logo for Cazal, the…
Malia Obama, Known Teen, has been up to her USUAL SHIT: a selfie of the eldest Obama daughter wearing a Pro Era tee has surfaced (Gawker has more details about the photo's origins here), and everybody is mostly like, "good for Joey Bada$$."
Australian actress and aspiring rapper Abbie Cornish, famous for roles in the Robocop reboot and Sucker Punch, has reportedly landed a spot performing with Nas.
Dej Loaf made it into the TV circuit on The Tonight Show last night, one of the few woman rappers right now to do so. Backed by the Roots, the charismatic Detroit rapper worked the stage with confidence while wearing a Coogi cardigan, although her breakout single was a bit neutered in its clean incarnation. Still,…
Drake is the type of artist whose technical abilities make a noticeable jump with every release. When in late October he dropped three new tracks, a few members of Jezebel staff noted that Drake was sounding like a properly impressive R&B vocalist: comparing "Days In The East" to 2009's "Best I Ever Had," for example,…
Here is some mind-blowing news to round out your evening: In 2010, Zosia Mamet wanted to be a rapper.
In the late '00s, Bronx bruiser Remy Ma was on track to be rap queen of New York, but in 2008 she was sentenced to eight years in prison for shooting her friend in the stomach. (She thought said friend had stolen $3000 from her purse. The friend survived, but it was obviously a very ugly incident.) Remy was released…
A bearded Daniel Radcliffe appeared on The Tonight Show Tuesday night and revealed to Jimmy Fallon that he loves rap: "I think I was the first kid in my class to learn 'The Real Slim Shady,'" he said, adding that, "I've always had kind of an obsession with memorizing complicated, lyrically intricate and fast songs, I…
Drake dropped three songs about chicks this weekend, because what else does he rap about? Wines he thinks we’ve never heard of, his “team” and women who don’t give him the attention he deserves. Ugh, it’s so hard being one of the biggest rappers in the world.
"Try Me," the lead single by Detroit rapper Dej Loaf, has enjoyed a protracted underground hit status that shows no signs of slowing—its key factor being Dej's take on tenderly explaining to a dude how she's gonna murk his ass.
Ladies, I have a message to share with you: PASS ME A DRINK, I'M IMPORTANT. Meet Mz. 007, a St. Louis, Mo. rapper with today's self-love lesson that even Iyanla Vanzant could learn from, and then say "Preach beloved!"
