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DRAKE: The Complete Interview
Posted in URB on Jun 15, 2009 at 7:23 PM

A lot has happened to Drake since URB interviewed the Lil Wayne protégé this past spring for our Next 100 issue. His track, "Best I Ever Had," hit number one on Billboards Hot Rap chart last week (and number 18 on the Hot 100 chart) making him the biggest new rapper so far this year. URB went back at grabbed the full transcript of our original interview with Drake, taken just a few months before he blew up:

URB: You said your family was from Memphis originally. Have you still got family over there? Do you spend time with them?

Drake: Yeah, I did spend time there when I was younger. My parents were divorced when I was very young so my father went back to Memphis. I was there at a very great time, a very influential time. Around the ages of like 12, 13, 14, 15 even, like right before I started doing DeGrassi, I was there sort of just soaking it all in. It was around the time when Memphis actually had a dope movement, before Kia Shine had that "Krispy" song, they were actually hailing Yo Gotti, Kink, and Skinny Pimp. The artists were just making real hard shit. You know, Ball and G, Three 6 was doing their thing. It was great. It was that real Houston feel where everybody was just riding around to Memphis shit. That's the one thing about the South that I love that I incorporate a lot into my music. It's just that feeling, that excitement when something new drops, just to support an artist. I really drew a lot of influence from being there when I was younger. I like the culture a lot. I mean it was hood, it was hood as fuck, being around Orange Mile and Peppertree apartments. My family's all over Memphis so I've seen a lot of it, but it was a great time to soak that all in. And having contracts in Toronto, Canada, which is very multi-cultural and very safe, it was cool, it gave me two perspectives.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW @ URB.COM

So Far Gone

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Coachella Digital - World First Digital Festival Magazine
Posted in In the magazine URB 134 on Mar 12, 2009 at 10:56 PM

Coachella has launched the debut issue of Coachella Digital, an online multi-media publication dedicated to the music and culture that feeds the annual Coachella Music Festival.

There's articles on My Bloody Valentine, Gang Gang Dance and Fatboy Slim, interactive polls and contest, video clips and more.

check it at www.coachelladigital.com

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On the Set w/ Evidence, Will.I.Am and Phonte
Posted in In the magazine URB 134 on Jan 16, 2009 at 9:27 PM

Evidence - Behind the Scenes "For Whom the Bell Tolls" -

URB caught Evidence and company during some downtime at the video shoot for "For Whom the Bell Tolls." Ev speaks on the taboo of gum chewing during interviews and what it's like to shoot a video for damn near every song off the Layover EP. Phonte discusses everything from his favorite exfoliators, to rising from the dead, to why he refuses to let a white girl play his wife, to why he doesn't like sports...then Ev becomes the filling in an Oreo...

More videos and music at URB.com

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4 new Prince Tunes
Posted in In the magazine URB 134 on Dec 19, 2008 at 6:50 PM

Minneapolis funk rebel Prince debuted four new tracks earlier today on Indie 103.1 slated to be on his upcoming album. Word has it that Prince is without a record label and wants nothing to do with record labels, so he’s meeting with people to figure out how to operate at his level without one. And according to Rolling Stone, Prince’s new album is finished, but he is looking for a non-record label medium in which to release it.

Below, Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times gives a track-by-track assessment of Prince's new ear candy.

Track 1, "Crimson and Clover/Wild Thing": The fact that the first sample was a well-worn cover wasn't too inspiring; did Prince really think he could best Joan Jett's definitive take on the Tommy James classic? But by going extremely Beatlesque, with a treated vocal evocative of John Lennon's on "I Am the Walrus" and a mix that moves from headphone to headphone in vintage stereophonic style, Prince claimed the chestnut for himself. The mash-up with the Troggs' greatest hit is probably a nod to Jimi Hendrix, who covered "Wild Thing" at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. This was Jonesy's favorite.

Track 2, "Colonized Mind": A dark funk-rock groove underpins this ballad, blending the sound of "Hotel California"-era Eagles with late-period Sly Stone. The lyrics harken back to Prince's own "Sign of the Times." He uses cyberspace metaphors to describe how people use their illusions to enslave themselves; it's prophecy in purple, with Prince reflecting on the evils of the world and posing faith in God as a solution. A couple of lines seem to advocate for the position that every child should have a mother and a father, reigniting the recent controversy about the singer's stance on gay marriage. Musically, the coolest part is the song's end, which features a palimpsest of guitar and vocal effects similar to cuts on Axl Rose's misunderstood epic "Chinese Democracy."

Track 3, "Wall of Berlin": Now this is what we love -- a good old-fashioned sexscapade. A cool, spare, jazzy arrangement sets up Prince's lyric about a chance encounter with a German fraulein. After years of trying, he's got his singsong rapping style down, and he has a ton of fun spinning out the double-entendres: "It's so fresh, knockin' down the Wall of Berlin." The most immediately striking track, and probably the one that will get the most enthusiastic reception from fans. Andre 3000 is gonna love it.

Track 4, "4Ever": The most characteristically "Prince" of the tracks is a piano-based ballad that swells to accommodate strings and highly emotional vocals. It's uptempo, though, with Prince bemoaning his lover's lack of interest with a few of his patented eye-rolls: "I never get to hold your hand, I never get to be your man, but that's OK, because I've got other plans right now...." As the lyrics about desire and resistance unfold, one can't help but wonder: Did Prince write this after he saw "Twilight"? He'd make a great vampire, wouldn't he?

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Bed Stuy
Posted in URB Magazine at the Office on Nov 07, 2008 at 10:57 PM

Bed Stuy

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5 Classic Scary Rap Videos
Posted in URB on Oct 29, 2008 at 11:16 PM

Just in time for Halloween, here's a run down of five classic hip-hop videos that might make the weaker of y'all wet the bed.

Check URB.com for the full run-down

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URB x Lil Wayne's '08-'09 NBA Preview
Posted in URB on Oct 28, 2008 at 7:27 PM
Current Mood: productive

Lil Wayne’s manager told us this week that the rapper-atop-the-world likes sports more than music these days. His ESPN.com column racks up more hits and comments than Bill Simmons’ 20,000 word essays do. His athlete name drop game is nearly unmatched, as it’s not just limited to Kobe and Phelphs, but lesser tiered stars like tennis star Roger Federer (“there’s no competitor”) and Plaxico Burress (“red Giants jersey number 17”). With the NBA season starting this week, URB.com decided to wrap our preview around Weezy’s raps. He may disagree with our 13 predictions, but he’ll be wrong.

See the full run-down on URB.com

“I’m eatin’ like I got a tapeworm in my tummy”
How hungry can the Celtics still be? Last year, they piled another trophy onto Boston’s recent gluttony, beating the long-hated Lakers in the process. Paul Pierce proved himself as one of the organization’s greatest players, but this summer he admitted that the ring vaulted him among the league’s “elite players,” perhaps losing that chip on his shoulder in the process. Kevin Garnett proved himself a winner, but could easily settle into a complacent defensive stopper type role. Rajon Rondo occasionally proved himself to be a championship point guard, but the subsequent shine could easily blind him a bit. Doc Rivers proved himself (at least) competent, but was it really just a lucky streak built around player-coach-type veterans that’s bound to run out? Losing James Posey—the dude who always seemed to come up with the loose ball or the big shot in the most important moments—doesn’t help any either.

"Giddyup as the white stallion bucks/And kicks me in my nose until my face busts/Fuck."
Welcome to New York, Mike D’Antoni. The coach with three first names takes his run-and-gun offensive mindset to a team without the tools he left behind in Phoenix. The Knicks could have any number of Lil Wayne lyrics about bloated salaries and the lethargy of money (or sexual antics), but it’s not polite to talk about another man’s spending habits. D’Antoni will push that “seven seconds or less” mentality until Stephon’s Starburies spontaneously combust and Eddy Curry collapses into a fetal-positioned, heavy-breathing behemoth.
Bottom line: Chris Duhon is not Steve Nash…and if you believe that Knicks GM Donnie Walsh is an agent of change, than you’ll probably be voting for McCain next week.

“I don’t spit/I vomit/Got it?/One egg short of the omelet”
For the second consecutive year, the Rockets had an impressive off-season. And unlike the quieter moves of 2007 that yielded Luis Scola and Mike James, Houston snagged the always-controversial Ron Artest this summer. A defensive stopper, unconventional offensive force and instigating head case, Artest certainly provides help for Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming…but at what cost? The Rockets are a team of veterans and scrappy role players, so it’s unlikely that the wily forward will be a distraction, but Artest is anything but predictable. And his addition hardly makes Houston a lock for a ring, as T-Mac and Yao are notoriously brittle…and the latter with Olympic mileage on his wheels.
Bottom line: Artest is enough to get T-Mac out of the first round of the playoffs for the first time in his career, but not any further.

For Weezy's full guide to the 08-09 NBA season visit URB.COM

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The KnuX (kinda) speak on the Illuminati
Posted in URB on Oct 15, 2008 at 10:45 PM

And read the article here

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Top 10 (Rap) Debate Videos
Posted in URB on Oct 15, 2008 at 4:50 AM

Whatever happened to "real" debates? Back then, raw vernacular delivered rugged discourse. It was a battle. Not like the stuff on TV today. Every body says the same shit now. Where's the innovation? It's all too marketed, too many of the same damn talking points, too much business in the art of debate.

Kinda sounds like the lament for "real" hip-hop, huh? In celebration of the third and final Presidential Debate, URB.com put together the 10 best rap songs where the issues are addressed by the candidates. Most of these nominees just happen to rap.

****Click here to see the entire list.****

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Eminem ft. Dr. Dre, "Guilty Conscience"
Issue: Family Values

The "Family Values" card has less weight in 2008 than it did in the previous two elections...being that money isn't worth anything anymore. But it still resonates with those undecided voters, especially after the liberal judges in Connecticut just let the gays marry. Eminem had a few issues with the gays, too. Here, he just rips his way through the Slim Shady era platforms: poverty, statutory date rape jokes, and how Dre slapped Dee Barnes.

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Jay-Z, 99 Problems
Issue: Crime

Perhaps only crime has seen a more significant drop-off in election cycle pertinence than the family values card. There just isn't a panic-inducing call for more prisons like there used to be. Aren't people still getting scared by the violent crime in the A-block of their local news? Jigga's infamous second-verse conversation with the long arm of the law isn't afraid to tackle the real problems with America's judicial system.

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Positive K, "I Got a Man"
Issue: Economy

Guy: Honey, we took a hit in the stock market, so we can't take that vacation. I'm so sorry.
Girl: So what's the economy got to do with me?
Guy: Well, my assets just aren't very liquid right now, I'm what my accountant calls cash poor.
Girl: So what's the economy got to do with me?
Guy: The falling value of the American dollar makes traveling abroad even more expensive and it'd be fiscally responsible to just postpone our trip, baby.
Girl: So what's the economy got to do with me?

****Click here to see the remaining videos.****

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URB x B.o.B x New Era
Posted in URB on Oct 15, 2008 at 4:01 AM
Current Mood: busy

For the second installment of URB's collaboration with New Era, we moved south from DC to the ATL. Calling back to the classic NWA black and white Raiders caps of yesteryear, this limited edition run of 100 hats makes a statement. Check URB #152's cover story on B.o.B to catch a primer.

See the pics below if you don't believe us...and find the link to win your very own fitted.

URB.com is giving away two hats a day until the end of the week (October 13-17). Click here for your chance to win.

B.o.B ain't just a rapper...check his acoustic performance and video interview below:

Behind the scenes with B.o.B at NYC's Puma Store:

VIMBY - B.o.B

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